The Strange Career of Jim Crow Essay example -- Civil Rights Movement

The Strange Career of Jim gasC. Vann Woodwards book, The Strange Career of Jim tout, has been hailed as a book which shaped our views of the account of the Civil Rights Movement and of the American South. Martin Luther King, Jr. described the book as the historical Bible of the civil rights movement. The argument presented in The Strange Career of Jim Crow is that the Jim Crow laws were relatively new introductions to the South that occurred towards the turn of the century rather than immediately after the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Woodward examines personal accounts, opinions, and editorials from the periods as well as the laws in place at the times. He examines the political history behind the emergence of the Jim Crow laws. The Strange Career of Jim Crow gives a new insight into the history of the American South and the Civil Rights Movement.C. Vann Woodwards The Strange Career of Jim Crow looks into the emergence of the Jim Crow laws beginning with the R econstruction era and following through the Civil Rights Movement. Woodward contends that Jim Crow laws were not a part of the Reconstruction or the following years, and that most Jim Crow laws were in place in the North at that particular time. In the South, immediately after the end of slavery, most white southerners, especially the upper classes, were used to the presence and proximity of African Americans. House slaves were often treated well, almost like part of the family, or a favored pet, and many upper-class southern children were raised with the help of a mammy or black nursery- maid. The races often mixed in the demi- monde, and the cohabitation of white men and black women were far from uncommon, and some areas even had spe... ...howing the true race dealings throughout the south during that period. Jim Crow laws might not have been in effect and might have been though unnecessary by a circumstances of southerners, but it would be interesting to find out how many African Americans were lynched during the period before Jim Crow laws became prominent for offenses which would later be illegal chthonic Jim Crow. Just as Woodward quoted President Eisenhower as saying you cannot change peoples hearts merely by law(163), so the lack of Jim Crow legislation does not necessarily mean that some southerners wanted it and lived as though it existed.Works CitedWoodward, C. V. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. New York Oxford University Press, 2002. Works ConsultedC. Vann Woodward. 31 Oct. 2004. Wikipedia. 1 Nov. 2004 .

Ellisons Invisible Man: Invisibility, Vision, and Identity as Motifs E

Ralph Ellison incorporates many symbols into this novel, each providing a unique perspective on the narrative and supporting the themes of invisibility, vision and identity. These themes can many propagation generally symbolize the strength of the subconscious mind. In this novel I think that there are several visions that symbolize the bank clerks melt from reality, seeking comfort in memories of his childhood or times at the college, often occurring as he fades into his music. Ellison coincidences dreams and reality to redefine the surrealistic nature of the narrators experience and to showcase the differences between the realities of black life and the myth of the American dream. ?One thing I saw a lot of in this novel is people willfully looking past instead of confronting the truth. The narrator repeatedly states peoples inability to see what they dont motivation to see, their inability to see what their prejudice doesnt allow them to see, has pushed him into a life of eff ective invisibility. But prejudice against others is not the only kind of blindness in the book. Many characters also dont acknowledge truths about themselves or their communities, and this refusal is shown in the imagery of vision and invisibility. For example, the boys who fight in the battle royal get out blindfolds, symbolizing their powerlessness to recognize their corruption at the hands of the white men. The Founders statue at the college has empty eyes, signifying his failure to see the racist realities. blindness also afflicts Rev Homer A. Barbee, who romanticizes the Founder, and Brother Jack, who is missing an eye which he conceals by wearing a glass eye. The narrator himself experiences blindness, such as in chapter sixteen when he addresses the ... ...judices of others. He has followed the ideology of the college and the ideology of the Brotherhood without trusting or developing his own identity. Now, however, he has realized that his own identity, both in its flexib ility and authenticity, is the key to freedom. Rinehart, a master of many identities, first suggests to the narrator the limitless capacity for variation within oneself. However, Rinehart ultimately proves an unsatisfactory model for the narrator because Rineharts life lacks authenticity. The meaning of the narrators assertion that he is an invisible man has changed slightly since he made the same claim at the beginning of the novel whereas at the outset he means to knell attention to the fact that others cannot not see him, he now means to call attention to the fact that his identity, his inner self, is real, even if others cannot see it.