a torch for tomorrow
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A Torch for Tomorrow. Civil Rights Protest Literature and the Historical Memory of Abolitionism. Zoe Trodd April 2008. The genre of “American protest literature” The abolitionist aesthetic Historical memory. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
A Torch for Tomorrow
Civil Rights Protest Literature and the Historical Memory of
Abolitionism Zoe Trodd
April 2008
Old John Brown is not dead. His soul still marches on, and each
passing year weaves new garlands for his brow and adds fresh lustre to his deathless glory. Who shall
be the John Brown of Wage-Slavery?
—Eugene Debs, 1907.
“The officer of justice arresting a helpless female
fugitive in N.Y. What has the North to do with slavery?” in The Legion of Liberty!, 1843.
Illustration in Harper’s Weekly, June 14, 1862.
“The resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia,
who escaped from Richmond Va. in a bx 3 feet long 2 1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft
wide,” 1850.
“The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown,” in
William Still, The Underground Railroad:
A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, & etc, 1872.
“3 feet 1 inch long, 2 feet wide, 2 feet 6 inches high. Representation of the box in which a fellow mortal
traveled a long journey, in quest of those rights which the piety and
republicanism of this country denied to him, the
right to possess,” in Charles Stearns,
Narrative of Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped from Slavery, Enclosed in a Box 3 Feet Long and 2 Wide. Written from a Statement of Facts Made by Himself. With Remarks Upon the
Remedy for Slavery, 1849.
“Escaping Child in Trunk,” in William Still, The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, & etc, 1872.
“Expulsion of Negroes and Abolitionists from Tremont Temple, Boston, on December 3, 1860,” Harper’s Weekly,
December 15, 1860.
Photographic portrait of Harriet Jacobs in
her 80s; courtesy Jean Fagan Yellin.
Advertisement submitted by James Norcom for the capture of Harriet Jacobs after she went into hiding; American Beacon, Virginia, July 4, 1835.
We are proud of our white blood and our white heritage of
sixty centuries... If we are bigoted... so were Abraham
Lincoln and our other illustrious forebears who believed in
segregation. We choose the old paths of our founding fathers.
—Association of Citizens’ Councils, 1955.
The very time I thought I was
lost, my dungeon shook and my
chains fell off… [the African
American past] testifies to
nothing less than the perpetual
achievement of the impossible.
—James Baldwin, 1963.
By Danny Lyon, Leesburg, Georgia, 1963.
Richard Avedon, “William Casby, born in
slavery,” Algiers, Louisiana, 1963.
Five score years ago, a great
American, in whose symbolic shadow we
stand, signed the Emancipation
Proclamation… But one hundred years later the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the
chains of discrimination.
—Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963.
By Charles Moore, Philadelphia,
Mississippi, 1963.
W. P. Snyder, detail from “The Dismal Swamp,” Harper’s Weekly, April
26, 1884.
Jacob Lawrence, “Generations,”
1967.
Jacob Lawrence, detail from The Life of Frederick
Douglass, No. 9, 1939: “Transferred back to the
eastern shore of Maryland, being one of the few Negroes
who could read or write, Douglass was approached by James Mitchell, a free Negro,
and asked to help teach a Sabbath school. However,
their work was stopped by a mob who threatened them
with a death if they continued their class.”
Langston Hughes, “Frederick Douglass: 1817-
1895” (1966)Douglass was someone
who, Had he walked with wary
foot And frightened tread, From very indecision Might be dead, Might have lost his soul, But instead decided to be
bold And capture every street On which he set his feet, To route each path Toward freedom's goal, To make each highway Choose his compass’
choice,
To all the world cried,
Hear my voice!... Oh, to be a beast, a
bird, Anything but a slave!
he said.
Who would be freeThemselves must strike The first blow, he said. He died in 1895. He is not dead.
By Charles Moore, Selma, Alabama, 1965.
The first Negro slaves were brought to this country as freight chained in
the holds of slave ships… three hundred years later a leading Washington hotel [insists] that
Negroes visiting the Democratic National Committee should use the
FREIGHT ELEVATOR.—Langston Hughes, 1947.The patterns of slave days… still
exist…. Front doors are gradually opening to Negroes in many parts of
America, but in Alabama and Mississippi, South Carolina and
Georgia, even back doors are still closed.
—Langston Hughes, 1965.
I am the one who labored as a slave, Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave... Remember my years, heavy with sorrow And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
—Langston Hughes, “The Negro Mother” (1931).
I come back todayTo tell you a story of the long dark
way...Make of my past a road to the lightOut of the darkness, the ignorance, the
night...march ever forward, breaking down
bars.Look ever upward at the sun and the
stars.Oh, my dark children, may my dreams
and my prayersImpel you forever up the great stair.
—Langston Hughes, “The Negro Mother” (1931).
There was Denmark Vesey. There was Harriet Tubman. There was Frederick Douglass…. There are the Negro voters of Miami…. And
there are you.—Langston Hughes, 1941.
Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, John Brown,
Fred Douglass… left no buildings behind them.
—Langston Hughes, 1940.
Keep your hand on the plow!Hold on! If the house is not yet finished,Don’t be discouraged, builder!... The plan and the pattern is here, Woven… into the warp and woof of America.—Langston Hughes, 1943.
The world still needs figures like William Wilberforces and Harriet Tubmans…there is plenty of room for more anti-slavery heroes…And this time we have
within our power to end slavery for good.
—Jolene Smith, Executive Director, Free the Slaves, March 2007.
Roseline and Christina, two former slaves, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., February
2005.
The 200th anniversary of the The 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in abolition of the slave trade in the British colonies…will be a the British colonies…will be a
powerful reminder of centuries powerful reminder of centuries of struggle and progress in of struggle and progress in
combating slavery—but also of combating slavery—but also of the fact that we still have not the fact that we still have not
managed to eliminate it managed to eliminate it completely…let us pledge to completely…let us pledge to
draw on the lessons of history draw on the lessons of history to free our fellow human to free our fellow human
beings from slavery.beings from slavery.——Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-
General, December 2006.General, December 2006.