Abstract
The paper studies the characters in the play, indicating that they are clearly derived from Hansberry's own experience, for she was a young black woman who grew up in this era and her writing shows the depth of first-hand understanding. Through examples in the paper we learn how the play addresses issues of slavery, freedom and the struggle to achieve the American dream.

From the Paper
"The kind of experience the Youngers have leads them to a spiritual and familial regeneration, and they transcend their ghetto not by moving to the suburbs but by understanding themselves and their place in black society. The prevailing racism has left the Youngers with a feeling of inferiority they try to overcome. The anger that such treatment creates is subdued in this family. The one vital element in the Younger family that sets them apart from much of the black experience today is the fact that they are, in the end, a family. The breakdown of the family in the ghetto is much discussed today. The Youngers have stayed together, something difficult even in the 1950s and something which shows them as atypical. Hansberry is not painting a false picture, and she is promoting the idea that family can help salve some of the problems faced in a racist society."

Tags:racism, play, society, equality, playwright

Abstract
This paper focuses on early works of African-American literature by Toni Morrison and Richard Wright, viewed through the lens of Ross Posnock's "Color and Culture: Black Writers and the Making of Modern Intellectual." The paper explains that early black literature was often viewed by white society as anomalous representations of limited scope, and that to receive any publishable option in the US, black writers and thinkers had to find white intellectuals or high-ranking society members to testify in print, as a prelude to the work, that it had been written by the black individual who claimed it. The paper asserts that both the Morrison and the Wright works demonstrate that social change, through the economy of legitimate society, is the real nature of the oppression of blacks. The paper concludes that the challenges of the system and the fact that racism is perpetuated by an economy of oppression demonstrate that each work is an attempt to illustrate the pervasive inequality that goes far beyond identity and constitutional sentiment and represents the reality of black life, even today.

From the Paper
"Within each of these works are both minor and major themes of resistance, as well as themes of overcoming helplessness in the face of stark racism. The demonstrative line of both is an interesting economic emphasis, interwoven into the fabric of individual character building and observations. The example I find pertinent in both works is the position of the exploitive and fierce landlord. In Song of Solomon, the landlord is Macon Jr., a wealthy, cruel black man who is riding on the backs of his brothers to accumulate wealth. While in Native Son the wealthy landlord, also riding on the backs of poor blacks is Mr. Dalton a white man who views himself as a philanthropist while he segregates and overcharges his black tenants in a racist system of oppressive economy."

Tags:racism, inequality, intellectualism, writing

Abstract
The paper looks at "Life on the Color Line" by Gregory H. Williams, which is an autobiographical story of a man who found himself trapped between two different racial worlds. The paper describes how Williams, a white man with one-quarter black heritage, decides to consciously attempt to embrace a black racial identity. The paper addresses the question of race construction, how certain people might live the life of one given race or another based upon different influencing factors. Finally, this analysis considers how Williams' life might have been different in sports and education had he been fully accepted as white.

From the Paper
"Growing up in suburban Virginia in the 1950s, Gregory and his brother Michael find themselves at the mercy of their troubled and abusive father, who despite having achieved a respectable amount of success as a businessman and owner of a roadside cafe, repeatedly sabotages his life and that of his family due to his alcoholism and related dysfunctional behavior. Though taken for a dark-skinned "Italian," by the time their father's businesses fail, Mike and Greg discover to their shock that their father has been deceiving them all their lives, and is in fact half-black: the product of a white Kentucky man and his black mistress. (Their mother, who was also white, obviously was in on the deception, but by the time of the move to Muncie, Indiana, she had already left.)"

Tags:race, construction, black, white, identity, social, pressures

Abstract
In this article, the writer notes that the degeneration of a noble cause into a terroristic organization is one of the most compelling and depressing events of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. The writer discusses that in the beginning, the Black Panther Party started out as a group dedicated to achieving the same goals that most other black rights groups had. They wanted what every person deserves to have; a chance to live their life in comfort and freedom. The writer maintains that it was with these noble goals that the party was designed, and unfortunately it was the seeming impossibility of these goals that lead to the issues of violence and crime within the party that led to its decline. The writer concludes that the Black Panther Party started out with aspirations, but in the end, the infighting and violence of the group led to them being more remembered for their terroristic actions more than their dreams of equality and comfort for the black people.

From the Paper
"These goals may seem laughable to us today, for those that are comfortable and have food and shelter as well as the right to freedom, liberty, due process, and a basic feeling of safety and justice, but at the time, these things were by no means guaranteed to the African American people. Therefore, with this list of basic necessities of life and comfort in mind, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale created the Black Panther Party in 1966. This group, made out of a need to finally accomplish these necessary and noble goals through any means necessary, went on to be involved in a political war with the federal and state governments. In its heyday, the Black Panther Party would spark riots, civil protests; involve threats of chemical warfare, alleged assassinations and assassination plots, executions, and convictions for drugs, illegal weapons and murder. The degeneration of a noble cause into a terroristic organization is one of the most compelling and depressing events of the 1960's and 1970's in the United States."

Tags:freedom, Malcolm, X, protests, violence, black

Abstract
This paper consists of an interview with a woman who was born in Los Angeles in 1932, during the Depression to a black mother and a Mexican citizen father who had immigrated to the United States. In the paper, the interviewee speaks of her life growing up in Los Angeles and some of the challenges she faced due to her unusual parentage. She also discusses some information about her father Renaldo and how he came to America, and the experiences he had here and how he ultimately met and married her mother, Violetta. The paper also includes some discussion based upon what the interviewee learned in her studies of race and ethnicity and how one distinguishes different aspects of one's background and culture, and how this affects one's relationships with other members of the community. Finally, the paper includes a brief discussion of her siblings and her own grown children, and the decisions they themselves made in terms of selecting what they felt to be the most appropriate genetic matches for themselves, taking into account the experiences of their mother.

From the Paper
"Mrs. Diaz notes that her own reading and study has taught her that "Latin" is not a racial designation, but a language designation. While her Mexican father spoke Spanish, racially he was known as a mestizo, partly of Spanish descent and partly of Aztec descent, but, she tells us, "even he could not say in exactly what proportion," since an exact genealogy was long ago lost to memory over the generations. Like most mixed Mexicans, he did not fare as well in his country as more pure-blooded Spanish, who tended to rise to the upper castes; so, he emigrated to the United States. He worked in Arizona cotton fields, then migrated to California to work in fruit orchids; after saving some money he moved to Los Angeles to get involved in a small grocery store with a couple of partners. This would have been shortly before the Depression."

Tags:Hispanic, Chicano, Black, immigrant, black, Mexican, mestizo, African-American, Latin-American, Spanish

Abstract
This paper describes the daily lives and culture of the black American Muslim and Nation of Islam communities. The paper defines these groups and their customs and religious rituals. It illustrates the historical leaders of the black Muslim movements, including in depth biographies of Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. The paper discusses the missionary and racist elements in these movements.

From the Paper
"Religion is important to many Americans not simply because they believe that their faith will bring them to a better world in the afterlife or because it will guide their actions as a moral and good individual here on earth but also because it provides them with a sense of self-identity. Religion tells people who they are, how they are different from other people, to which community they belong. This may be especially true for black Muslims. This paper examines the black Muslim and Nation of Islam movements within the larger context of religious life in contemporary America and the context of the daily lives of black Americans as we enter the 21st century.
It may be helpful for us toe begin with some basic definitions. Black Muslims are simply those followers of a predominantly black religious movement in the United States who profess Islam as their faith. Not all of the followers of this movement are in fact black, although nearly all of them are black or have a black member of their family (such as a spouse or child) who is involved. The movement encompasses not only spiritual and liturgical aspects of life but political and wide-ranging cultural as well, including an emphasis on economic cooperation and self-sufficiency for black communities and individuals. "

Tags:black, muslim, nation, islam, regilion, contemporary, america, identity, 21st, century, united, states, spiritual, political, cultural, farrakhan, malcom, x

Abstract
The following discussion focuses on black youth subcultures. It identifies their predominant types focusing on links to popular music and finds their source in the experience of unemployment and racism. Their inherent male chauvinism is also examined. Their ultimately destructive consequences and their interference with life course are also outlined.

Tags:black, youth, postwar, britain

Abstract
This paper consists of an interview with one Mrs. C. Diaz who was born in Los Angeles in 1932, during the Depression to a black mother and a Mexican citizen father who had immigrated to the United States. She speaks of her life growing up in Los Angeles and some of the challenges she faced due to her unusual parentage. She also discusses some information about her father Renaldo and how he came to America, and the experiences he had here and how he ultimately met and married her mother, Violetta.

From the Paper
"This paper consists of an interview with one Mrs. Cameron Diaz (her married name), who was born in Los Angeles in 1932, during the Depression to a black mother and a Mexican citizen father who had immigrated to the United States. She speaks of her life growing up in Los Angeles and some of the challenges she faced due to her unusual parentage. She also discusses some information about her father Renaldo and how he came to America, and the experiences he had here and how he ultimately met and married her mother, Violetta. There is also some discussion based upon..."

Tags:mestizo, immigration, black

Abstract
This paper analyzes Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story about a minister's life. This minister preaches his regular sermon in church usually in an uninspiring way until one Sunday, he shows up with a black veil on his face. This paper discusses the effects this had on his congregation and its symbolism. It details how Hawthorne's story, and the veil itself, is a metaphor for all of our sins and transgressions.

From the Paper
"Hawthorne's short story is deceptively simple. He tells the tale of a minister, Parson Hooper, who comes to church one Sunday wearing a black veil over his face. Nothing else about him has changed, but this veil frightens the worshipers, and sets off all kinds of rumors, including that Parson Hooper has gone mad. "Such was the effect of this simple piece of crepe, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meetinghouse. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them." As he preaches his sermon, the congregation seems to find this sermon special, and somehow it touches each one. Hawthorne says that Hooper was normally a rather "uninspired" preacher, and today was no exception, but the people perceive his words differently. They frighten many of them. "Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought." Perhaps Hooper's words are hitting a little close to home, and people are seeing some of the things they cover up in their own lives, as Hooper covers his face with the veil."

Tags:minister, black, veil, Nathaniel, Hawthorne, congregation, preach, sermon, sins

Abstract
This paper provides an insight into the Black Power movement, a potentially explosive force in late-60s and early-70s American politics and life. It seeks to illuminate both the positive and constructive, community-empowering aspects of the Black Power movement as well as the negative aspects which ultimately led to its demise (and in turn, the decline of the African American community in major cities across the U.S.). It reviews the works of famed civil rights leaders Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, Ira Katznelson's eminent treatise on urban politics "City Trenches" and the work of more conservative political pundits Ricahard Piven and Frances Cloward.

From the Paper
"It is clear from these goals that Black Power was not, for the most part, designed to play into normal patterns of the dominant political game, that of urban trenches. In fact, Carmichael and Hamilton specifically reiterate the sentiment that"[t]he price of going along with the "regulars" is too high to pay for the so-called benefits received" several times (175). And yet at the same time, the movement was surprisingly practical. Carmichael and Hamilton cite as an example of successful community control the white suburban neighborhood (171) " a concept that concurrently serves as a glaring example of almost all that is wrong with America according to black militants."

Tags:black, carmichael, community, katznelson, piven