write a analysis paper about the article
Student Writing Sample
Reading Response and Analysis
Introduction to African American Studies
Nearly 10 years after the dawn of legal freedom for all African American people in the United
States, the intensity of socio -political exclusion and violence mushroomed. This process began long
before the rise of the Reconstruction era in the United States , which began promptly after the American
Civil War, but its exponential increase by the 1880s and 1890s denotes the nation’s inability and
unwillingness to include African American people into the fabric of daily life. Several factors exacerbated
the cond itions for freed people at the end of the war. This included the presence of northern militia,
African American militia groups, denial of southern white socio -political privileges, and the unbounded
mobility of free people. In short, for many white souther ners, black progress symbolized white
subjugation .
Foremost in list of difficulties African Americans faced as the Reconstruction era quickly
unfolded was nationwide white backlash to their freshly granted social, political, and economic mobility.
The she er numbers of black people moving throughout the South, and into the mid -west and alo ng the
west coast was unnerving to many white communities . African Americans established rural and urban
centers in places they had heretofore been socially excluded from, and wherever they went they made a
point of celebrating their freedom and emphasizing their cultural world views. Black communities
emerged in Ohio, Washington, Utah, Arkansas, Minnesota, California, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, New
Jersey , Maryland, and R hode Island. The growing presence of these communities was generally an
affront to adjacent or parallel white communities that viewed “public” displays of black progress with
disdain and resentment. Accordingly, pockets of violence exploded in, around , an d between black and
white communities during the latter half of the 19 th century. By the early 1880s, federal efforts to quell
these conflicts had all but disappeared, and in the last decade of the 19 th century attempts to address the Student 2
“southern problem” ce ased. It is within this context that African American activists began to criticize the
government on its lackluster response to the intimidation, oppression and violence free people faced as a
result of their attempts to enjoy the fruits of their citizensh ip. As racial violence and intimidation
increased, so too did the calls for government response, but when none came African Americans called
for solutions from within their communities.
In 1885, journalists and public intellectual Reverend Timothy Thomas Fortune wrote an article in
the New York Freeman that called for an armed response to white violence across the country. Fortune,
who was born into slavery and freed at the age of seven, detested the non -response of the federal
government to white vigilante violence, and argued that the abrupt severance of their political rights far
exceeded the patience of black communities. Black men, he argued, were just as good as white men and
the absence of local or federal punishment for white male violence against black men justified their equal
responses. In fac t, Fortune asserted “the white man who stabs or lynches a colored man should be stabbed
or lynched in return, for he who appeals to the sword should die by the sword.”(White, et al. 2013) He
concluded with a note of urgency to those who challenged him, arg uing that anyone who feared race war
was oblivious to its initiation by white vigilantes and that no man – here he omitted any use of racial
language – should suffer violence until he is proven guilty of a crime.
Fortune’s piece is powerful; it evokes the sense of outrage felt by black thinkers of the late 19 th
century. In particular, his article underscores the fear black men must have felt daily – not knowing when
they would be accused of some crime they had not committed. Then too, the realities of a wa r torn s outh
meant that those in desperate need may have committed crimes. And while I’m certain that criminal
activity was not exclusive to black southerners, it is clear that they would have been much more likely to
face severe, if not fatal, punishments for their crimes. There are also the realities for black women and
children, and the elderly within black communities. What was life like for them? Fortune makes no real
mention of anyone besides black men, which is understandable given African Americans accepted
traditional gender roles which donned males the protectors and providers of their families and Student 3
communities. Even so, if African American men faced fear of violence it seems very logical that the
women in their communities would also be incredibly afraid of physical violence an assault directed
towards them and their children. In some ways, Fortune’s portrayal of the injustice of lynching, and the
lack of consequences for it, reflects a community without gates, a body without a head. If black men we re
indeed the protectors and leaders in their communities, their inability to perform that role without fear of
violent retaliation must have created a multitude of personal inhibitions about their manhood.
Fortune’s article also raises some questions abo ut such a direct response of tit -for -tat violence and
intimidation. Central to his argument is that black and white men are equal in person and before the law,
therefore if one man is not punish for killing no man should face that consequence. As a Christi an pastor,
I wonder how much he expected his parishioners to accept and enact this solution. The very fact that
white men were never prosecuted for assaulting and killing black men and women, while black citizens
could be sentenced to life imprisonment fo r stealing an apple from a tree – or being in the wrong place at
the wrong time – makes this solution little more than tough talk. How many black men were expected to
rape white women for the number of rapes committed against black women? Should white children have
been stripped, beaten, raped, kidnapped, and killed to adjudicate the loss of black children who were too
far out of thei r parents’ sight when they stumbled into danger? Did fortune expect God to back all African
American people everywhere in an all -out war against white Americans? And, in the event that the
original perpetrator could not be apprehended by a black mob, would innocent white people have to take
their place? The questions are endless, and the answers to each point back to my initial point that
Fortune’s article is an expression of extreme frustration. In some ways, it is also a bit of satire; a warning
that blac k absorption of violence would not always be the case, and eventually white citizens would face
the consequences for their actions.
While Fortune may not have expected every African American citizen to take up arms against
white Americans, he clearly want ed to convey the unfairness of innocent black men dying at the hands of
malicious vig ilante groups . Here is an early argument for humanitarian rights, well before the idea Student 4
emerged. Most interesting in this article is its insistence that no one should be gu ilty until proven innocent
– a sentiment we would do well to practice in modern times. Most often, men and women of color are
presumed guilty until proven innocent, and even then their innocence is frequently clouded by suspicions
premised on the underlyin g idea that they simply haven’t been caught for the crime they did commit.
Even more than this, Fortune points out a larger question – one that remains relevant contemporary times
– is it the job of the federal government to intervene in such cases? In th e last two centuries, U.S.
political officials have grappled with this question. Whose task is it to interject in local conflicts? Would
continued federal intervention represent a violation of states’ right? Although these questions couldn’t
possibly be an swered within four pages, a return to Reverend Fortune reveals that for many African
Americans federal protection was no longer expected. In some ways, his arguments are reminiscent of so
many black activists who maintained that the only way to preserve bl ack communities is to legally arm
them . In this sense, Fortune may have been one of the earliest black militant spokesmen who challenged
African Americans around the nation to reclaim their humanity with whatever means would secure it.
