csaccac recognizes Black History Month with Moments In Black

Post date: Feb 27, 2011 6:59:05 PM

throughout the month of February, csaccac Inc takes a look at some well known as well as significant contributors to the advancement of African Americans in the United States.

(Langston Hughes,Lorraine Hansberry, & The Little Rock Nine)

Moments In Black: Editor,Founder & President

Veritably,Black History Month continues to be an essential part of inculcating today's youth on the significance of Afro-American. Initially,the recognition of the significant achievements of Afro-American began in 1926. First founded by Dr. Carter G. Wood son in 1926,Negro History week gave recognition to Afro-Americans. Eventually, after several years of rallies and protest,in 1976 , Negro History Week became Black History Month that extended to the entire month of February. Since first being implemented Black History Month has emerged as a crucial political and social tool to bringing to the forefront the disparity among minorities in the united States. Admittedly, Black History Month has been an important part of my upbringing from the time I learned to read and write. However, I didn't fully understand the importance of Black history Month until my last year of elementary school. In fact, I didn't began to fully understand all of the fussy and preparations for Black History Month until the fifth grade in Miss Green's class. As a matter of fact,I learned about the of the Civil Right's Movement, it's founder Dr. Martin Luther King and his untimely death in Miss Green's fifth grade class. Indeed , well after graduating from elementary school , I continued to recognize and participate in Black History Month events. Since Miss Green's fifth grade class, I have matriculated from high school and college. As matter of fact,during my college years at FAMU I enrolled in two courses pertaining to Afro-Americans: Afro-American History in 1994 and Afro American Novel in 1995.Today, I continue to recognize Black History Month it's founders and contributors to the advancement of miniorites. Unequivocally,Black History Month is critical to understanding "Our History is Our Strength"

Moments In Black: Langston Hughes

His literary works include such writings as The Weary Blues,Fine Clothes to the Jew,Harlem Renaissance,The Negro Artist and Racial Mountain,Not Without Laughter,The Ways of White Folk,Mulatto,Little Han,Emperor of Haiti,The Big Sea, Shakespeare in Harlem,Jim Crow's Last Stand, Simple Speaks his Mind, Fields of Wonder,I Wonder as I Wander,Tambouring to Glory,The Sweet Flypaper of Life, and other works. Influenced by Walt Whitman,Carl Sandburg, Paul Lawrence Dunbar,and Claude McKay, Langston Hughes penchant towards black music and culture showed in his work. A poet,a novelist,an essayist,a playwright,autobiographer,and writer of children's book, Hughes began his literary career at Columbia University. Eventually,Hughes became an eminent Afro-American writer during the early nineteenth century. Not surprisingly,a large part of Hughes work reflected his environment and social conditions of his era. In fact in his first two novels, Hughes imbued the novels with jazz , blues music and traditional verse. Known as the young gifted poet in African-American literary circles,Hughes work primarily depicted the life of black folks. From 1922 to 1967 Langston Hughes focused on the plight,and the social conditions of the negro as well as the Civil Rights Movement.“While Hughes is regarded as one of the most influential of modern black writers, his work has been disparaged--by black and white critics alike--as lacking in depth and for depicting themes and characters considered low-brow. In his famous essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," published in the Nation in 1926, Hughes stated that his poetry was concerned with the common folk, the people who inhabited Chicago's South State Street or Harlem's Lennox Avenue, "people who have their hip of gin on Saturday nights and are not too important to themselves or the community, or too well fed, or too learned to watch the lazy world go round." Hughes related his art to an intense pride and delight in his race: "We younger Negroes who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear of shame.... We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves”

Moments In Black: Lorraine Hansberry

Well received by Broadway audiences,Lorraine Hansberry written play A Raisin in the Sun won the 1959 New York Drama Critics Circle Award. A Raisin in the Sun, one of the first plays written by Lorraine Hansberry as well as one the first plays to be written by an Afro-American women and produced on Broadway.Even today ,A Raisin in the Sun remains a prominent work in Afro-American literature. Incontrovertibly,A Raisin in the Sun, a play that focused on the adversity , deprivation, and discrimination of one black family living in Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago's Woodlawn while working to achieve the American Dream continues to . Born in 1930,Lorraine Hansberry wrote several political speeches,letters,and essays before her death;although, her list of literary work is not an enumerate countless myriad of works,Hansberry work gained recognition in Afro-American literature primarily for it's content.Nonetheless,Hansberry written work greatly impacted the Afro-American community and literary world. In addition to her written work, Hansberry social activism , political views, and speeches also has left a lasting impression on the Afro-American community. Filled with symbolism,A Raisin in the Sun is just one of the many prominent Afro-American works that I've read and re-read during my youth college years and adulthood.From the time Lorraine Hansberry,A Raisin in the Sun,gained recognition it became a success. Since then her written play has been transformed into a musical and into television film. Not surprisingly, throughout the years Hansberry play has been analyzed,dissected and read in all classrooms all over America.

Moments In Black:Little Rock Nine

In 1954,the Supreme Court made a landmark decision to desegregate schools throughout the United States. Indeed,Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas is the historic Supreme Court ruling that lead way to racial segregated schools being inter grated. As a result of the ruling,Afro-American students would be allowed to enter predominantly all white schools. Considered unconstitutional,on May 17th,1954,the Supreme Court ruled against segregated schools in the United States. Although,the Supreme Court ruled against segregated schools in the United States the ruling;however,encountered opposition from right-wing parties and extremist. Incontrovertibly,those effected by the ruling primarily consisted of Afro-American students seeking to receive a equal and quality education in all white school. Ultimately,the ruling would be enforced but not without riots and protest. In fact,several years after the ruling, a group students whom later became known as the Little Rock Nine met much of the same opposition as the initial ruling by the Supreme Court. “By 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance.[3] The nicknamed "Little Rock Nine" consisted of Ernest Green (b. 1941), Elizabeth Eckford (b. 1941), Jefferson Thomas (1942–2010), Terrence Roberts (b. 1941), Carlotta Walls LaNier (b. 1942),Minnijean Brown (b. 1941), Gloria Ray Karlmark (b. 1942), Thelma Mothershed (b. 1940), and Melba Beals (b. 1941)...” Dolefully,as the the students proceeded to enter on their first day in Arkansas's Little Rock Central High School troops from Arkansas National guard would not let them enter. Eventually,the landmark ruling would be enforced with the assistance of the U.S Army. Not surprisingly,the landmark ruling and those who participated in the initial ruling became one of the most important events in the Civil Rights Movement.