An analysis of African American intellectuals, 1900-1972
Author(s)
Advisor
Johnson, Russell L.Date
2001Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
The United States in the twentieth century experienced a series of changes in
terms of culture, economics, population and social movements. The black civil
rights movement was one of the most important social movements in the country
during the century. The struggle of African-Americans for equal rights was the
main agenda of the 1960s. But, what happened before the 1960s? Why did blacks
have to wait until the 1960s to achieve gains in equal rights with whites? This
thesis aims at answering this question. The thesis analyzes this delay from the
beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the 1960s from one point of view:
The discussions and disagreements between the African-American intellectuals.
The thesis shows those discussions and disagreements as one of the reasons for the
delay. In doing this, the thesis details the ideas of prominent black intellectuals
Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, Marcus Garvey,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael. The disagreements of these
people in different periods contributed to the delay concerning the gains of equal
rights in the black civil rights movement.