BLACK HISTORY MONTH ESSAY CONTEST WINNER
At yesterday's Black History Month Assembly, Assistant Principal Mr. Mathis announced the winner of this year's black history essay contest, Syashia S.
The essay prompt asked students to explore this year’s official theme for Black History Month. Put briefly, the official theme is Black Migrations. According to the Association for the Study of African American Life & History (ASALH), the organization which governs Black History Month, this theme “emphasizes the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and subsequently to new social realities.”
Students were asked to write an organized, five-paragraph reflection on how blacks’ movement--literal or figurative--has affected racial justice in the United States. Students were to pick one movement--e.g. blacks’ moving from the south to avoid Jim Crow, blacks’ emigration abroad post-WW2, Marcus Garvey’s back-to-Africa movement, the Harlem Renaissance music and literary movement, the Black Panther movement, the Black Lives Matter movement--and explain its effects.
Syashia chose to explore the effect of the Great Migration, which refers to the mass exodus of former slaves and their descends away from the South in the post-Civil War era. A transcript of her essay is below.
The Great Migration
by Syashia S.
African Americans were dealt a predominantly bad hand in life. The first significant movement of African Americans was the slave trade, during which black people were being taken from Africa and brought to the New World to work as slaves. From there, the African Americans were treated like property instead of people. Then after the American Civil War the African Americans finally saw change, but these changes did not come easily. They dealt with severe oppression, racial discrimination, and intimidation while slowly gaining the same rights as every other American citizen. The first widespread migration after the Civil War was the Exodus of 1879— when blacks migrated to Kansas, a state that fought for its right to be free—caused by the racial violence, Black Codes, and the fear African Americans felt when trying to exercise their rights in the South. The Great Migration being yet another movement of African Americans driven by unequal treatment— specially racial segregation laws— brought about changes that were necessary for African Americans to be able to experience normal lives as equals to whites. The Great Migration affected the lives of African Americans through the new identity that they created for themselves and by allowing them to verbalize their hardships through music.
The Great Migration affects the lives of African Americans through allowing them to create a completely new identity for themselves. The Great Migration was a major cause of the Harlem Renaissance, a massive artistically explosive movement of African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance took place in Harlem, New York City during the twentieth century. Through the major influx of African American people into Harlem, people that most likely would have never known each other came together and created a melting pot of black people each with profound drive to become more than anyone knew they could be. Through the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans became more than freed slaves, or uneducated black people. African Americans became college graduates, famous poets (Langston Hughes), influential singers (Billie Holiday), well known authors (Zora Neale Hurston), and were finally seen as independent people rather than property that would just do what it was told, when it was told to do so. In other words, for one of the first times on a massive scale, they defined themselves as blacks rather than letting others define them.
The Great Migration also affected the lives of African Americans through allowing them to verbalize their life stories through music. Billie Holiday, a musician of the Harlem Renaissance, first sung the song “Strange Fruit” in 1939— which was originally a poem written by Abel Meeropol— which details racism against African Americans, specifically lynchings. The song proceeds,“Southern trees bear strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” Holiday chose to continue singing “Strange Fruit” despite being afraid of negative responses because she was reminded of her father through the imagery that the song possesses. “Black and Blue,” a song composed by Louis Armstrong— a relatively versatile man who is known for his trumpet playing and composing— clearly addresses the unfairness African Americans felt throughout their lives due to the fact that they were endowed with darker skin. The song advances, “All my life through I've been so black and blue. I'm white inside, but that don't help my case. Cause I can't hide what is on my face. I'm so forlorn. Life's just a thorn. My heart is torn. Why was I born? What did I do to be so black and blue?” Since African Americans were able to tell their story in such a way that would easily reach many people, they were able to enlighten people— who would never experience it for themselves— on the severity of their suffering. Without the Great Migration, blacks in the South might not have ever been comfortable enough to share the musical talent.
The Great Migration changed the lives of African Americans for the better. The Harlem Renaissance —a momentous artistic movement of African Americans— was a by-product of the Great Migration. The Harlem Renaissance allowed for the creation of new identities for African Americans through giving them the space, and people needed to motivate and propel them forward as a race. African Americans musicians, through the Harlem Renaissance, exposed the truth about the trials and tribulations that they experienced through music. All of this now said, what can be done to lessen the weight of the scars that the slave trade, as well as injustices stemming from it, have left on the back of our history?