Page 4
February 28, 2001
white m ales’ were allow ed in the
service. W hen the need arose again
in the w ar of 1812, black soldiers
made up nearly tw enty percent of
the Navy. I heir bravery w as cred­
ited to the w inning of the Hattie at
New O rleans.
th ro u g h o u t this
country’s history, black soldiers
were only allow ed in the service
when we needed them . A m erica was
not af raid in the nineteenth century
and early tw entieth century to send
A frican A m ericans to the Ir< >nt I ines
to die and then ban them for duty as
Focus
soon as the w ars w ere over.
D espite m any w ell-docum ented
acts o f bravery and com bat leader­
ship, most A frican A m erican offic­
ers were excluded from active duty,
following WWI. T his exclusionary
cam paign also spread to m ost Na-
tionalG uard Units. Early in W W II,
the United States Arm y started taken
steps tow ard racial integration. The
main catalyst was the clear w aste o f
m oney and space in having all
tw enty-four o f it’s O fficer C andi­
date Schools having duplicate fa-
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cilities for w hites and blacks. O ther
branches o f the service gradually
fell in line, integrating and encour­
aging A frican A m ericans to m ake a
career out o f the service. Since
WW I I, m any black men and women
have been prom oted to high-rank­
ing officers in the m ilitary.
Literature and
Language
Someone once said so many black
w om en w rote during the late nine­
teenth century because hav­
1
ing the freedom to w rite w as a
w ay theycould finallyexpress
them selves. A fter great ora­
tors like H arriet Tubm an and
S o jo u rn e r T ru th , A fric a n
A m erican w om en began put­
ting their speeches on paper.
A fraid they m ight be harassed
or punished for standing out
vocally in front o f crow ds,
m any black w om en learned to
read and write fluently so their
m essages could be carried on
through the pen. Slave narra­
tives becam e a m ethod o f true
expression and silent rebellion.
Feelings w ere expressed in
poem s, songs, letters, essays,
and other text forms. Religious
conversions helped A frican
A m ericans feel they had the
“pow er” to speak out on paper
with G od behind them.
(pije ÿïarUatth (Observer
reotypical w riting, they seem ed re­
bellious. T hey celebrated A frican
art and culture, surprising w hites
w ho often thought Black A m eri­
cans had forgotten about their A f­
rican “ roots.”
A s the G reat D epression deep­
ened, and the H arlem Renaissance
started to fade aw ay, Richard
W rig h t’s N ative Son was said to
have started a new era in A frican
A m erican L iterature. Poets such
as G w endolyn Brooks, M elvin B.
T o lso n , M arg aret W alker and
R obert H ayden w ere noted for
u sin g “ classica l and m ythical
them es” in their work. Brooks
w o n aP u litzerP rize in I95 0 fo rh er
book A n n ie Allen. T he w ritin g so f
this new breed o f A frican A m eri­
can w riters was said to be “ met
w ith acceptance in the university
com m unity.”
O ne o f the m ost outstanding
William L ie d e sd o rff was an
A frican A m erican novelist, poet,
educator a n d businessm an. H e
an d a n ti-sla v e ry le ctu rer w as
built San F ra n cisco 's fir s t public
Frances I lien W atkins I farper. Her
school a n d first H o tel (C ity
parents died w hen she was only
Hotel). L e id e sd o rff Street, which
three. She lived with an Uncle who
runs through the c i ty ’s fin a n c ia l
was R everend W illiam W atkins,
district in the sh a d o w o f
w
ho ow ned and taught at a free
Transam erica Budding, p a ys
school
for blacks. A lthough she
tribute to him
w ent to w ork as a dom estic helper
at age thirteen, she continued her
iam W ells B row n, F ran ces W.
I larper or H arriet A. Jacobs felt their education on her ow n at night. In
w ritings w ere m ore political than
1845, at only tw enty years old, her
collection o f verse and prose, titled
anything else, trying di fferent styles
ofw riting. B reakingaw ay from ste­ F orest Leaves was published. In
The H arlem R enaissance began
around 1920 and continued on into
the G reat D epression years. Black
writers, m ale and fem ale, from al­
m ost every state in the country par­
ticipated. W riters exam ining the
works o f Frederick D ouglass, Will-
Safeway Joins
CL he Ulortíatth O bserver
in Honoring
Black History month