Two Paths to Power

Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery and Maclom X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X both describe reading as a turning point in their lives. However, both of them pick it up at different points in their life with different political views. In Up from Slavery, Washington says, “My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and discouraging surroundings.” He remembers the limits of slavery: living in a cramped cabin with no education. Malcolm X, born later, grew up in a very different environment. In his autobiography, it says, “Malcom’s father was murdered by resentful whites, and his family came to depend entirely on the widow, Louise.” Here we can see a similarity between Washington and Malcon X, both of them grew up with their mother, but Malcom was able to attend school. Malcolm writes, “Malcom, after a successful middle-school career, headed for Boston.” Here we can see that Malcom had access to education but decided to give it up to become a hustler. Washington had to wait to be freed after the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, which is when he started to seek an education.

Washington connects reading to hard work and discipline. It is first shown when he says, “I determined, when quite a small child, that, if I accomplished nothing else in life, I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common books and newspapers.” This quote shows the grit he displayed from a young age to pick up reading as a mode of education. Later, he goes on to talk about his mom getting him a Webster’s alphabet book, and through countless hours, he was able to teach himself how to read. This displays that through discipline, he was able to obtain what he was not able to as a slave, something he saw every day when he went to schoolhouses with his master’s kids: education. On the contrary, Malcom X, in his early life, did not have a drive for education. From the beginning of the Autobiography, the readers are clued into his success in middle school, but later informed that he moved to Boston. There was no mention of further education; in fact, the story articulates his activity within crime and hustling. It mentions that he gets convicted of burglary and is sent to prison for six years. There are picks up reading for political awareness. Similar to Washington using the Webster book to learn how to read, Malcolm copied every word in a dictionary to broaden his vocabulary. He writes, “It went a lot faster after so much practice helped me pick up handwriting speed. Between what I wrote in my tablet, and writing letters, during the rest of my time in prison I would guess I wrote a million words. I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what it was saying.” This quote shows the similarities between Washington's and Malcom X’s journeys to learning to read, but it also exemplifies that, although Malcolm had access to education, it was not the best.

The different times they picked up reading shaped their perspective on reading, education, and racial progress differently. Booker T Washington argues for gradual uplift, emphasizing phased improvement in the education of black people; in turn, black people would get the skills needed to be successful and a better standard of living. For him, literacy is tied to economic skill and moral discipline. Malcolm X uses reading as an outlet to learn to write to help push his message of black pride and resistance. Malcom says, “In my own case, once I heard of the ‘glorious history of the black man,’ I took special pains to hunt in the library for books that would inform me on details about black history.” This quote stems from his experience of being discriminated against his whole life and only learning about the white man’s success. His whole life, it has been white man first and everyone else after. Malcom uses this to shape his view that knowledge should fuel self-determination and challenge the structure of white supremacy; however, Washington believes that advancement exists within a system.

Despite these differences, both men show how reading can transform a life. Washington says education can “lift up the whole race,” while Malcom says education “gave me a feeling of a person’s worth.” Although they have different stances on reading and education, both use it as a means of liberation. Together, Up from Slavery and The Autobiography of Malcom X reveal how reading can be used for personal and political change.

Different Roads to Freedom

Richard Wright’s “Down by the Riverside” and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun are both works of African American protest literature, but they differ in the ideologies and tone in which the authors' message is presented. Wright’s story, portrayed through a socialist-driven naturalism, portrays racism and poverty as systemic forces that destroy an African American’s independence and self-direction. On the other hand, Hansberry’s play embodies liberal-influenced realism, showing the audience the possibility of progress in the American democratic system through dialogue. Although one piece of work uses naturalism and the other realism, they both take on and confront the racism present in day-to-day life, as well as segregation in A Raisin in the Sun. Wright’s story takes place in a fatalistic world, and Hansberry’s in a hopeful one. These differences directly reflect the changes in black political thinking from the Great Depression to the civil rights era.

In “Down by the Riverside,” the protagonist, Mann, is a flooded Mississippi that directly mirrors the harsh and suffocating social conditions of Jim Crow America. Mann is trying desperately to save his family, but all his actions are simply futile in the oppressive and racist system that denies him at every turn. Wright uses a socialist naturalism to depict racism as unavoidable because it stems from hierarchies–economic and social. This is reflected in the bleak tone of the story displayed when Mann goes to the hospital with his pregnant wife, but is denied and called racial slurs. While reading this poem, I interpreted the flood as a symbolic force that echoes and mirrors the theme that black people are trapped in this ongoing cycle of below-human conditions shaped by exploitation. Wright's overall goal was to get the reader to come face-to-face and confront the grotesque reality of racial suffering without illusion.

Alternatively, Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun dramatizes his protest of racial oppression. She sets her story in a cramped Chicago apartment, focusing on how systemic racism limits black families from dreaming for the stars. This is exemplified when Beneatha Younger wanted to become a doctor, but ultimately was not able to because she did not have the funds. Hansberry’s liberal realism humanizes her characters and black people’s experiences. Mann is trapped in his belief that there is no escaping racism; however, Hansberry’s protagonist, Walter Younger, is doubtful yet hopeful about his circumstances. Although Walter does not achieve the material success he was hoping for, he was able to be content with his actions at the end of the story. Hansberry wanted her audience to acknowledge black humanity. Later, it contributed to the civil rights movement's framing of equality as a fulfillment of democratic ideals.

The most noteworthy difference between Wright’s and Hansberry’s stories rests in their relationship to hope and moral agency. While Wright tries to deny it, Hansberry tries to exemplify it. The socialist framework of Wright’s work demands revolution; in contrast, Hansberry is looking for reform through her liberal humanist style of writing. In addition, Hansberry shows how moral integrity and boldness can translate to renewal–personal and collective. However, Wright is more blunt in exposing the reality of the inhuman racism faced by African Americans, making it hard to ignore. Overall, both of these works of literature serve to demonstrate the broader struggle for racial equality. Together, they show the evolution of the black rights movement in America.

The Voice of the People

We can see vernacular tradition throughout writing produced in the 1920s and the Great Negro Movement. Vernacular tradition would be considered improper English by today's standards, but this improper way of writing gave the literary works produced by Black Americans a character that set them apart from the works produced by their white counterparts. To put it simply, vernacular refers to how people speak, sing, tell stories, and/or create art in their daily lives; tradition is passing something from generation to generation. When talking about African American literature, the concept of vernacular tradition gives writers a way to add cultural identity to Black speech and other literary arts.

One of the clearest examples of vernacular tradition is Paul Laurence Dunbar’s When Malindy Sings. The vocabulary used in the poem mimics the everyday speech pattern of African Americans from the early 1920s. In the poem, he writes, “Ain’t you nevah hyeahd Malindy?/Blessed soul, tek up de cross!” Many words are misspelled in today's expectations, but the phonetic spelling of “hyeahd” helps the reader capture how black adults would speak rather than if it were written as heard. Later in the poem, he writes, “She jes’ spreads huh mouf and hollahs,/’Come to Jesus,’ twell uou hyeah/,” giving us, the reader, clues that Malindy is singing spiritual songs. This poem does a great job of suggesting two types of vernacular tradition: how African Americans speak and sing. The shortened words clearly illustrate speech, and the descriptive language about her singing relates to the deep roots and role that Christianity plays in the African American culture.

Similarly, Langston Hughes’s The Weary Blues uses vernacular tradition, but he blends speech with the rhythms of blues. This genre of blues music emerged to express the hardships faced by African Americans during and post slavery. Reflecting on struggle, lost love, labor, injustice, and resilience, blues music is melancholic. Additionally, a few common patterns in this genre of music are blues notes (bent or lowered notes), rhythmic and lyrical repetition, and call and response. In this poem, Langston Hughes writes “He did a lazy sway…/He did a lazy sway…,” mirroring the redundant element of blues music. Furthermore, he uses an abbreviated manner of writing that directly reflects everyday speech, “I ain’t happy no mo’”. Although Hughes does not use tons of shortened speech, like Paul Laurence Dunbar’s When Malindy Sings, he demonstrates vernacular tradition in the fashion of music in literary form.

Both of these texts show the reader what vernacular tradition is, whether or not they recognize it. Each poem goes beyond the simple example of traditional speech: spiritual music and blues. The vernacular tradition displays a connection to the written word that reflects lived experiences, allowing black artists to keep the unique voice of African Americans, setting them apart from white authors.