Freitag, 30. September 2011

Reception at Gambrell Hall at the University of South Carolina campus


After all the lectures we were invited to a reception organized by the Institute for African American Research, the African American Studies Program and the History Department of the University of South Carolina. We were greeted by Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences who said that while South Carolina cannot be proud of its history, it is proud of its historians and historical research. We had a chance to ask some follow up questions to the lecturers who were eager to further elaborate on their talks especially professors Dan Littlefield, Todd Shaw, Valinda Littlefield and Harry Sigleton. Rebecca Brueckmann, a visiting PhD student from Berlin gave us some valuable insight into the USC academic experience as seen from a European perspective.  It was also a great opportunity to share our personal thoughts and impressions with our new student friends. We were all stunned by the hospitality and generosity of our hosts. The food was as delicious as the conversations J  

Asia and Olga

Mittwoch, 28. September 2011

Gullah


The lecture which a lot of us found the most interesting was delivered by Tracey L. Weldon, PhD who discussed “Gullah” – the African-American language, popular among inhabitants of coastal regions of the U.S. states of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The professor began the talk with a linguistic introduction into dialects in general – explaining how people distinguish between good and bad English on the basis of power and prestige of the speaker. Then the proper topic commenced; we got to know the origins of Gullah. There exist two contradictory hypotheses about the source of this Creole language. First of them represents the belief that Gullah was born in the south-eastern states of U.S., as an independent formation, confluence of American English and African speech. The second one proclaims that this dialect came into being before African slaves’ arrival to America. The lecturer herself thinks that the first assumption is much more possible than the second one, but she finds in both of them a grain of truth. We also received very useful and interesting handouts that provided information on the lecture topic and examples of Gullah vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and verbal system. For me that was the most attractive session, not only because of the topic, which is something totally new and unfamiliar for me, but also due to the interesting way of introducing the issue by professor Weldon. I really hope we will have an opportunity to hear the Creole language during  our study tour.

Karolina

African Americans and Politics


The first session after lunch was about African Americans and Politics. The speaker, Todd Shaw, is an Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. The general topic of the session concerned the impact of Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act on the African Americans and the later influence they had, mostly affirmative action. At the beginning professor described the main purpose of the African American movements in the ‘50s and ‘60s – Jim Crow’s Laws and the centuries of segregation and discrimination of the Blacks in the United States, especially in the south. All that led to the first, most known event of the movement – the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 in Mississippi, started by Rosa Parks. Then everything happened really quickly. In the ‘60s President Lyndon Johnson introduced affirmative action which required federal contractors to remedy discrimination against race, color and gender in public facilities, jobs and education. Now, after few decades of affirmative action in use, debates broke out – one side in favor of the action and the other against it. People argue whether it fulfills its initial purpose or creates another divisions and differences among the society. The answer remains open as there is no solution that would satisfy everyone.

Marcin

HE saw the best in me


via
These are the lines I will always connect with the church service we visited today in the First Nazareth Baptist Church. Funnily enough, I wasn't in the least nervous before getting into the church - I usually am in new situations, thinking about how it will be, what we will do etc. But not today. 

Today I walked into the church, listened to the wonderful music und started smiling like crazy. The atmosphere was magical and I was just watching in awe... not quite knowing what exactly  had happened to me when I crossed this threshold. I am by no means a religious person, for believers I am probably a heathen. I have not been christened and rarely visit churches, and if so, then for architectural reasons or  sightseeing. I think it is a very human characteristic to believe in something - anything really - fate, God, chance, etc., I am convinced that people and animals have souls, and that faith itself offers hope to many people who seem to have no hope, who feel alone, or simply enjoy the feeling of an almighty .father protecting us. As a student of American studies I also see religion in the US as some kind of marketplace. Churches in the United States need to "cater" to their customers, entertain them, make them feel good about themselves - or they will lose members of their congregation and possible generous donations. In Germany, Kirchensteuer provides churches with funds and services are mostly rather stiff.Well, at least, that's what I heard because I have never been to a regular Sunday service there... But I remember not liking the mass at Christmas to much.

The First Nazareth Baptist Church of Columbia will definitely not lose members because of ennui ;) The music was fantastic and I was actually moved to tears (I'm generally an old softie) more than once. "He saw the best in me" was one line in a song, ( click here) to which young women performed a dance. Curious and a little sceptical at first I watched them and only half-heartedly listened to the lyrics. But finally they hit home: This was the song for me! Being a contemplator and very critical of myself, I could not help feeling comforted and sad at the same time when I thought about the lyrics. Teary-eyed as I was I looked around me and saw so many happy faces, people swaying and singing along...  I wished I could have that kind of feeling, of contentedness, more often in my life. Somehow "worshipping" was far from being boring and stiff, it was actually fun and felt like something you were doing for yourself, like a spa treatment for your soul :) I guess you can tell that I loved it and I felt absolutely comfortable, even though - or maybe exactly because - we were almost the only white people in the church. I was constantly goshing over the fantastic voices, the atmosphere, the feeling of unity among the people. I will not convert but I will also definitely not forget this amazing experience.
That is why I would like to thank Valinda Littlefield for taking us with her to the service and for the not so quick lunch afterwards :) It has been an amazing Sunday and as of now it was the best day I've had on our trip.

Caro

PS: I guess this text is a little too emotional, but that's how I felt it ;)
 

The African American Religious Experience

The African American Religious Experience – talk given by Harry Singleton, Minister and Theologian, Professor for Religion at Benedict College, Columbia

When Harry Singleton, a minister and professor for religion, talked about the black religious experience, he mainly referred to the experience with Christianity. He said that the belief in God and the adaptation to Christianity was relative to survival and liberation.
But this religious experience was a very complex one. Although “white Christianity did not mean us to be humans, but was a means of social control of the slaves” – he says – the black experience had different understandings of God: the belief in God was important for liberation thoughts. But there were two strains of solution thought:
  1. The priestly dimension, which meant that the solution to get out of slavery was divine.
  2. The prophetic dimension, which was always in tension with the first one, says that “God calls us to engage with our lives”, that faith meant a commitment to change things. The prophetic dimension aimed to humanize black history.
Then he talked about the complex experience of Dr. Martin Luther King and the tension with his own Baptist congregation and the Black Baptist Convention.
In the discussion time we talked with Harry Singleton about the role of Churches in bonding experiences, the role of Islam (which he says implies a different experience, because it is seen as providing a more global and international connection than Christianity and as a “religion of protest that allows to fight for freedom”) and the roles of African based religious survivals (which he believes did not have any significant relevance in the struggle for freedom – but which might be arguable, since for example folk medicine and magical practices must have been important in the daily struggle, and there is evidence that many of these aspects survived to the present day).

Elisabeth Thiele

Day 7 Avery Research Center


Today we visted the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture which is part of the College of Charleston. Its curator and Director of Museum Education, Curtis Franks, introduced us to the history of the research center and its current tasks. The center is dedicated to collecting, preserving and documenting the history and culture of African Americans in the region through art and historical research. It was already founded in 1865 as a private schools for African American children, an institution dedicated to the transition of blacks from servitude to making their way in the USA. Thus, the school helped reordering the American society and fighting prejudices of black intellectual inferiority. A dangerous task at this time! The school dedicated itself to the uplift of the African American "race" by training teachers and leaders like Septima P. Clarke. Therefore, the center is an institution of historical significance. Today it is dedicated to preserving Gullah culture as well as African American art. The center supports young artists and film makers from Charleston, SC. After Franks' introduction to the history of the research center, we visited an exhibition of black artists from the area. Unfortunately, Frank provided no further information to the works. However, the exhibtions are worth seeing. Moreover, researchers can use the archives of the center. Research materials are also provided to schools and other institutions. Personally, it was an interesting experience but more information would have been useful.

Franziska

Sonntag, 25. September 2011

Archaeology in Columbia?


In Richland Street, Columbia you can find Mann-Simmons site  that dates back to the time from 1843 to 1970.
In his vivid talk the archeologist Jacob Crocketts  took us with him to the 19th century when Cecilia Mann, a free African American  woman, lived on this street corner with her family.
Jacob Crocketts told us the story of Cecilia Man and her ancestors  through photographs and his archeological findings. Among these were curious artifacts like a labeled glas bottle of skin whitener or a metall condom case.
In the presentation we were shown how the site of the family, which was the only African American family living in the neighborhood during this time, has been transformed during the years.
In 1970 it was just saved before being bulldozed like many houses of former African American neighbourhoods.
One day after Mr Crockett‘s presentation we got to see the house museum on the Mann-Simmons Site.

The Legal History of Civil Rights

The second speaker on Wednesday was Lewis Burke, professor of Law at the Department of Clinical Legal Studies at the University of South Carolina. He gave our study group a short introduction into the legal history of Civil Rights in South Carolina. Burke emphasized the discrimination towards black voters which continues to exist in some parts of the United States till today. After the end of the Civil War African Americans were enfranchised. However, this new won legal freedom didn't exist for a long time. During Reconstruction Black Codes were enacted which limited and discriminated the civil rights for African Americans, including the right to vote. He also mentioned in this context the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Burke furthermore talked about the establishment of the NAACP in South Carolina, the significance of voter registrations, Voter Identification Laws and the current situation in South Carolina. His very interesting short talk about Civil Rights in South Carolina gave an overview on how the legal history of Civil Rights developed; at the same time it showed that this development is still in process. Burke concluded his talk by arguing that South Carolina needs a new voting rights act in order to stop voter harassment.

Ewa

Day 1: Hello Columbia, hello USC!


Our study of African American history and culture started at the University of South Carolina with a series of interesting presentations about different aspects of African American life. Daniel Littlefield gave the first presentation „Race and South Carolina“ talking about slavery and race-relations in early South Carolina and how they relate to today’s situation of African Americans. "Race" is an important issue to the state of South Carolina as its African American majority makes it distinctive in comparison to most other states oft he USA in which African Americans constitute only a minority. Littlefield argued that a distinctive slave culture developed in SC because of its high number of African American inhabitants enabling the survival of African traditions. According to Littlefiled, among these Africanisms are the language Gullah and thus, early SC bilingualism, a certain architecture, assumptions of life, cosmology, food, naming practices as well as music instruments. The banjo was a distinctive feature of African American music before becoming popular among white country musicians. Littlefield also mentioned other characteristics of race relations in SC like the task system, rice cultivation and miscegenation, the open practice of masters fathering slaves. Littlefield’s talk gave us a good basis for the upcoming presentations and events of the study tour.

Franziska

Montag, 19. September 2011

Heading West in a Couple of Hours



Seven hours to go and we're slowly but surely getting excited...  At 4.30 am we're gonna meet the rest of the study group at Leipzig Hauptbahnhof to head to Frankfurt Airport. We've been planning this trip for almost a year now but still it feels surreal to be going. 

In the winter term all of us enrolled in the seminar "African Americans in the US South" with Professor Keil and Professor Thiele. The seminar laid the groundwork for what we're going to experience firsthand. During the seminar we discussed the history of African Americans in the United States, the current situation in cities like New Orleans, the Confederate Flag controversy in SC, and other issues concerning blacks. Ewa held a presentation on Lawrence Hill's novel "The Book of Negroes" in which she emphasized the use of historical sources and the significance of historcial fiction as a contribution to an African American collective memory.

via

 In her presentation Carolin talked about the representation of blacks in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and the novel of the same name written by Fannie Flagg. While the novel described the both the lives of whites and blacks in Birmingham, Alabama in detail, focusing on urban segregation and the famous blackborough Slagtown/ Birmingham, the film painted a more stereotypical picture of African Americans living in the South of the 1930s and 40s.

So now there are only six more hours to go... yes, this text really took us this long owing to phone calls and other disturbances :-) From Frankfurt Airport we're going to fly to Charlotte, NC and then go to Spartanburg SC where we will spend our first night on American soil. From there we will go to Columbia, SC and Charleston, SC. But you'll see anyway, on this blog.

We're ending by saying good night and hopefully we'll be up on time to catch our train with Professor Keil and the others.

Ewa and Caro