Problems of Black America: Solutions
Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois is one of the greatest leaders and scholars whose achievements and works helped transform the lives of many African Americans. In the book The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois analyzed various problems that defined the true nature of black identity. First, he described how African Americans were living in pathetic and unbearable social conditions. Members of the wider American society viewed them as inferior citizens because of their skin color.
The problem of identity crisis made it impossible for these people to succeed since they were referred to as descendants of former slaves (Du Bois 46). Second, the book outlines some of the economic conditions that made it impossible for these individuals to achieve their maximum potential. For instance, they worked as tenant farmers and engaged in sharecropping. They lacked adequate opportunities and continued to languish in poverty. Third, their political experiences and conditions reduced their representation levels and led to disfranchisement.
The validity and nature of these social problems compelled Du Bois to present powerful solutions which would help transform the outcomes of more African Americans. He began by encouraging his followers to unite and embrace a common ethnic identity.
He went further to focus on high-quality education as a powerful resource that would result in continuous transformation. He guided the people to focus on the idea of double consciousness and promote a unique identity for Black America (Bailey and Rosenberg 66). A new wave aimed at supporting the realization of political power and identity would take most of these individuals closer to their social and economic goals. These approaches would play a significant role in empowering and guiding more African Americans to pursue their aims more diligently than ever before.
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance stands out as one of the historical and cultural periods that helped reshape the position and future of African Americans in the United States. Many people in Harlem, New York, focused on new ways to manifest their cultural attributes and aspects that defined their past experiences and future goals. This period is attributed to the works of Du Bois since he made it possible for the people to appreciate their problems and consider new ways to solve them. For instance, the double consciousness or identity crisis that prevailed in the country before became a thing of the past (Bailey and Rosenberg 69).
More of the people were now willing to embrace their origins and consider additional ways of pursuing their cultural and social goals. They acknowledged that the problems of inequality, disunity, and lack of political representation affected them equally.
Relying on most of the solutions Du Bois presented, African Americans in New York pursued different works of art and music with the aim of exploring racial tones and themes that had existed in the country for years. The people targeted a new identity that revolved around the strength of the African heritage (Du Bois 82). This kind of belonging encouraged more people to consider how they could explore their past experiences through literature, art, and even literature. Many African Americans from different parts of the country made the Harlem Renaissance an unstoppable New Negro Movement (Bailey and Rosenberg 72). The achievements made from this kind of social and literary uprising would set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Works Cited
Bailey, Julius, and Scott Rosenberg. “Reading Twentieth Century Urban Black Cultural Movements through Popular Periodicals: A Case Study of the Harlem Renaissance and South Africa’s Sophiatown.” Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, 2016, pp. 63-86.
Du Bois, William E. D. The Souls of Black Folk. Oxford University Press, 2008.