Showing results for "History of Universities" in Black & African American

African American history began in the 16th century, with Africans being sold to European slave traders and transported across the Atlantic to the Thirteen Colonies. During Reconstruction, they gained citizenship and the right to vote, but due to White supremacy, they found themselves soon disenfranchised in the South. These circumstances only slowly changed due to participation in military conflicts of the United States, substantial migration out of the South, the elimination of legal racial segregation, and the civil rights movement.

African Americans have had every reason to doubt America’s democratic experiment. Yet African American activists, intellectuals, and artists who have sought to transform the United States into a racially just society have put forward some of the most original and powerful ideas about how to make America live up to its democratic ideals. In The Darkened Light of Faith, Melvin Rogers provides a bold new account of African American political thought through the works and lives of individuals who built this vital tradition, which is urgently needed today.

The twin acts of singing and fighting for freedom have been inseparable in African American history. May We Forever Stand tells an essential part of that story. With lyrics penned by James Weldon Johnson and music composed by his brother Rosamond, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was embraced almost immediately as an anthem that captured the story and the aspirations of black Americans. Since the song's creation, it has been adopted by the NAACP and performed by countless artists in times of both crisis and celebration, cementing its place in African American life.