Who is Black America? (The Future of the African American Past, Session 01)

Описание: “Who is Black America?” explores the various forms of diversity that have existed within African American communities from the earliest days of enslavement into the modern day. Historical changes to the meaning of “black” culture and identity are examined through the lenses of class difference, religion, social movements, and other topics. The session took place on Friday, May 20, 2016, at Warner Bros. Theater, National Museum of American History.

This session was part of The Future of the African American Past, a landmark conference concerning “what comes next” in the study of African American history. The conference took place on May 19-21, 2016, and was co-hosted by the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

Sponsorship: The Future of the African American Past was made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (https://www.neh.gov/) and HISTORY (http://www.history.com/). For more information about the conference, including full session videos, please visit https://futureafampast.si.edu.

About the AHA: The American Historical Association is the largest professional organization serving historians in all fields and all professions. The AHA is a trusted advocate for history education, the professional work of historians, and the critical role of historical thinking in public life.
https://www.historians.org

About the NMAAHC: The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become charter members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
https://nmaahc.si.edu/

Video produced by Intelligent Television: http://www.intelligenttelevision.com/

Contents:

00:12 - Introduction by Lonnie Bunch (NMAAHC) and Jim Grossman (AHA)

03:51 - Panel chair Ira Berlin (University Of Maryland) describes how the common perception of a singular “blackness” arose when Africans of highly varied cultural and geographic backgrounds were forced into the shared experience of slavery.

09:26 - Elsa Barkley Brown (University Of Maryland) explains how she uses the medium of film to teach “silent” or suppressed histories in introductory undergraduate classes on African American history.

16:37 - Tiya Miles (University Of Michigan, Ann Arbor) discusses the ways in which African American and Native American communities forged transformative relationships under conditions of exploitation.

27:29 - Dylan C. Penningroth (University of California, Berkeley) describes how many African Americans became fluent in legal procedure via the process of establishing churches, and how they began to apply this knowledge to struggles against racial injustice.

38:05 - Deborah Gray White (Rutgers University, New Brunswick) considers the evolution of black identities within the context of the New Negro Movement (https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/th...) of the early twentieth century and newer conceptions of “postmodernity.”

Resources:
• Tree Shade (1998) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194462/
• The Watermelon Woman (1996) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118125/
• James M. Simms, The First Colored Baptist Church in North America Constituted at Savannah, Georgia, January 20, A.D. 1788. With Biographical Sketches of the Pastors (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1888) http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/simms/...
• Godfrey v. Walker, 42 Ga. 562 (1871), 569. https://www.ravellaw.com/opinions/8d7...
• “Financial Papers of the New Hope Baptist Church,” Yancey Papers, Special Collections, University of Virginia. http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/v...
• “Recommendations to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church for the Fiscal Year 1954-1955,” Sept. 5, 1954, Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 2, pp. 287-94. http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/...
• Martin Luther King, Jr., “Guidelines for a Constructive Church,” manuscript notes, ca. 1966, R66-06-05, King Center online. http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/...
• Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles...
• Claude McKay, "If We Must Die," (1919) https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i...