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“‘Ain’t never seen no sich uh colored man befo’ in all mah bawn days. He’s gointuh put up uh store and git uh post office from de Goven’ment.’
“‘Ain’t never seen no sich uh colored man befo’ in all mah bawn days. He’s gointuh put up uh store and git uh post office from de Goven’ment.’
“That irritated Hicks and he didn’t know why. He was the average mortal. It troubled him to get used to the whole world one way and then suddenly have it turn different. He wasn’t ready to think of colored people in post offices yet. He laughed boisterously.
“That irritated Hicks and he didn’t know why. He was the average mortal. It troubled him to get used to the whole world one way and then suddenly have it turn different. He wasn’t ready to think of colored people in post offices yet. He laughed boisterously.
“‘Y’all let dat stray darky tell y’all any ole lie! Uh colored man sittin’ up in uh post office!’ He made an obscene sound.” (p.38-9)
“‘Y’all let dat stray darky tell y’all any ole lie! Uh colored man sittin’ up in uh post office!’ He made an obscene sound.” (p.38-9)
Hurston is sympathetic toward Hicks and his struggle to contemplate a world in which an African-American person might run a post office; after all, everything Hicks has learned to this point has prepared him to think like this. In a way, Hicks’ thinking, as opposed to Joe’s vision and ambition for himself and Eatonville, is an example of a phenomenon described by Dr. Carter Woodson in his 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro:
Hurston is sympathetic toward Hicks and his struggle to contemplate a world in which an African-American person might run a post office; after all, everything Hicks has learned to this point has prepared him to think like this. In a way, Hicks’ thinking, as opposed to Joe’s vision and ambition for himself and Eatonville, is an example of a phenomenon described by Dr. Carter Woodson in his 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro:
The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary. (p. xiii)
The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary. (p. xiii)
What “back doors” do you see in the world around you? Perhaps you’ve cut one of your own, even if it has nothing to do with racialization? Find a way to represent your observations in your notebook…
What “back doors” do you see in the world around you? Perhaps you’ve cut one of your own, even if it has nothing to do with racialization? Find a way to represent your observations in your notebook…
The Paramount Theatre, which opened as the Marion Theatre in 1918, was one of the first purpose-built movie theatres in Mississippi. While white theatre goers entered under neon lights on Yazoo Street, “Colored” people had to purchase their tickets around back and trudge up these stairs to the segregated sections of the upper and lower balcony.
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