African American Literary and Cultural Developments in the Post-Civil Rights Era

As part of our day at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, Prof. Qiana Whitted focused her short talk on various influential African American writers of the last forty years, reflecting in particular on what it means to be a 'black writer' and the responsibility that role entails. Interestingly, she suggested that since these writers were recognized as part of the African American canon that also implied that the cost of failure was much higher because their works reflected on their community. Their personal failure would have translated into a failure of their 'race.' The existence of a black movement and of African American literature gave a certain authority and level of legitimacy to writers like Langston Hughes. On the other hand, as Toni Morrison realized, this also prevented others (minorities within the minority) to be heard, e.g. young black girls who did not identify with the slogan "black is beautiful."

In the course of her talk, Whitted also underlined the importance of the fantastic mode of writing, in opposition to a more realist approach, and that, in the case of African American literature, realism has often been set aside for a more fantastic and free approach to the 'black experience.' Finally, she mentioned some examples of post-racial narratives and how slavery is still used as a metaphor to tell different stories of oppression and social struggle, e.g. in the science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler.

Eleonora

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

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

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