Yesterday in history class, we discussed the work of Marcus Garvey, an African American activist who sought equality for blacks worldwide. He was arguably the most radical of the Civil Rights activists of his time, due to his idea that African Americans and whites could never coexist peacefully and therefore must be separated. He believed that in order to achieve this separation, African Americans should migrate "back" to Africa, which many of them had been removed from for generations. Garvey was also jailed and later deported back to his homeland, Jamaica, on the grounds of being an undesirable alien due to his alleged mail fraud. We studied his works by filling out a worksheet on him and how others reacted to his ideas in groups. After that, we briefly discussed the topics that we had just covered.
Today, we read three brief poems about life in the South and how life elsewhere would be a better alternative, though not necessarily good. We were then asked to think about how these poems described life in the South vs. life in the North. After that, we listened to some music written in Harlem during the Harlem renaissance and discussed what they meant and the overall tones of the songs. Finally, we looked at some pictures from the Harlem renaissance era, which showed how African Americans were able to have fun and much more freedom in the North than in the South.
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