America was beginning to become a powerful and vital nation in the world in the twentieth century. Power was based on the assumption that Americans felt the abundant life, which was a promise to the world along with the concept and experience of freedom. However, freedom was not experienced by everyone at home in America. Black people felt oppressed and marginalized all the days of their life.
In the 1920s, America was beginning to grab attention in the international scene. Europe was fading, while America was appearing as a dominant nation. However, this is not because of the popularity of its government – it was due to the emergence of an industrial America, and the popularity of industrialists, the likes of like Henry Ford, the pioneer of mass production and American consumerism. America’s infinite horizons were turning into large factories and industrial zones. But is that thing called the American dream fit for all? What about the minority groups, the Americans of African ancestry, were they a part of the American dream, promised of abundance and an improved quality of life?
André Siegfried wrote that America’s improved standard of living was God-given and Americans were all ready to defend it. But from a political perspective, Siegfried says the condition was caused by the Americans’ practice of freedom and liberty given to all individuals. Mass production and mass civilization were the true features of the American system. This was reinforced by a bible-reading Lincoln and a rising industrialist like Ford.
When World War II broke out, all Americans had the thinking that they were the savior of the world. Even today, Americans and their government feel that they are the “policeman” of the world, ready to suppress any country and any government in the name of freedom and democracy and world peace. American power and resources were used to make the world safe from German annihilation.
Freedom is said to be a choice word in the American context. For example, right after World War I, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Meyer v. Nebraska that English was required in all school instruction. Many questioned this ruling as it violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Education and knowledge acquisition should be given to all citizens, even minority groups who could not speak or understand straight English. Criticisms have always been afforded the U.S. Supreme Court for violating the Constitution, or framing the Constitution to suppress the rights of minorities. Proponents of this ruling argued that this was “honorable, essential, indeed, to the public welfare” as the purpose of the legislation was to enhance development by prohibiting training and education to those who did not know English.
The black fought for the white in the name of freedom, but the black did not have it. In the years that the Negro enlisted to fight for America, he was also fighting for his own freedom, because this was a promise only for the whites. The Negro man was longing to have it. During the war, blacks fought side by side with whites. In fact, blacks fought to gain freedom for the white man, but not for himself. Black people wanted the freedoms enjoyed by the whites – freedom of speech, of religion, of want, and also of fear, but the Negro struggled as an oppressed worker and the abundant life remained a dream. Scarcity of food and social justice was an aim of the black struggle for equality. The Negro fought not only for America to remain the most powerful nation in the world, but also for democracy and for the freedoms of minority groups at home.
In internment camps, life for Japanese Americans was a second class life, where people were deprived of the basic necessities in life. Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga narrates how as a pregnant woman she was held at the Manzanar Incarceration camp and had to survive the harsh conditions in the camp. Her baby was born with allergy, and had also to endure the dust, dirty and cold surrounding in her apartment which served as bedroom and living room, and a crude environment.
Immediately after the war, the Americans boasted of the American way of life – freedom provided by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, free enterprise for everyone, and equal protection for all, including minority groups. This promise of a way of life included philanthropic movement and aid for all the peoples of the world. Americans promoted progress and economic development and helped its allies become independent economically and politically. President Eisenhower promoted the American religion, but the Americans and their government were seen as self-righteous because they saw themselves as the good ones, and the Communists were the bad people who deserved to be controlled or extinguished. Democracy American style was what the world needed and should be promoted in every part of the world.
The years after the war saw the Americans enjoying democracy, but not all were enjoying it. In fact, blacks saw it as “not” democracy at all. The “free world” and “people’s democracies” reflected the sad realities inside America at that time. Students were given education but not moral enlightenment, as professors and administrators were blind to the realities of black not enjoying freedom as whites were.
Black rights were fought as the Negro felt freedom in America was part of the pseudo-democracy, meaning, democracy fit only for the white. Richard Wright, a black human rights activist, found himself in self-exile in France as he saw he could not live freely in America than in Paris. He wrote that there was more freedom in one square block of Paris than there was in the whole United States. Wright compared life in Paris and United States, saying that the French loved freedom and just lived without bragging about it, but in America everyone was speaking of freedom but did not live it. For black people, freedom was lacking and was not given in America, just as Negroes were deprived of bread and the basic necessities in life. How can the Americans call it freedom, Wright would ask. Wright felt futile in his fight for freedom as there was something wrong in his country where the government and the justice system could violate the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to suppress the rights of a defenceless minority.
How can a nation speak of freedom when social injustice was so common? Social justice movements, such as socialist, feminist, Black and Chicano movements, and other movements against the government were beginning to take root in the American society. Blacks experienced inequality in various areas that include education, employment, household income, and so on.
Oppression refers to the effective, frequently violent, tyranny of a ruling majority. Colonialism and apartheid are social phenomena that intentionally marginalize the black people. Cruelty, violence, police brutality and domination inflicted intentionally, with the help of influential people in society. The American society has a history of minority groups being disenfranchised and oppressed. Blacks expressed the feeling of being oppressed because some related misfortunes are connected to other relevant misfortunes and they go together.
Communist, critical race and feminist theory have given the concept of oppression of various kinds. In court cases, black defendants are deprived of due process. These due process rights included representation by counsel, jury trial, freedom from self-incrimination, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. The juvenile court was created for treatment and not punishment. The Supreme Court creates laws to widen the gap between black and white Americans. One of the Supreme Court’s decisions is the Plessy v. Fergusson, promulgated in 1896, which seemed to uphold individual rights under the 14th Amendment. A basic principle of the 14th Amendment is that no one should be deprived of their rights, especially the rights of parents “to direct the live and education of their children”.
The Southern Manifesto was formed by 101 members of Congress in 1956 to renounce the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and to support the ongoing resistance movement in the South at that time. The Southern Manifesto declared that the Supreme Court ruling was an unjustified exercise of power that created chaos and confusion in the nation. The Bill of Rights has been interpreted by the Supreme Court as a guarantee that every person can have his way of the good life without unnecessary intrusion from the will of the majority. However, in the 1960s, at the height of the Black Movement, the Negro was deprived of their rights under the U.S. Constitution. The Court’s preference for its interpretation of the Bill of Rights as a basis for individual freedom is also seen in other subjects of law, notably the freedom of speech which is also linked with the freedom of expression and the right of privacy.
Bibliography
“A Revolution of the Mind,” Richard Wright, I choose exile, 1950, last modified April 19, 2012, <http://thisissoulone.tumblr.com/post/21392983785/richard-wright-i-choose-exile-i-am-a-native>.
“History Matters,” Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga recalls caring for her baby in the Manzanar incarceration camp, The U.S. Survey course on the Web, last modified March 20, 1994, <http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/8327/>.
“The Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society,” <http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/huron.html>.
“The Supreme Court,” The Southern Manifesto on Integration, (March 12, 1956), last modified 2007, < http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/sources_document2.html>.
Tom Hayden and Others, The Port Huron Statement, 1962.
Wesley, Charles H. The Negro has always wanted for Four Freedoms. In What the Negro Wants, 1944.
