Black Politics but Not Black People: Rethinking the Social and “Racial” History of Early Minstrelsy

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Jones
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Black People ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Blackface Minstrelsy ◽  
Racial History ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Race

Although American blackface minstrelsy in its early period (1829–1843) esteemed the anti-authoritarian potentiality of black alterity, the form's performers and most influential public (the white working class of the urban northeast) spurned actual black people. In minstrelsy they fashioned “blackness,” a new “race” with which to distinguish themselves from socioeconomic elites as well as African Americans.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly M. Welch
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
South African ◽  
Black People ◽  
White People ◽  
Trial Court ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Debt Recovery ◽  
Racial Hierarchies

Black plaintiffs in civil suits remain a little known aspect of the legal history of the slave South. African Americans were not only observers of trials, informal participants, defendants, or objects of regulation: trial court records reveal them to be prolific litigators as well. They were parties to civil suits in their own interests and directly active in legal proceedings. They sued other black people, certainly, but they also sued white people. What is more, they often won. This is a phenomenon that has largely been overlooked by historians. But it ought not to be, because it speaks to the heart of the ways we understand the operation of power, of law, and of racial hierarchies in the slave South. The black legal experience in America cannot be reduced to white regulation and black criminality. Examining African Americans’ involvement in private law reveals a different picture. Black people appealed to the courts to protect their interests. They exploited the language of rights and property, thus including themselves within an American narrative of citizenship and privilege in advance of formal emancipation. When black litigants made such claims at law, they expected the courts to validate and execute those claims. Indeed, they sought accountability. Thus, seemingly mundane civil actions like debt recovery suits complicate our notions about the sources of rights and their relationship to civic inclusion.

scholarly journals Survey Essay 1. Periodizing and Historicizing German Afro-Americanophilia: From Antebellum to Postwar (1850-1965)

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Ege ◽  
Andrew Wright Hurley
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Black People ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
German Culture ◽  
Black Germans ◽  
Power Differentials ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

In this first essay, we delve into significant moments in the history (and pre-history) of twentieth century Afro-Americanophilia in Germany. We establish a periodisation stretching from the nineteenth century until the mid-1960s (from which point our second essay will continue), and take in the pre-colonial, the colonial, the Weimar, the Nazi; and the post-war eras.  We draw out some of the particularly significant moments, ruptures, and continuities within that time frame. We also identify some of the salient ways scholars have interpreted ‘Afro-Americanophilia’ during the period.  Focusing on a variety of practices of appropriation, communicative media, actors and forms of agency, power differentials, and sociocultural contexts, we discuss positive images of and affirmative approaches to black people in German culture and in its imaginaries. We attend to who was active in Afro-Americanophilia, in what ways, and what the effects of that agency were. Our main focus is on white German Afro-Americanophiles, but—without attempting to write a history of African Americans, black people in Germany, or Black Germans— we also inquire into the ways that the latter reacted to, suffered under the expectations levied upon them, or were able to engage with the demand for ‘black cultural traffic.’  

“Look, Baby, We Got Jesus on Our Flag”

2011 ◽  
Vol 637 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-37
Author(s):  
Edward J. Blum
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
Community Formation ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Role Of Religion

Examining debates about the person, place, and meaning of Jesus Christ in African American social development, creative expression, political thought, civil rights activism, international visions, and economic plans, this article suggests that religious discussions have revealed robust democratic cultures. From the age of slavery to the era of Obama, religious discussions and political cultures have been intertwined. Spiritual debates have played a role in community formation; individualism and universalism have worked in tandem; and Jesus Christ—a provincial figure executed thousands of years ago—became essential to international and political visions. This article suggests that Jesus functioned historically in two prominent political ways for African Americans. First, he stood as a counterpoint to American racism that limited the social, legal, political, and cultural rights of African Americans. Second, he functioned as a focus of intraracial and interracial debate, dialogue, and dissension over the role of religion in black politics.

Contraception and the Working Classes: The Social Ideology of the English Birth Control Movement in its Early Years

1976 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Birth Control ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Social Ideology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Birth Control Movement ◽  
History Of

A host of social movements which had as their goal the improvement of the living conditions of the working classes emerged in England in the 1820s and 1830s. Owenism and Chartism come first to mind, but historians have recently acknowledged the social significance of a number of less well-known groups that proclaimed the benefits of temperance or mechanics' institutes or phrenology or infidel missions. The birth control movement in its early years has as yet received little attention from the historians of the English working classes. A possible reason is that the opposition of the 'pauper press' to the movement has led later observers to adopt the view that it was simply a middle-class Malthusian crusade which set out to convince the poor that the only escape from poverty lay in individual self-help. In what follows I shall sketch out the general lines of argument advanced by the advocates of birth control and their antagonists in the working-class movement. The purpose of the paper is not to provide yet another history of the first neo-Malthusians, but to use the arguments their activities elicited to gain a better understanding of nineteenth-century working-class culture.

scholarly journals Workers under Communist Rule: Research in the Former Socialist Countries of Eastern-Central and South-Eastern Europe and in the Federal Republic of Germany

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Heumos
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Social History ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Eastern European Countries

SummaryAfter the collapse of the communist system in eastern Europe, the development of the historiographies in the Czech and Slovak republics, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Federal Republic of Germany has been characterized by a broad spectrum of differences. This article offers an overview of the ways in which these differences have worked out for the history of the working class in the eastern European countries under communist rule, understood here as the social history of workers. It shows that cultural and political traditions and the “embedding” of historical research in the respective societies prior to 1989, the extent to which historiography after 1989 was able to connect to pre-1989 social-historical or sociological investigations, and the specific national political situation after 1989 make up for much of the differences in the ways that the history of the working class is dealt with in the countries concerned.

scholarly journals The Siamese Twins: Citizenship Rights, Cleavage Formation, and Party-Union Relations in Western Europe

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (S3) ◽  
pp. 51-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Ebbinghaus
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Siamese Twins ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Prophecies of doom for both working-class party and labor unions have gained popularity in the Western industrial democracies over the last two decades. The “old” Siamese twins, working-class party and labor unions, have a century-long history of their combined struggle to achieve political and industrial citizenship rights for the working class. Both forms of interest representation are seen as facing new challenges if not a crisis due to internal and external changes of both long-term and recent nature. However, despite these prophecies political parties and union movemehts have been differently affected and have responded in dissimilar ways across Western Europe. The Siamese twins, party and unions, as social institutions, their embeddedness in the social structure, and their linkages, were molded at an earlier time with long-term consequences. Hence, we cannot grasp today's political unionism, party-union relations and organized labor's capacity for change, if we do not understand the social and political conditions under which the organization of labor interests became institutionalized. An understanding of the origins and causes of union diversity helps us to view the variations in union responses to current challenges.

scholarly journals RELATIONS BETWEEN MOSQUE AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-153
Author(s):  
Anna Triayudha ◽  
Rateh Ninik Pramitasary ◽  
Hermansyah Akbar Anas ◽  
Choirul Mahfud
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Role And Function

The growth and development of Islamic Education is inseparable from the growth of institutions. The Prophet made it happen by establishing institutions that had a role in developing and advancing Islamic education, one of which was a mosque. Research on the relationship of mosques with the social history of Islamic education is discussed by using descriptive qualitative methods that are oriented to literature review. This paper shows that in the early period of Islamic education, the Prophet provided exemplary by building and empowering mosques. The example of the Prophet continued with the Caliphs afterwards until the present era. The mosque was built by the Prophet from the Al Haram mosque located in Makkah, Quba Mosque located in Quba, Nabawi mosque located in Medina and so on. The role and function of the mosque at that time was as a place of prayer, a place of prayer, a place for discussion or deliberation, a meeting place to develop a war strategy and others related to the problems and needs of Muslims. From time to time, the role or function of the mosque has changed slightly. In essence, mosques are currently influencing the development of the social history of Islamic education in Indonesia.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jelani M. Favors
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Cultural Nationalism ◽  
Black Colleges ◽  
Black Freedom Movement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
Freedom Movement

The introduction familiarizes the reader with the concept of the second curriculum – a pedagogy of idealism, race consciousness, and cultural nationalism that flowed through all black colleges and made them formidable epicenters of black militancy and activism. The case for constructing a longitudinal history of seven different institutions is made. The author repurposes the theory of communitas, first introduced by anthropologist Victor Turner, and uses this concept to define black colleges as dedicated, racialized spaces that countered the ideology of white supremacy that permeated American society and sought to crush the social, political, and economic advancement of African Americans. In doing so, HBCUs served as a vital cornerstone of the black freedom movement in America.

Pick a Pocket Or Two

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Mordden
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
World War ◽  
Strong Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Model ◽  
History Of

This book tells the full history of the British musical, from The Beggar's Opera (1728) to the present, by isolating the unique qualities of the form and its influence on the American model. To place a very broad generalization, the American musical is regarded as largely about ambition fulfilled, whereas the British musical is about social order. Oklahoma!'s Curly wins the heart of the farmer Laurey—or, in other words, the cowboy becomes a landowner, establishing a truce between the freelancers on horseback and the ruling class. Half a Sixpence, on the other hand, finds a working-class boy coming into a fortune and losing it to fancy Dans, whereupon he is reunited with his working-class sweetheart, his modest place in the social order affirmed. Anecdotal and evincing a strong point of view, the book covers not only the shows and their authors but the personalities as well—W. S. Gilbert trying out his stagings on a toy theatre, Ivor Novello going to jail for abusing wartime gas rationing during World War II, fabled producer C. B. Cochran coming to a most shocking demise for a man whose very name meant “classy, carefree entertainment.”

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