Introduction:

In 1776, the United States declared its independence from Britain, creating a free country.  The idea of American freedom, which gave liberty and equality to all Americans, but this did not include a major part of the country: African Americans.  Historian Nikhil Pal Singh highlights the irony in the fundamentals of American beliefs, while also bringing forth the true equality ideals of African Americans in his book Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy.  The desire for true equality, or “black freedom dreams,” exceeded "the sanctioned boundaries and brokered compromises of the established political order.” These dreams have no boundary for equality, as they drew ideals of freedom from all different religions, countries, and  societies all around the globe. 

The efforts to make equality global was particularly seen during World War II. It was a time of crisis and death, with white power spreading through much of Europe. Josephine Moody, a Black women activist in the 1940s, displayed the true global passion that African Americans had during the unfortunate times while writing about Black Nationalism.  When talking about World War II in her article"We Want to Set the World on Fire:" Women and Diasporic Politics in the New Negro World, 1940-1944,  historian Keisha Blain writes that black women activists were "concerned about the future of millions of people of color across the globe whose lives would be greatly impacted by the Second World War" and thus "amplified their efforts to end global racism, white imperialism, and colonialism."   The African Americans were willing to put in extra work to spread equality to other nations, while still fighting on their home front. This American universalism is exemplified during the March on Washington in 1963, when white Americans were more worried about the image of the United States rather than actually helping equality.  In The 1963 March on Washington: At Home and Abroad Mary L. Dudziak, a legal scholar, argues that the March on Washington, writes that “equality was presented as evolutionary, and the inevitable byproduct of American politics and value,” which would make America appear as a country promoting equality to the rest of the world.  The notion of equality is a facade the white American individuals hid behind as United States developed as a nation struggling for true equality.
Document 1:


In this piece from W.E.B. DuBois, we can see a struggle for democracy.  He criticizes the United States system, as it has been oppressing African Americans for all of United States history.  From the beginning, black individuals were treated differently, enslaved after becoming a free country, getting partial votes per person, and under represented in the electoral college. In a country based fundamentally on the ideals of freedom and equality, he wonders how could such a democracy develop.   The unjust system created in America so long ago created a divide in American lifestyle and pride.  The split created completely separate ideas of what being American is: black Americanism and white Americanism.  According to Dubois the only attempt to reconstruct the flawed system of the United States was after the Civil War, which made very little impact other than freeing the slaves. Freeing the slaves did not make any steps towards making one new "Americanism," as scholar Jill Lepore says in her article, A New Americanism, Why A Nation Needs a National Story.  DuBois sees a paradox unfold as change must be made to underrepresented of African Americans, but to bring about change, they must be represented enough to affect the political system.  This impossible change of state is the true problem of the African American, according to DuBois, because without  a way to  transform the failed democracy, African Americans will  always live a separate, more unfair life than the white Americans.

Document 2:


This image is of young African Americans in the New York Metropolitan Museum learning about black culture.  The photo was taken in 1961, which was a critical time of efforts to change civil rights in America.  For example, there was a movement of the Freedom Rides, which was launched to "challenge segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals," in 1961.  The racism at the time was so bad that when traveling from D.C. to New Orleans there was "beating of [Rock] Lewis and another rider, coupled with the arrest of one participant for using a whites-only restroom," and it was events like this that led to black nationalism.  Back nationalism, described as "a nation within a nation" by Martin Luther King,  was a movement advocating "economic self-sufficiency, race pride for African Americans, and black separatism." The boys were there to learn about their own culture and pride, during such an important times fr civil rights.  At such an early age, these kids are being taught of separate lives to be lived and prides to have in America.  Singh agrees to this being taught at a young age, as he sees the nation and its culture divided by race.  There clearly is two different lifestyles in America at the time, and they are being taught to be prideful of their own.

Conclusion:

All throughout history, the United States was in need of change in some way.  A false idea of universal freedom founded the country, backed with the idea of strong democratic system.  Seen in DuBois's piece, change is needed in the United States to allow improvement in the nation, not only for African Americans, but for everyone.  He, just like Singh, sees a clear difference in life in each race, and he does not think that can change.  That divide in lifestyle was taught very early in the lives of children, which leads for separate nationalism in the future when they grow older.  The civil rights movement was not a staple for black equality, but rather for true Americanism.