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Quincy Standage

Dr. Verney

HIST 350

8 May 2019

The African American Experience: Homeless, Driven, and Living in Fear

“Driven”, “Fear”, and “Homeless”, describes the experience of the African American

community in the United States between 1865 and 1965. This 100-year span saw both

considerable growth and loss from slavery to Brown v. Board of Education Topeka Kansas and

the blossoming of the Civil Rights movement. Amid violence through lynchings and other

attacks, the black community produced bright African American leaders such as Booker T.

Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Oliver Brown, and Anne

Moody, who showed their drive towards equality for blacks. These activists were critical in

further developing the mobility and economic opportunities for the black community,

demonstrating their drive for equality through their activism. King largely appealed to northern

blacks and whites fighting against desegregation and injustices. Anne Moody focused her

activism in her home state of Mississippi especially in the wake of the murder of Emmett Till,

demonstrating that a black individual can rise out of poverty and homelessness. Her book,

Coming of Age in Mississippi, demonstrates the perseverance and struggles that she had to

overcome as she went on to do work for the NAACP and CORE. Each of these individuals were

challenged to help bring their community out of the issues of blatant and systemic racism. Events

including the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth constitutional amendments, the Great

Migration, the murder of Emmett Till, Brown v. Board of Education Topeka Kansas, and various

Civil Rights protests defined the black experience. Through the individual experiences of
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different African-American leaders, blacks in the U.S. experienced pushback from both the white

and black communities in the pursuit of economic, judicial, and constitutional freedoms.

The fight for equal educational opportunities demonstrates the drive of blacks and black

leadership in the United States. This fight began shortly after the thirteenth constitutional

amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States. Educational reform for African

Americans was necessary because “over half of the black schools were shanties with a teacher or

two and a student body ranging widely in age and educational level” (Martin, 1). Reverend

Brown represented the interests of his daughter, Linda, fighting for her right to attend a white

school system. One of Brown’s central arguments was that “segregated schools impair the ability

of the child to profit from the educational opportunities provided him” (Martin, 114). He also

argued that the idea of segregation, particularly in schools, had a hostile effect on communication

between the races. The dissenting argument was that each state should have the right to choose

whether to segregate or integrate. The drive that Reverend Brown showed through fighting for

his daughters’ education is inspiring. His message was received by the Supreme Court, partly

because of his superior communication abilities and the speeches he delivered to his

congregation (AME Walking Tour, 2019).

Another example of drive is the first breakthrough case in segregation with Plessy v.

Ferguson, a landmark Supreme Court case that demonstrates the drive of black men seeking to

gain equal transportation. One primary source we looked at to analyze the Plessy v. Ferguson

case was from Henry McNeal Turner who was a bishop for the African Methodist Episcopal

Church. He was a black nationalist and a part of the “Back to Africa” movement of the 1890s. It

is important to note that Turner supported Supreme Court Justice Marshall Harlan, who ruled in

a dissenting opinion that the Constitution is “color-blind” and that Jim Crow laws were
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unconstitutional. Harlan stated “If a white man and a black man chose to occupy the same public

conveyance on a public highway, it is their right to do so, and no government, proceeding alone

on grounds of race, can prevent it without infringing the personal liberty of each” (Martin, 83).

Justice Harlan, while holding several racist ideals, believed that states cannot deny the right to

vote or education by arguing “that no citizen should be denied on account of his race, the

privilege of participating in the political control of his country” (Martin, 82). The majority

opinion against Justice Harlan was the view of white supremacist, Justice Henry Brown who was

pro-segregation in all aspects of life including educational facilities. Justice Brown asserted that

the states had the right to regulate segregation as they please. These two opinions helped drive

organizations including the NAACP to fight for equal rights in regards to segregation of public

spaces.

Looking to Anne Moody we can see the black experience of fear, despair, and

homelessness in the deep South, particularly Mississippi. The deep South provided little

opportunity as most African Americans were sharecroppers, working on overworked soil, prone

to floods and the bole weevil, and barely making a profit (Arnesen, 2). Moody viewed the system

of sharecropping as another form of slavery, keeping blacks from rising out of poverty. Growing

up in poverty, Anne Moody, is an excellent example of perseverance and the drive that defines

the black experience in a racist America. The poverty she experienced was manifested in her

housing, education, and food intake. Like many young black Americans, Moody faced

homelessness through racism, and often lived in one room shacks made of low-quality materials.

From these low-quality materials, her childhood home burned down (Moody, 28). Following this

her mother had difficultly locating safe affordable housing for her family (Moody, 27). Later in

life, Moody experienced a new form of homelessness in the lack of acceptance from her family
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because of her decisions to fight against racism in her employment as a domestic worker. This

continued into her college years when she became more active with the NAACP and CORE.

Moody’s mother wrote to her often asking her to quit pushing for integration, leading to tension

between their relationship (Moody, 284). Anne Moody’s life story is not unlike other southern

blacks who experienced difficultly obtaining affordable, safe housing, this problem was

exacerbated by the Great Migration.

Two influential figures who tried to quell the rising fear in the African American

community were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. These two figures grew up from

different backgrounds and persevered against the conditions of systemic racism and segregation.

They both fought for a better and more standardized education for African Americans.

Washington advocated for continued separation but improvement of schools, whereas Du Bois

argued for integration for equality of education. Washington was born into slavery and his

message attempted to appeal to whites, by being pro-segregation. Even though he appealed to

whites by agreeing with segregation he did advocate to improve education standards for African

Americans. Washington was willing to give up higher aspirations and wanted to accommodate

segregationists. Du Bois was an advocate for higher education and a founding member of the

NAACP. He also criticized Washington for giving white citizens a pass on racism. In

Washington’s famous speech at Atlanta in 1895, he argues that blacks can be productive

members of society through economic mechanisms. Washington asserted “you can be sure in the

future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful,

law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen” (Harlan). He argued for providing

industrial training for blacks and that there is dignity in physical work, which is directly from the

ideology of Abraham Lincoln (Lecture, 1/29/2019). W.E.B. argued for three things that blacks
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need to be productive economic members of society including the right to vote, civic equality,

and the education of youth according to ability.

In the opening week of class, we watched the film Banished directed by Marco Williams,

which demonstrated the homelessness of the black population, particularly in southern states

where lynching happened frequently. A key theme of this movie was the trope that a white

woman is raped, and a black man is lynched in response. This led to a number of ethnic

cleansings in Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Georgia. The largest of these violent

outbursts occurred in Forsyth, Georgia between the KKK and the Brotherhood (Lecture,

1/24/2019). This was a catalyst for increasing episodes of adverse property. Adverse property is

when whites used violence to run off the black populations in a community (Lecture, 1/22/2019).

It is largely viewed as a legal system to steal property from blacks and perpetuates systemic

racism. This has uprooted many African American families and made it difficult to obtain a

middle-class economic status because of the constant displacement from violence.

This violence and economic burden on African Americans has started a conversation

about reparations and how to help African American families rebuild from the homelessness they

experienced. In the film, African American families often had to settle multiple times after being

driven from their homes. This did not allow families to establish themselves economically.

Generations later, families are still attempting to recover farmlands belonging to their ancestors.

The family of Morgan Strickland is pursuing legal action in Forsyth, Georgia to try and gain the

property rights back on their Grandmother’s farmland. The drive they have demonstrated by

attempting to legally acquire the land back is an inspiration and testament to the struggle of

African Americans.
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Another example of the homelessness of the African American population is when they

were expelled from Pierce City, Missouri in 1901. This was as a result of the death of a white

woman where three black men were lynched in response. In the film, white citizens still use the

“n-word” and speak unfavorably of black citizens. During the lynching, the mob formed at the

jail, lined the streets, and fired across the street into the black community. Several generations

later, Pierce City, Missouri is still scarred by the horrific lynching that took place 100 years

earlier. In the film, descendants of the lynched man were afraid to stay in Pierce City and were

saddened by the lack of grave for their grandfather. In the film it is argued that that money is not

a solution to provide reparations to the horrors that occurred in 1901. The homelessness that

occurred based on white violence and possible reparations for these tragic events are subject to

much debate.

The Great Migration was an excellent example of the black community’s combined fear,

drive, and homelessness. Occurring during the early nineteenth century, millions of blacks

moved north to escape poverty, Jim Crow laws, and mob violence. Many of the migrants came

from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia (Arnesen, 5). Another reason for the

migration was the beginnings of World War I and the increased manufacturing jobs for the

production of uniforms, weapons, and ammunition. The increase in job opportunities drove many

workers to seek economic opportunities in the North. In fact, black women protested in order to

work at the Charleston Navy Yard because in “employment at a government plant, they have the

same right to employment in the clothing factory as the white people” (Arnesen, 145). This fight

was in response to the rejection of black women’s applications, at the ship yard. It was

discovered that light-skinned women’s applications were accepted versus women of a darker

color (Arnesen, 146). The women were driven and used their agency to see by sending “a black
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Negro woman […] to each place” (Arnesen, 146). She was refused. Directly following her a

light-colored Negress asked for an application blank and was given one at each place” (Arnesen,

146). Through this experience it was discovered that the Charleston Ship Yard was directly racist

towards black women seeking economic opportunities. Another example of fear from the black

community spurring the Great Migration is highlighted in an article written by W.E.B. Du Bois

for the NAACP titled The Massacre of East St. Louis. During this massacre around 6,000

African Americans were driven out of their homes by a mob of whites who opened fire into their

community. W.E.B. Du Bois argued that it occurred because of the “jealousy of white labour

unions and prejudice” (Arnesen, 81). Overall, the Great Migration was largely as a result of

African American persecution, economic gains, and an attempt to escape poverty.

The overall difficultly of the black experience in the United States between the end of the

Civil War and the Civil Rights movement is a testament to the fear, drive, and homelessness of

the African American population. The implications of the study of African American history is

how it effects the current socioeconomic standing of blacks in society. In the case of Anne

Moody, she lived through the fear of lynching by members of the KKK, yet she persevered to

become a memorable Civil Rights activist. The drive of Washington and Du Bois to travel and

speak to the masses in an attempt to rally support for their cause is inspirational. Despite the

struggles presented to the black community, considerable strides have been made as a result of

the Civil Rights movement.