The American Scholar

immigrants would face extreme discrimination by the American government and its citizens. The largest questions one should ask when attempting to understand this complicated history are: What factors led Southern Italians to feel it necessary to immigrate to America and why was the experience of Northern Italians so different? How were Southern Italian immigrants treated/discriminated against upon their arrival in the United States? Up until now, Italian American immigrant history has not been…

For many African Americans, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are the foundation of higher education. They provided equal access to a high-quality education for countless African Americans. As diversity gains momentum and economic pressures continue to mount, the need for these specialized institutions is in question. Their relevance is doubted with concerns about their present purpose, costs, and vitality in modern America. Are HBCUs as relevant today as they were in the 19th…

“Politics can be the graveyard of the poet. And only poetry can be his resurrection.” The often-crowned laureate of Harlem, Langston Hughes through his literary works faithfully recorded the authenticity and nuances of the African American experience. The opening line draws attention to Hughes internal struggle that had followed throughout his artistic career, as he was attempting to seek out whether art could be free of any involvement of political propaganda and to be left as pure poetry,…

of the rivalry between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois, which in the late 19th to early 20th centuries changed the course of the quest for equality in American society, and in the process helped give birth to the modern Civil Rights Movement. Though Washington and Dubois were both born in the same era, both highly accomplished scholars and both committed to the cause of civil rights for blacks in America, it was their differences in background and method that would have the greatest…

American streets revolutionized in the 1920's as the number of automobiles soared from 6 million to 27 million. (Hoover) In 1980, “87.2 percent of American households owned one or more motor vehicles, 51.5 percent owned more than one, and fully 95 percent of domestic car sales were for replacement. Americans have become truly auto-dependent.” (History)But though automobile ownership is virtually universal…

Claude McKay was an influential leader of the Harlem Renaissance who also advocated against the racism that African-Americans receive. He wrote many works for this cause, among them was the poem “America” inside of the text of his book Harlem Shadows. People have many different thoughts and beliefs about the poems. James R. Keller tries to give his analysis of "America" along with McKay’s other works. Keller explains this in his article titled as “ ‘A Chafing Savage, Down the Decent Street’:…

beauty of her race," who turns out to be empty and shallow, and her dark eyed beauty merely due to artful makeup. So while people in the U.S. romanticized Latin Americans, they also, using varying levels of subtlety, disparaged the very cultures they looked to for inspiration in songs, films, dances, and other entertainments. The American public was not alone in looking to another country for cultural inspiration. Argentinian people also drew upon musical styles from outside their borders,…

African Americans this is a walk down memory lane. The use of switches, hands, belts, and many other objects are utilized to physically discipline children, in the African American community, it is often referred to as receiving a whooping/whipping. The difference between African Americans and White Americans on how children are disciplined is very drastic. While the majority of the African American community feels children should be raised under strict disciplinary rules; the White American…

theorization of the African diaspora comes from the understanding of experiences and history of the dispersed people of African descent throughout the world. The diaspora of the African people has been understood through numerous means, which has allowed scholars the ability to explore the dispersion in terms of major themes, most commonly identity and memory. These themes are significant in understanding the diaspora because it allows a platform for people of African descent to comprehend and…

follows in the footsteps of her first work, Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, to discuss the political socialization of African Americans. This time with a concentration on the interplay of the lives of African American women and their sense of citizenship. Harris-Perry’s grounding in African American politics and unique perspective as a woman of color, allow her the creative license to lean on the literary expertise of other authors that identify as…