scholarly journals Reimagining Black Freedom – Beyond Place and Time

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 270-277
Author(s):  
Traci Cook
Keyword(s):  
Deep South ◽  
Underground Railroad ◽  
Power Dynamic ◽  
Maya Angelou ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
Black Geographies ◽  
Autobiographical Accounts ◽  
European Colonizer

In this article, the writings of three prolific writers, Canadian Katherine McKittrick, Canadian-Trinidadian Marlene NourbeSe Philips and American Maya Angelou, intersect at the point of Black liberation and form a singular voice where a reimagined freedom can emerge. The piece begins with McKittrick’s research of Black geographies and what Black freedom as a destination looks like, by way of a fixed Underground Railroad journey to settlements like Ontario’s Negro Creek Road. It further interrogates and reverses the power dynamic between the European colonizer and Black settler, by engaging with Philip’s novel, Harriet’s Daughter. Here, teen protagonist, Margaret, changes the rules of her Underground Railroad game, making it possible for anybody to be a slave. Finally, these ideas are connected to Angelou’s autobiographical accounts of racism in the Deep South and her poetic expressions of hope and freedom through her writings, Caged Bird and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Rape Consciousness

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-68
Author(s):  
Robin E. Field
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
First Person ◽  
Consciousness Raising ◽  
Maya Angelou ◽  
Autobiographical Accounts

The new understanding of the victim’s psyche in rape fiction is derived from the literature of the anti-rape movement and autobiographical accounts of sexual assault. The rhetoric of this 1970s social movement, particularly the persuasive language of polemical nonfiction and the first-person narration in testimonies and autobiographies, inspired rape fiction. The use of sociopolitical theories and newly discovered facts about sexual assault informed the themes and plots of the first rape novels, and autobiographies and testimonies provided a bridge between the galvanizing rhetoric of social activism and subsequent fiction. The diverse texts that contributed to the emergence of the rape novel—from the transcripts of the consciousness-raising sessions of radical feminists to the memoirs of Maya Angelou and Billie Holiday—highlight the primacy of social movements to this new genre.

Black Spirituals: A Theological Interpretation

1972 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-69
Author(s):  
James H. Cone
Keyword(s):  
Black Power ◽  
Black People ◽  
New Age ◽  
Black Theology ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Popular Opinion ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
Freedom Songs

“Contrary to popular opinion, the spirituals are not evidence that black people reconciled themselves with human slavery. On the contrary, they are black freedom songs which emphasize black liberation as consistent with divine revelation. For this reason it is most appropriate for black people to sing them in this 'new' age of Black Power. And if some people still regard the spirituals as inconsistent with Black Power and Black Theology, that is because they have been misguided and the songs misinterpreted. There is little evidence that black slaves accepted their servitude because they believed God willed their slavery. The opposite is the case. The spirituals speak of God's liberation of black people, his will to set right the oppression of black slaves despite the overwhelming power of white masters. … And if 'de God dat lived in Moses' time is jus de same today,' then that God will vindicate the suffering of the righteous black and punish the unrighteous whites for their wrong doings.”

Solidarity in Three Acts: Narrating US black freedom movements in China, 1961–66

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (05) ◽  
pp. 1351-1380
Author(s):  
RUODI DUAN
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Race Riots ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
Black Resistance

AbstractThe political campaigns and events that comprised the US civil rights movement, as well as the urban race riots that coloured the 1960s, garnered widespread public attention and press coverage within the People's Republic of China (PRC). In the years between the Sino-Soviet Split in 1961 and the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, China strove to substantiate its commitment to US black liberation in three key respects: consistent news reporting, sentimental receptions of visiting black activists, and local gatherings that publicized up-to-date information on US anti-racist struggles and featured ordinary citizens sharing notes of empathy. This multidimensional Chinese engagement of US black freedom struggles helped to cement both intra-national and international solidarities. The party state, its mouthpieces, and everyday students and workers echoed Mao Zedong's dictum that racial discrimination was a matter of class struggle. Embedded within their observations was a critical analysis of African American history and social movements in relationship to US capitalism. Their narrations of black resistance and Afro-Asian solidarity, while intimately bound up with nation-state interests, shed light on the intricate nexus of race, revolution, and international class struggle that defined the global Cold War.

scholarly journals Media, Criminal Injustice, and the Black Freedom Struggle

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-102
Author(s):  
Erin G. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Legal Action ◽  
Black Freedom Struggle ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Freedom Struggle ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
International Attention

Since the mid-20th century, media outlets have driven publicity for newsworthy events and shaped content for their receptive audiences. Commonly, massive movements seek publicity to attract attention and participation for protests, demonstrations, slogans, and unfortunate events. For instance, the black freedom struggle of the 1950s through the 1970s took advantage of their traumatic narratives of oppression to attract national and international attention. Many African Americans who experienced dastardly components of a racist criminal justice system were, in turn, earning respect and power from their freedom-seeking counterparts by commodifying the emotion that fueled black liberation efforts.[i] Media, therefore, became a tool for exposing the nation to racist law enforcement and legal action. Ultimately, black freedom struggle activists deployed media depictions of their policing, arrest, and imprisonment to be used as movement publicity, earning increased participation and advancing movement motives through this subsequent growing interest. [i] Colley, Zoe A. Ain't Scared of Your Jail: Arrest, Imprisonment, and the Civil Rights Movement. University Press of Florida, 2012. 4.

Introduction

Prison Power ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Corrigan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Black Power ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Freedom Movement ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
Contested Terrain ◽  
Freedom Movement

This introduction discusses the beginnings of the “jail, no bail” strategy in the southern civil rights movement, introduces the Black Power vernacular as a critical optic of the book, and charts the ways in which jailing and imprisonment were central features of the black freedom movement from Greensboro to Black Power. This chapter also introduces the writings of Rap Brown (Jamil Al-Amin), Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Assata Shakur as the central texts for this rhetorical analysis. Finally, the chapter suggests that these extremely popular, though understudied, writings are useful spaces to understand how imprisonment occupied a contested terrain, used simultaneously for black liberation and for state repression.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Garrett Felber
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Carceral State ◽  
Black Freedom Struggle ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Freedom Struggle ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
Black Struggle ◽  
Freedom Movement

Describes how Those Who Know Don’t Say uses the NOI as a vehicle to explore forgotten sites and forms of Black struggle that confronted the carceral state during the mid-twentieth century. Reconsidering the place and scope of the NOI within the history of the Black Freedom Struggle in this way expands the boundaries of Black liberation struggles by revealing a more dynamic freedom movement in which objectives and strategies were always contested and debated within communities themselves, changing who we see as political theorists and agents of change, and expanding our spatial lens to include prison yards and courtrooms as sites of activism.

Hoodies on the Floor

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Platt
Keyword(s):  
Police Brutality ◽  
Black Representation ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Bill Sponsorship ◽  
History Of

This paper examines how black members of Congress (MCs) have recognized police brutality as an issue on the congressional agenda from 1973 to 2016. Using a dataset of every bill introduced by black members of Congress during the period of study, I show that, in general, police brutality has not been an important component of black MCs’ legislative portfolios. Instead, it is an occasional focus of bill sponsorship in response to discrete, highly salient incidents of brutality and murder. These findings are contextualized through a broader discussion of black representation as a tactic for black liberation and the similarities between the history of anti-lynching legislation and the contemporary fight against police brutality.

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