The Role of Preachers in the Afro American Community

After Abraham Lincoln assassination, the discrimination was growing faster and faster in the south area. Because of their economic plight and the widespread violence directed against them, many black people sought to improve their status through migration. In 1900 nearly nine-tenths of the blacks in the United States were in the South, the vast majority of them lived in the rural areas. The migration took several forms: rural blacks sought safety in the relative anonymity of cities, Southern blacks moved North, and many blacks moved to countries in Africa. Because of their economic plight, the absence of skills, and discrimination elsewhere in the United States, most blacks remained in the rural South. The community of Ruby is a community of black people who live in the South. They isolate themselves in order to avoid discrimination from white people. Steward Morgan as one of the new father in Ruby strictly rejects the presence of white people in Ruby. This situation happens when a white man gets lost in Ruby and he asks for help in Anna Fleetwood Store. After a white, a station wagon drove up and parked so close to the store; both Misner and Anna could see the fever in the baby‟s blue eyes. The mother held the child over her shoulder and stroked its yellow hair. The driver, a city- dressed man in his forties, got out and pushed open Anna‟s door. “How you all doing?” He smiled. “Fine and you?” “Look like I‟m lost… Misner followed to give him directions. “Who all is that?” asked Steward. “Just some lost folks.” Anna handed him a thirty-two-ounce tin of Blue Boy. “Lost folks or lost whites?” “Oh, Steward, please.” “Big difference, Anna girl. Big. Right, Reverend?” Misner was just stepping back in. “They get lost like everybody else,” said Anna. “Born lost. Take over the world and still lost. Right, Reverend?” “You just contradicted yourself.” Anna laughed. “God has one people, Steward. You know that.” Misner rubbed his hands, then blew on them Morrison 122-123. The past history of black people seems to be bitter for Steward. Black people know that the white people sell them as a commodity. This pain will not disappear but Anna and Misner realize that everything is changing. Since Ruby is an isolated community, the members try hard to keep the purity of their Negro blood. In the novel, there are two big communities: Ruby and the Convent. The two communities have a different way of life. Ruby is a puritan community which always keeps the moral values in their daily life. On the contrary, the Convent is a community of “unwanted” people. Each of the members has their own “negative” history. Most of people go to the Convent to get shelter and protection. They think that convent is the most peaceful place on Earth Morrison 182. People in Ruby, especially Steward and Deacon Morgan as the most influential people in Ruby, think that self isolating will keep them beyond the white law. That is why they think that they can do everything to protect the community of Ruby from every intruder. That is their motivation, not letting the past history happens again. Freedmen who stood tall in 1889 dropped to their knees in 1934 and were stomach-crawling by 1948. That is why they are her in this Convent. To make sure it never happens again. That nothing inside or out rots the one all-black town worth the pain Morrison 5. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI The nine people think that from the beginning when the town is founded they know isolation does not guarantee safety Morrison 12. They have to do something in a form of action although it is a cruel thing. This point of view is different from Dovey Morgan ‟s point of view. It is true that Ruby gets their freedom from the slavery but they must be aware that white people always watch them. Although freedom is in their hand for some black people, maintaining their freedom becomes the most difficult task to do. There are some attempts from the Whites to drag the free black people into slaves again. Dovey has watched her husband destroy something in himself for thirty years. The more he gained, the less he became. Now he may be ruining everything. Had twenty-five years of rampant success confused him? Did he think that because they lived away from white law they were beyond it? Morrison 287. Once again, Ruby gets its second chance because the evidence, the dead bodies, has disappeared when someone tries to find them. At the end of this story, this massacre becomes the trigger of psychological changing of the nine men.

B. The Fundamental Reasons of Discrimination within Afro American Community

Discrimination that was done by white people to the Blacks was a “common” thing in the United States at that time. However finding discrimination within a black community itself became something that was not exposed. This study is intended to find the fundamental reasons which enable discrimination to happen within a black community. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

1. Stratification within Afro American Community

Alphonso Pinkney in his book titled Black Americans gives a clear picture of black slaves stratification. Belong to a different white master determined the class of the slaves. Black people worked as servants usually a mullato had higher social status rather than those who worked in a farm or field Pinkney 63. According to Gunnar Myrdal, the lower class consisted of uneducated black people. They were the habitual criminals, prostitutes, gamblers and vagabonds. On the other side, the upper class of Negro community built their own community, separated from the lower class. They were business, particularly in the field of banking or insurance, but also in contracting, real estate, and personal service. Often family background was stressed in upper class. The family was organized upon the paternalistic principle, legal marriage was an accepted form, and illegitimacy and desertion were not condoned. Children were shielded as far as possible both from influences of the lower class Negroes and from humiliating experiences of the caste system Myrdal 701-702. This situation has improved and developed steadily within the black community. The black community, like the white community which surrounds it, has always maintained a degree of social stratification. This social stratification within black community was used by slave holders to divide the slave force. The slaveholders avoided or prevented the unity of black community. After emancipation, class distinctions among blacks frequently followed the patterns established during slavery: those based on wealth, occupation, “respectability,” and skin color.