Post Slavery and the Plight of Black Americans: An Analysis of Langston Hughes’ “Not without Laughter”

This paper discussed the lives of black Americans in the Post Slavery period. It was believed that black Americans who were former slaves were then free from being treated brutally by the slave masters and that the whipping of the so called offenders was a thing of the past. On the contrary, Black Americans were not free to receive education, have access to legal marriages, own properties and enjoy all other benefits that an American should enjoy. Life after slavery was still difficult. The reality was that black Americans were free only in a narrow sense as they were still discriminated by the government institutions. This gave rise to activism and movements such as Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement. Great Black scholars, The Talented Tenth, such as Alice Walker, Du Bois, and Langston Hughes emerged. Not without Laughter is one of the books that Langston Hughes wrote. This paper is an analysis of civil injustices that Black Americans had to endure according to Hughes in Not without Laughter. Today, the situation has not changed much as racism is still rampant as depicted by violence still perpetrated against the Blacks. The rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement worldwide against the death of Floyd in the USA gives evidence to such. One encouraging aspect, though, is that the current President, Joe Biden is against racism as he has ordered that those that killed Floyd should face the full wrath of the law.

Framing Frederick Douglass

In this era of “My Brother’s Keeper,” we have been blinded from fully recognizing the Black woman’s race-, gender-, and class-based persecution and oppression. This daunting reality, though, has existed since 1619. She has lived through the dehumanizing experience of slavery and the unfulfilled promises of Reconstruction, lynching, Jim Crow, and segregation, and today she often finds herself left out or at the margins of our concern with regard to her humanity. Even during the life of the great Frederick Douglass, who spoke out against America’s torturous evils, the Black woman was unchampioned. She was never offered a pedestal to speak, yet she spoke boldly nonetheless. America wanted her to be the footstool for white society, but she vehemently refused. Anna Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Rosetta Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and others were the thought leaders who shaped and defined the truest sense of humanity and morality for nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. They are the talented tenth who saved Black America and, in so doing, the heart and soul of our nation.

“Entering Chicago”

Editors’ Note: This prose poem appears as part of the introductory material in the first (1927) volume of Frederick H. H. Robb’s remarkable compilation, The Intercollegian Wonder Book or the Negro in Chicago 1779–1927. “Entering Chicago” is attributed there to “J. M. Davis,” but internal and external evidence convince us that this was in fact contributed by journalist and poet Frank Marshall Davis shortly after his arrival in Chicago from his native Kansas. As such, the piece marks the ongoing “migration of the talented tenth” to the Black Metropolis, highlights the ubiquity of the railroad train as icon of Chicago’s modern moment, evidences Davis’s early efforts in free verse influenced by Carl Sandburg and Fenton Johnson, and prefigures the documentary spirit that would animate the most memorable works by writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance....

Foreign Policy Attitudes of the Black Talented Tenth

Do Talented Tenth and non–Talented Tenth Blacks support moral and socially conscious US foreign policies to the same degree? Utilizing a 2010 national sample from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, we find statistical evidence that members of the Talented Tenth are more likely than other Blacks to support America’s role to combat global hunger and to provide economic aid to assist needy countries in developing their economies. An examination of the foreign policy attitudes of the Black Talented Tenth is an important undertaking because it provides insight into what our expectations should be for rising African Americans as more of them enter into its ranks. Should we expect the next generation of African Americans to be more conscientious as they increasingly assume the mantles of leadership and responsibility? The results in this article lay bare the enormous work the present generation of Black educators must undertake to ensure the next generation are ready to do so. By observing the internationalist attitudes of the present Talented Tenth, especially as those attitudes relate to creating a more just, equitable, and harmonious world, it is possible to find ways to critically engage and help the next generation to provide the type of leadership necessary to make a positive difference.

Education's “Talented Tenth”

While the discourse on achievement among Black American students often includes the perspectives of researchers, teachers, and college/university faculty, retired educator views are often disregarded. Based on Du Bois's exertion about the Talented Tenth, who he recognized as “educational experts” and “seers” that serve as “leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people,” Black retired teachers and educational leaders are questioned about how to change Black student achievement trends, and included in this chapter are the recommendations offered by Black retired teachers and educational leaders—recommendations designed to bring about change in practice. Beyond adding to the discourse on Black student achievement, the chapter gives voice to retired Black educators whose years of professional experiences qualify them as “educational experts.”

Education's “Talented Tenth”

Retired educators are a valuable resource, and their experiences contribute richly to the narrative of education. Retired educators whose own K-12 schooling experiences occurred during segregation offer a historic perspective of a time often viewed negatively. This chapter, however, diverges from traditional deficit narratives regarding the segregated South and amplifies positive lived experiences of retired Black American teachers who attended schools during segregation. Four themes and related concepts are identified, and narrative data extractions are included.