Developing Literacy

"Throughout the pre-Civil War era, African Americans helped themselves to literacy in provocative and creative ways (M. Davis 1981:266) [...]"(152).  In the text Going Against The Grain by Jaqueline Royster, there is a subsection entitled "The Doors of Opportunity".  This section of the text gives readers an idea of how African Americans went about becoming literate after the Civil War.

In this text, Royster sheds light on an energy to learn within the African American people of the post-Civil War era.  According to the text, this energy was “cycled” by the Sabbath School Movement, the Missionary School Movement, and the Community or Public School Movement. 

Sabbath schools were church sponsored, community run schools.  African Americans would run these schools in their communities.  The basic literacy African Americans taught in these schools made them responsible for the foundation of literacy in their communities.

The missionary school movement stemmed from northern church and community organizations’ efforts to intensify their mission activities which urged freedom, justice, and empowerment.  The missionary school movement was a dominant educational avenue for decades. 

Southern leaders went about heightening their authority by supporting the education of African Americans.  These southern leaders made efforts to reduce the influence of northern liberals such as those missionaries who urged freedom, justice, and empowerment, by establishing public schools which gave African Americans ways other than the missionary schools to gain opportunities for education.  Recognizing how a literate African American population may positively affect the economy, these leaders still did not agree with the idea of African Americans having a northern culture and getting rid of the southern culture which they thrived on.  These public schools were geared toward an industrial education and against liberal arts education.

African Americans have been taking advantage of every opportunity to gain literacy all throughout their experience in America.  We, African Americans as a people, are capable of many things in terms of education.  Taking advantage of educational opportunity is not as common as it once was.  The energy Royster mentions in the text must be embodied again in the African descended people of American society today.  Especially now, literacy can be obtained in so many ways that hopefully, African American people will find the energy to learn again.

--Asya Ziyad

Mothers of the Land

In Jacqueline Royster’s Going Against the Grain, she talks about the lives of African American women as slaves, and how they fought through the struggle to get where they are today through expressing literacy. The many things that Royster said throughout the reading connected to many of the other readings we’ve been reading and discussing within our class.

One way that they connected was that in Elaine Richardson’s To Protect and Serve, she talks about how African American women used storytelling to express their literacy, and Royster touches on this as well. She talks of how they used storytelling to express their beliefs to their community.

Royster also says that women played two roles in their communities, “They were the interpreters and reinterpreters of what was going on. They were the transmitters of culture as mothers, actual and fictive, as teachers, as social activists” (110). Like in the other readings, Royster is touching on how these women became mothers of their communities. They have maternal literacy as they know how to nurture their people and teach them things that they believe they should know. They give them knowledge that they know they were not getting anywhere else due to the oppression of African Americans.

These women were also responsible for taking care of the illnesses of their people. They provided support for other African Americans because they knew that it was important for no one person to be alone. It is important to help your people to become knowledgeable, and according to Royster, black women did exactly this. They used their vernacular showing that it was acceptable to express their culture and beliefs.

These women were very powerful and helped fight the struggle for not only African Americans but for the women as well. It is vital that we recognize all of the important women because they helped to shape the lives of African American women today as we are awarded more opportunities than before.

 I appreciate Royster’s words as she helps me to become knowledgeable of happenings that I did not know previously. She, like the women she talks about, passes her knowledge down to another African American female like myself.

Danielle Broadnax

"Fabric of Resistance"

I believe that our past shows that when many people join together towards a common goal, much can be accomplished. One voice multiplies and this is what leads to change and progression.

In the section of “Going Against the Grain” entitled The Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, Jaqueline Royster discusses activism in African American communities.  Whether large or small, she believes that these acts have formed our fabric of resistance, which is the phrase the she uses to symbolize the ways in which people of African descent have continuously come together to fight for equality and against injustice. She references examples such as revolts against dehumanizing conditions, particularly during slavery, when people were stripped of freedom, educational opportunities, and mere rights that whites were given.

Royster acknowledges that the founding fathers of our nation attributed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to select people, which was obvious because of the oppression that occurred. Her account goes on to discuss the Age of Enlightenment to explain how the three rights above came into existence.

The idea of coming together that our ancestors embodied made me reflect on where we are today as a culture. We still need to come together because the race is not over. Our fabric of resistance in the past was the springboard for the acquisition of many rights such as gaining the right to vote and ending the Jim Crow era.  Royster even discusses the founding of schools as early as 1793, which was done by Catherine Williams Ferguson, a former slave. Ferguson resisted the belief that blacks should not be educated. She went against the grain and strengthened our fabric.

This entire historical account delves into ideas that really make you wonder. I think that I found fascination in the fact that our ancestors understood what needed to be done and worked toward accomplishing it.  They were neither passive nor complacent, but vigilant and determined. Society can learn from this now.

-Berkley

Two Can Play That Game

In Jacqueline Royster’s piece Going Against the Grain, she gives examples of African American women at the beginning of the U.S. slave trade being leaders and competent of their surroundings while being held captive.  I found this very interesting because, before reading this piece, I had a notion that the Africans who were brought to America were unaware of their situation and that they were completely oblivious to their surroundings.  Beyond that, I believed that they would not know how to effectively fight against the injustice that was being thrust upon them.  Royster shed light on their awareness and made it clear how much strength, diligence, and perseverance our ancestors embodied.

Royster uses the story of Lucy Terry in order to illustrate how African American women were performing tasks that were deemed beyond their comprehension during that time.  Terry was brought to America as an infant and sold into slavery at the age of five.  In 1756 she married Abijah Prince, a former slave, who bought her freedom and four years later, they moved to Guilford, Vermont where they received threats from their white neighbors.  Terry took it upon herself to confront the governor’s council to complain against her assailants.  She demanded the protection of her home and family.  This was fascinating seeing that a black women who grew up as a slave knew how to handle the affairs of her household in a legal manner.

Royster goes on in detail about Terry’s court trial where she represented herself and won!  During the process of legally saving her property, Terry took her case to the Supreme Court and claimed victory.  This alone shows that although their literacy may have been presented in many different ways, African American women were definitely literate.

 

Learning about African American women who knew how to operate a legal system that was designed to work against their entire race showed made it clear that as an African American woman, I can be powerful.  Mrs. Lucy Terry Prince portrayed a capable and competent black woman.  Before this reading, when slavery times came to mind, I thought of us, African American women, as if we were unaware of the circumstances we faced.  Moreover, I never imagined we would know how to go about protesting the cruelty that was inflicted on us.  It was pleasing to learn that we as a people, though underestimated, were capable of overcoming obstacles then and are capable of overcoming new obstacles now.  Now, I know that we can breaking barriers and create change. 

A Personal Journey

“I was free to dream, and in my dreams I could become anything I wanted to be,” (186) proclaims Leonie C.R. Smith in her text entitled “To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation.”

Smith, who is shown above, depicts her journey to achieving a PhD, moving to America, and her story to success in this text. She grew up in Antigua, where opportunities were not abundant, but was pushed by both of her parents to become literate, independent, and self-sufficient. Both of her parents understood the demands of the world and the importance of education for future prospering. Smith was able to overcome many obstacles such as the death of her mother, a fire that almost killed her entire family, and enduring racism at Hamilton College. Through all of this adversity, she really learned the true meaning of strength, perseverance, and diligence.

This text references prior concepts that were discussed in “To Protect and Serve” by Elaine Richardson, such as codeswitching. Smith discusses the skill of codeswitching on page 187 of her text, when she has moved to New York and begun her formal education in America. In school she is taught British English, however at home she spoke patois, so this directly correlates with Richardson’s conception of codeswitching.


Smith’s Mom embodied maternal literacy and her father paternal literacy. This relates to our literacy essay, in that they each had a nurtured skill that enabled them to help their children become literate and self-sufficient. Smith’s paternal grandmother was illiterate and as a result, she lost her estate and wealth, because a woman gave her a promissory note and she was unable to read it. This unfortunate situation led Smith’s father to becoming an advocate for education, thus affording more opportunities to his family.

Compared to all of the readings that we’ve done thus far, Smith’s recollection was the most compelling and inspiring. On numerous occasions she could have given up, but she prided herself on representing black people well on all fronts and showing her counterparts that she too was capable of achieving her dreams.

Branching Out; From McVay's Perspective

In her text "Black Women/Black Literature", Joanne Kilgour Dowdy reports her interview of Christina McVay.  Dowdy is looking to share an alternative perspective to black literature, a perspective from someone who is not black.  Christina McVay, a white woman, teaches Pan-African studies to black females.  She is fully emmersed in black culture, particularly black literacies, and her willingness to accept cultural differences has aided in her success as a teacher.

Christina McVay creates a comfortable classroom setting for her pupils by allowing them to speak freely and in their own vernacular.  She believes that her students know when to use proper English, which she prefers to call consensus English.  Because of this welcoming environment that she creates, her students learn and desire to know more.  Furthermore, Christina McVay says, “I think probably more lights have gone off for me than for my students.  I suppose I’m really doing this teaching for myself”(95).  She really is emphasizing the equal exchange that comes with being an educator and how learning is a life long and never-ending process.

It is intriguing to see how interested McVay is in black culture.  It is rare to find a teacher who is not black  with such desire to know about black culture.  She understands that language is relative to culture and that different cultures embrace different traditions and understandings. She sees the world from a multidimensional point of view, and for this reason, we thought fondly of her beliefs and perspective of our culture.

We believe that it would be beneficial to have more educators that are ensuring the success of their students. Educators who want to learn about the struggles of their students will help to make students more responsive and passionate about their studies. We did feel that McVay painted black people with a broad brush, in suspecting that many black people do speak slang. However, overall we appreciate her support of black females and the differences she is attempting to make in women like us.