Places and Forms of power: How have African-Americans achieved recognition ?

Places and Forms of power

I'm going to talk about the notion "places and forms of power" with the theme of blacks in the USA. I will answer the essential question :"How have African-Americans achieved recognition ?". First, I will give a Black History Overview, then, I will explain how politics and "civil disobedience" contributed to African-American recognition and, last, how Black musicians and artists helped to make the voice of their community heard and assimilated in the USA.

So, I will talk about Black History. The slavery trade fasted from 1619 to 1808, Black people were imported from Africa and sold. From 1861 to 1865, the American Civil War took place, we saw a text called "Civil War Facts" from Wikipedia, which explain that railroads, telegraphs, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. From 1865 to 1870, the 13th amendment to the US constitution outlaws slavery and the 15th amendment to the US constitution gave former slaves the right to vote. From 1876 to 1965 the Civil Rights Movement happened segregation "separate but equal" from Jim Crow laws, public places were separate. From 1955 to 1965 and ended with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Next I will explain how politics and "civil disobedience" contributed to African-American recognition. In 1955 Rosa Park refused to give her seat to a white person in the bus and after that Martin Luther King decided to help her to fight against discrimination. MLK was the leader of the Civil Rights Movement and had peaceful and non-violent methods, he used civil disobedience. The 28th of August 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a dream" speech for freedom which we listened to. He explained that immigrants came to America because of the American dream which stood for equal opportunity regardless of race, religion, nationality or background. The goal of this speech was to give blacks the hope of one day being on an equal footing with whites. He advocated the separation of black and white Americans and scoffed at the civil rights movement's emphasis on integration. Barack Obama became the 1st black president the 4th September 2008, we read an extract of Time called "The Moment" which explains that change has come slowly and yet faster than most people expected. We saw a wall where Rosa Parks, MLK and Barack Obama are draw, it shows that Black feel more and more free.

Finally we heard a song called "Strange Fruit" sung by Billie Holiday who was born in 1915. This song refers to the lynching of black people who were hanged. It made whites aware of the horrors of prejudice and racism and gave the protest national and international coverage. We read a text called "Motown, dancing in the street"  which explained that in the 60s in Detroit, gospel singing and rhythm and blues became famous and although Motown was rarely profound or spiritual, it is the ultimate in feel good music. It introduced whites to Black artists thanks to transistor radios and TV stars, which helped Blacks to be assimilated into mainstream American society.

To conclude, the problems between blacks and whites symbolizes the notion of "places and forms of power" because it shows how people can dominate others just because they are blacks, different and shows that people who are not too different can have power.

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