American Literature

Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive easy to govern, but impossible to enslave, said Henry Peter Broughan. It replaces an empty mind with an open one. It opens the door to mans thinking and creates those boundaries by stretching his mind that it never regains its original dimension. We are all aware that man and his mind make the society. Thus education influences man. If we continue to write the benefits of education, it would by itself be an impressive essay. However, focusing on the task at hand, we understand that when we radically view the connection between education and society, education is the key for revolution. And one such revolution that revolutionized mans perspective of viewing another human on basis of color is remarkably placed in history as the fundamental in reawakening mans lost sight to humanity. The above reference is to the great American Revolution that was followed by the Civil war, the continued fight for equality and liberty among the blacks and the whites that followed it. Radical views in The Port Huron Statement, Message to the Grassroots and Ballot or the Bullet by Malcolm X, The Souls of the Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, Letter From Birmingham City Jail and The Social Organization of Nonviolence by Martin Luther King, Jr. throw light and proclaim the fact that education leads to social change and is an important catalyst in making the necessary social changes.

Clearly stating that the problem of twentieth century is the problem with color line, Dubois expresses his soul in The Souls of the Black Folk and his first two chapters talk about what freedom meant to the blacks and the aftermath of the freedom that they won. Dubois expresses his contempt, mentions that a veil between the blacks and the whites was always present and it was this veil that gave rise to contempt and slavery in the hearts of the people. Being a black was as good as being the seventh son, without any self-ceaselessness, he mentions that the world viewed the blacks with prejudice or pity. By stating that The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double-self into a better and truer self (9), Dubois validly presents the duality and search for identity that the blacks faced in spite of their so called freedom. Several problems brutalized their scarred souls. The first decade after the war added to the trauma that they had suffered as the emancipation of the blacks led to a new problem and Dubois states that, Emancipation Proclamation seemed but to broaden and intensify the difficulties and the War Amendments made the Negro problems of to-day (16). Several social problems marked the Free America and the state of the free black-slave was worst.

The double-aimed struggle of the blacks- the first being facing the contempt of the whites who cursed or spat on their faces and the next being the struggle to feed themselves and their family, mocked the so called freedom and made them feel ashamed of themselves. Dubois expresses in sorrow by stating that the Nation did not find any peace and the freedman never found the promised freedom in his own land. Without money in hand, without any labor, without any educational in his background, with a stain of being a bastard written on his head, mass corruption from the white workers, the strife of the Freedmans bureau to establish equality marked American society negatively and the blacks in particular were considered the problem of this mayhem.

Martin Luther King Jr. cannot be left behind in his aspect of portraying the conditions of the blacks and his unhappiness towards it. He mentions that police brutality was prevalent in every section of the country. The unjust treatment of the Negroes in courtrooms, the bombings of negro homes and churches, the racial signs in their merchant shops, their airtight poverty, various social discrimination based on color such as blacks being restricted from entering amusement parks, black wife and mother never given the title Mrs. Non-acceptance in motels prove the unequal social conditions of the blacks in spite of their freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. expresses his unhappiness, by further emphasizing that, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate (156). By white moderate he means all those white men who asked the blacks to wait for a more convenient season. Using non-violence as an effective tool to fight against this oppression, Martin Luther King Jr. believed that a time would come where stars of love and brotherhood would definitely shine on America.

The Port Huron Statement gave a further insight to the chaos that masked America. It states that, the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial bigotry, compelled most of us from silence to activism (62). It gives us a clear picture of the new American society which perhaps feared change, lived in doubt and was a plagued program without any vision, in theoretical chaos. Stressing on the various problems faced by the blacks, Malcolm X another radical, in his speeches, delivered a great blow to the so called free America, by stating that, Sitting at the table doesnt make you a diner, unless you eat some of whats on that plate. Being born here in America doesnt make you an American. (140) Calling the whites oppressors, he questioned the wars that the blacks were made to fight as soldiers and the violence associated with it and enlisting themselves as soldiers was the solution to the Negro problem after the emancipation. He expresses his anger and frustration by asking the blacks as to why they should thank the whites for restoring the freedom which was rightfully theirs. Unhappy with the white hypocrisy and questioning their sincerity in demanding votes from the blacks by passing the bill to let Negroes vote during the time of elections, Malcolm X encouraged the blacks to the path of violence and segregation.

Dubois however, does portray the brighter side that made the suffering seem bearable by mentioning that the big step that was taken was educating the Negro masses which gave them a clearer perception of their social responsibilities. This definitely catalyzed the progress of the society as this privilege bestowed upon them seemed to appease their curiosity of the knowing the cabalistic letters of the white man and Dubois adds to it and states that education, Gave leisure for reflection and self-examination it changed the child of Emancipation to the youth with dawning self-consciousness, self-realization, self-respect. Laying out strong values politically, socially and economically, The Port Huron Statement talked about an educational system based on values for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity and upheld the flag for independence. Pointing out various reforms in the educational system it asks the students to rise above the rat race, understand their individual potential, the power of education and participate as responsible citizens. Demonstrating the fact that power and vision can be summoned from universities, it emphasized that education is functionally tied to the society and shaping the students with real intellectual skills would bring about socially moralized and significantly responsible new generation to America.

The post Civil war era and the Civil rights era marked was a period of constant turbulence and reconstruction that America and its people faced, both socially and politically. With the passage of time that symbolically has reduced the inequality between the blacks and the whites, the new generation seem to have embraced one race- the race of humanity. All in all, after reading the works of these radicals one begins to question the American institution and its ideals. However, by electing Barrack Obama as the president, the Americans made the dreams of radicals like Malcolm, Luther, Du Bois and many others come true and have begun to prove that these social critiques are in for a change. Racism as such does not post a perpetual threat to America currently however the issue of mixed races searching for their identity seems to be the current problem. Universities according to my knowledge, currently are bereft of racism, however more ideals can be incorporated from The Port Huron Statement that proclaimed that- education and universities shape the future generation and thus have great potential in brining about the necessary changes in the society.