history. It is because a literary work can represent an era or century, e.g. Elizabethan era, Victorian era, and eighteenth century.
4. Theory of Racism
According to The New Encyclopædia Britannica, one of the manifestations
of the practice of racism is physical segregation 1983: 360. Another manifestation of the practice of racism is racial endogamy that is marrying within
one’s own racial group 1983: 360. The practice of racism can also be in the form of commensality that is rules determining with whom one may or may not eat
1983: 360. Another manifestation of the practice of racism is limitation of the rights of some racial groups to get access to “essential services – housing,
education, employment, and health facilities” Archer, 2000: 3-4. There are two types of racism: individual and institutional racism.
Individual racism is racism that is practiced by individuals. Institutional racism is “when organizational programs or policies work to the benefit of white people and
to the detriment of people of color” http:www.seattle.govrsjiwhy.htm.
C. Review of Racism in the United States of America in the Late Nineteenth Century
In the United States of America, there were Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws are “legal enactments adopted by Southern states after Reconstruction to
enforce segregation of Whites and Blacks in schools, public transportation, theaters, hotels, and restaurants”
The Encyclopedia Americana: International Edition, 1995: 92. The law enforced the “separate but equal” accommodations. It
means that railroad companies “had a right to segregate their passengers if they
provided for blacks accommodations precisely equal in all respects to those provided for whites holding similar tickets” Riegel, 1984: 29. However, in
reality, there were many Blacks admitted that they were forced to use “segregated accommodations
which were
generally inferior
to comparable
white accommodations of the same price” Riegel: 1984: 25. Moreover, the law did not
really impose Whites: Whites who smoked or had second-class tickets were allowed to sit in the Jim Crow car Riegel, 1984: 27.
According to Boyer, et al, in The Enduring Vision: A History of the
American People, Jim Crow laws did not only force the segregation on train but it also forced the segregation on other places: “A tangle of local ‘Jim Crow’ laws
imposed strict segregation on streetcars, trains, schools, parks, public buildings, and even cemeteries. In some courts, black and white witnesses took the oath on
separate Bibles” 1990: 756. Therefore, because of Jim Crow laws, there was segregation on streetcars, trains, schools, parks, public buildings, cemeteries, and
Bibles. Another practice of racism was that black people got different facilities.
“The facilities provided for blacks, including the schools, were invariably far inferior. With a few exceptions, labor unions excluded black industrial workers,
while skilled black craftsmen earned about one-third less than whites” 1990: 756. The quotation shows that facilities for black people were far inferior and that
“black craftsmen earned about one-third less than whites.” Another practice of racism is lynching. According to Amy Louise Wood in
Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940,
although the victims of lynching were not only Blacks but were also “white men; Native Americans; Chinese, Mexican, and other immigrants” the majority of the
victims were black men 2009: 3-4. Because of that, most Americans in the late nineteenth century “understood lynching as a southern practice and as a form of
racial violence that white mobs committed against African American men” Wood, 2009: 4. “Lynching is understood to be just and necessary retributions
against abominable crimes” 2009: 7. When an unexplained crime was committed in a Southern community, Whites always thought that the criminal was
a black man. It is because many white Southerners believed that black men often committed acts of violence and “sexual transgression” Wood, 2009: 6. The
victims of lynching were usually hanged or burned in front of thousands of spectators Wood, 2009: 21. Lynching was not only reported in newspapers, it
was also retold via pamphlets, popular stories, ballads, and motion pictures Wood, 2009:
9. Southern newspapers also promoted lynching by telling
“stories of black crime” Wood, 2009: 6. Lynch mobs “saw themselves not as criminals or defilers of the law but as honorable vindicators of justice and popular
sovereignty” that fulfill their “rights as citizens to punish crimes against their communities” Wood, 2009: 24. The defenders of lynching “saw the violence as
an inevitable and justifiable substitution for capital punishment in particular because the legal system bestowed too many rights on black criminals and offered
too little respect for white victims” Wood, 2009: 25. Although the purpose of lynching was to punish crimes, usually white criminals were not lynched;
“authorities in some southern localities consciously used capital punishment”
instead Wood, 2009: 26. Therefore, it was believed that black men were criminals and that lynching was a just punishment for them.
There was an organization called Ku Klux Klan that did the practice of racism frequently. It was established in 1866. The following quotation is the
definition of Ku Klux Klan according to anti-Ku Klux law cited by Stanley F. Horn in his book
Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan 1866-1871: A secret organization of men, who, under the cover of masks and other
grotesque disguises, armed with knives, revolvers and other deadly weapons, do issue from the place of their rendezvous…generally in the
late hours of the night, to commit violence and outrage upon peaceable and law-abiding citizens, robbing and murdering them upon the highways, and
entering their houses, tearing them from their homes and the embrace of their families, and, with violent threats and insults, inflicting on them the
most cruel and inhuman treatment…disturbing the public peace, ruining the happiness and prosperity of the people, and in many places over-riding
the civil authorities, defying all law and justice 1939: VII.
Therefore, Ku Klux Klan is a secret organization in which the members wear masks to disguise and have weapons to commit violence, usually in the late night.
Ku Klux Klan did not commit violence without reasons. They had goals: suppressing black voting and reestablishing white supremacy Boyer, et al, 1990:
544. The members of Ku Klux Klan attacked “white Republicans, black militia units, economically successful blacks, and black voters.” They attacked white
Republicans because the Republicans supported the Blacks. One of the forms of their support is forming “state militia, in which blacks were often heavily
presented” 1990: 543. In 1868, a white Republican made a speech in front of many Blacks in Huntsville in which he urged the Blacks to shoot the Ku Klux
Klan members Horn, 1939: 131-132. Because of that, 150 Ku Klux Klan
members attacked the place where the speech was held. They killed 2 people and wounded 5 people 1939: 134. In 1871, the Ku Klux Klan members burned
several black schoolhouses 1939: 152. The Ku Klux Klan members were also “robbing and plundering the weak and defenseless negroes” 1939: 144. In 1871,
a white man called John Coleman was threatened by a Ku Klux Klan member that he would be killed because he taught at a Negro school 1939: 137-138. Thus, the
Ku Klux Klan did not only attack Blacks but they also attacked Whites who helped Blacks.
Fifteenth Amendment to
the United States
Constitution that was
enacted in 1870 stated: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of
race, color,
or previous
condition of
servitude” http:www.ourdocuments.govdoc.php?doc=44page=transcript.
However, Blacks and Mulattoes could not vote freely because in the 1898 campaign,
Democrats used some tactics “to keep black Republicans away from the polls” Wright, et al, 2006: 95.
There was an event called Wilmington Race Riot that happened on November 10, 1898 Wright, et al, 2006: 122. It was planned to “suppress the
African American and Republican communities,” but the riot “grew into unplanned bloodshed” Wright, et al, 2006: 122. According to Dr. Jeffrey Crow,
deputy secretary of the N.C. Office of Archives and History as cited by Easley and Evans,
“The Wilmington Race Riot was not a spontaneous event, but was directed by white businessmen and Democratic leaders to regain control of
Wilmington” 2005: 1. In their campaign that triggered the riot, Democrats used Alexander Manly’s editorial that “challenged the popular notion among southern
judges and legislators that interracial sex was rape” ” Lowery, 2006: 349. As a result of the riot, there were black men who were killed or wounded throughout
the day because of the firing of rifles from “a mob of up to 2,000 Whites” Easley and Evans, 2005: 2. During the day, “the Red Shirts and the White Government
Union clubs,” the supremacist groups, “regularly brandished weapons while marching through black neighborhoods” Easley and Evans, 2005: 2. The total
death toll of the riot was as high as 250 http:ncpedia.orgwilmington-race-riot. Moreover, there were black and Mulatto men who were banished on November
10, 1898. There were two categories of black and Mulatto men who were banished: “First, were the African American leaders who were vocal supporters of
full participation in government by blacks and open opponents of the white supremacy campaign.
Second were African American businessmen and entrepreneurs whose financial successes were galling to the white upper and
working classes Wright, et al, 2006: 158.
D. Review of Mulattoes in the United States of America
