Comment un Afro-américain s'est-il revendiqué aux États-Unis? (document en anglais)

How did the African American assert themselves in the USA?

I'm going to talk about the notion of « Places and forms of power ». A power could be defined as the ability to excercise control aimed at making abide by the law. The power emplies a dominant who impose his way of thinking and a dominate who could claim more liberty, like it was the case with the Africans in America. These one used to be slaves, and now the the US President Barack Obama is one of them. How did the African American assert themselves in the USA ?

African American have used many ways to achieve recognition during the segregation period, so in order to illustrate these ways, I have chosen different documents.

First of all, I have chosen an extract from Carlotta Walls's books entitled « My journey to justice at Little Rock Line ». It raises the problem of the segregation in school. The president Eisenhower had to send in federal troops to ensure nine black students made it to an all-white school in 1957. Carlotta embodies the fact that the battle for school integration was unavoidable for their recognition.

Secondly, a document about Rosa Park rebellion show us that some Afro American have chosen the pacific demonstration to denounce segregation. One of the most famous example is the one of Rosa Parks, who got arrested because she sat on a “white person” bus seat. After her arrestation, the African American decided to boycott the bus company who have finally accepted to stop discrimination into its buses. It underlines that pacific protest is an efficient way to struggle.

Thirdly, cover events were favourable to the africans recognition as at the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968. Indeed, this picture shows both John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising they gloved hand with fists clenched and keeping looking down while the National Anthem. These africans athletes used the victory ceremony as the vehicle for a black power demonstration, which enable to improve the black condition because of the consequences in the medias.

To conclude, we can say that the process of recognition of the African American people in the USA has been complicated and had many faces. I think that the film « The buttler » enables to retrace the progression of the black situation, at the begin black were treat like cattle and then the buttler emplies to improve the black condition. That's the reason why we could link this film with the notion of « Idea of Progress » too because it shows us an improvment of the black condition which contribute to make the world a better place thanks to the acknowledgement of the black. Besides, we could as well link this notion with the notion of « Myths and Hereos » because people like Rosa Park, Martin Luther King or Obama are icons to the society and influence the acts of many people.

...