The end of Reconstruction in 1877 brought a return to power of the Southern white Democrat in state governments across the South. Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, southern white Democrats passed Jim Crow Laws to create virtual slavery among the newly freed blacks. Segregation, white supremacy, and Jim Crows Laws became the norm in the South until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.
As historians, we need to look at the short and long term effects of Reconstruction and then evaluate it as a whole. In 1965, near the end of his life, the black poet, Langston Hughes (1902-1967), wrote "Emancipation: Long View Negro" as a reaction to Emancipation and Reconstruction.
Read the poem and explain, in approximately 250 words, how you think Hughes evaluates Reconstruction. Make note the date of the poem and why Hughes would write this poem when he did.
Langston Hughes' analysis of Reconstruction and the entire Civil Rights Movement is critical and pessimistic, but for good reason. Reconstruction was essentially a complete failure, the black population of the south held under virtual slavery through the Jim Crow Laws, which prevented much of the liberty given to them by the recent thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments. His poem, Long View: Negro uses symbolism to describe several things simultaneously. The first stanza discusses the hope of freedom and equality that would come from the Emancipation Proclamation and the Reconstruction Acts. There was huge potential for a cultural paradigm shift in regards to race and the value of a human life. This was all for naught, as stated in the second stanza, due to the ultimate failure of the executive branch to enforce the Reconstruction Acts, which led to the total collapse of Reconstruction. When the Southern states realized that although the new laws passed through congress disenfranchised the white population of the South, on the local level they could still terrorize the black population into submission. For example, several of the laws prevented many blacks from having a vote in elections. One did this by creating a small tax that blacks had to pay in order to vote, and because so many had no money or no property, they couldn’t pay the fee to vote. Through the passing of the Jim Crow Laws, the South was able to create virtual slavery so encompassing, the reign of oppressive terror created by the Klu Klux Klan would continue from the 1870’s all the way through the next century. Langston Hughes’ somewhat pessimistic viewpoint on Reconstruction barely scratches the surface of the injustices given to the blacks of the South.
ReplyDeleteThe period of Reconstruction, contrary to its intent to restore the nation’s unity and advance in equality for all, served as a pivotal setback in the development of racial equality in the United States. Although the 13th, 14th, and 15th Civil Rights Amendments, passed during the period of Reconstruction, acted in favor of blacks by addressing the issues of slavery, citizenship, and voting, Southern White Democrats were still bitter over their defeat in the Civil War and not only resisted, but also contested against any form reconstruction, especially black political activity. The “Lost Cause” became a symbol of Southern resistance to Reconstruction and the Counter-Revolution, and motivated them to pass laws such as the Black Codes and form violent hate groups such as the Klu Klux Klan. While the Compromise of 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction, it also signaled the rise of the Jim Crow Laws. Ironically, the same people who preached against “virtual representation” and for “actual representation” from the British government before American Independence, imposed virtual representation on blacks throughout the South. Cartoons comparing the KKK with Confederate advocates and white supremacists such as Seymour and Blair emerged, raising even more controversy on the issue of black enfranchisement. In addition to political cartoons, writing and poetry also surfaced in response to Reconstruction. Among the many authors and their works include the black poet, Langston Hughes and his poem, “Long View Negro.” Hughes wrote the poem in 1965, two years prior to his death, and 100 years following the Civil War to show the the lack of progress of racial equality in the last century. In the poem, Hughes compares Reconstruction to looking through the wrong end of a telescope. Despite the plan’s potential to nearly end racial segregation, it instead took a 180 degree turn and went against all that it was for by passing the Jim Crow “separate but equal” laws and the existence of groups such as the KKK. The tone of the poem is at first hopeful, but quickly takes on a cynical point of view. At first, the Civil Rights Movement was viewed through the “telescope of dreams,” emphasizing its great aspirations. Looking through the smaller end of the telescope proved useless and inaccurate because of Reconstruction’s failure to match its goals--few good productive changes in government occurred, namely the 13th, 14th, and 15h amendments. Looking through the larger end, however--that is, looking at the big picture--the entirety of Reconstruction was a debacle. Actual slavery was merely converted to virtual slavery, thus the Civil War both began and ended with slavery. Jim Crow laws deemed blacks of less importance than whites by separating schools, water fountains, bus seats, and any other public device by race. The laws dehumanized blacks, just as they had always been throughout American history in the past. Failure to comply with the “separate but equal” laws would result in consequences such legal arrest. Rosa Parks, for example, refused to give up her seat at the front of the bus for a white man and was arrested, and though she was one among many blacks who fought for their natural-born rights as human beings, she became an icon for rebellion against these laws. Hughes’s evaluations of Reconstruction in his poem, “Long View: Negro,” is a painfully accurate display of how Reconstruction ended in self-destruction.
ReplyDeleteLots of quality points in this post. The big picture---the entity was important to in 1960s as many blacks still suffered immensely from the remnants of the Jim Crow south.
DeleteIn Langston Hughes' poem, Emancipation: Long View Negro, he rightfully condemns the reconstruction. After the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in order to change the war from being a dispute on states’ rights or staying in the Union to human rights and slavery. As North marched on to eventually win the war, one would suspect that immediately the blacks would gain all the same rights as the whites throughout the United States. However, as displayed in Langston Hughes’ poem, the reconstruction allowed for the southern states to address black rights in their own individual ways. Because states were allowed to act in their own way with the issue of a citizen’s rights, the racist southern states created Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws. These two specific laws were essentially virtual slavery enforced by the law in some states to keep black men from having equal rights. Clearly, Langston Hughes correctly critiqued the horrible reconstruction because of how lenient the National Government was to the rebellious states in allowing them to place virtual slavery among all the freedmen.
ReplyDeleteHughes is evaluating Reconstruction through the metaphor of a telescope because turning one around makes the subject appear smaller and further away, which is what Hughes is suggesting has happened after Reconstruction. His poem begins with “Emancipation: 1865” which, in the telescope, is appearing closer. Emancipation in the context of this is the subject being looked at through the telescope, and it not only stands for the literal freeing of slaves, but also the enforcement of rights for African-American freedmen. The date is the year the Civil War ends, which is also the beginning of Reconstruction. This time in history is important because the fight to end slavery had been won, but implementing blacks into American society was the second part of racial equality; this was the purpose of Reconstruction and it proved to be more difficult than expected. Virtual Slavery in the form of Jim Crow laws and segregation stopped this wave of progression and the ramifications of Virtual Slavery produce the equivalent effect of looking through the other end of a telescope; it distances America from reaching equality.
ReplyDeleteHughes wrote this poem 100 years after the end of the Civil War, and at this time in America, civil rights were still an issue, as blacks were still facing discrimination. The poem is so important because Hughes is recognizing how history repeats itself and revealing that the questions of civil rights were already answered by the events surrounding the Civil War. It was already decided by the founding fathers and the Civil War that all men are created equal and slavery no longer had a place in America, and it made no sense that people were trying to counteract that.
In his poem "Emancipation: Long View Negro" , Langston Hughes critically examines the attempt at reconstruction in America. Stanza one exhibits the hopes and dreams that advocates of reconstruction expressed, goals “so much larger” than were executed. The Reconstruction Acts and the Emancipation Proclamation were major steps that indicated a shift in a more positive direction in the state of equality in America, however with the failure to enforce the reconstruction acts, came a chain of events that catalyzed the failure of reconstruction. The second stanza of the poem marks this decline of reconstruction and the counter-revolution. Despite the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were created to protect the rights of blacks and to address the tense issues of slavery, citizenship, and voting, the black population of the south were restricted by the idea of virtual slavery brought about by the Jim Crow Laws. Hughes’s negative portrayal of the revolution in his poem is an accurate depiction of the attempt on Reconstruction. By turning the telescope around, one can see the larger picture, and Hughes implies that the counter-revolution caused America to regress back to its previous pre-emancipation state; no development was being made in trying to promote and enforce equality for all. This poem was written 100 years after the war, in a time where America was still struggling to define the idea that all men are created equal. By examining reconstruction 100 years later, Hughes criticizes the lack of real progress towards equality despite the numerous attempts , and proves that the history of America keeps repeating itself.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem Hughs offered his perception of Emancipation and Reconstruction, which in fact represented a common view on the issue, as a growing disillusion, a retrograde of history, or more specifically, a counter-revolution. The emancipation abolished legal slavery yet not its virtual form in society which the white Southerners would endeavor to enforce through Jim Crow Law system. In the first part of the poem, Hugh discussed the impact of emancipation and the hopeful envision it dwelled in people's mind. The passage of 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments have ended legal slavery and unprecedentedly granted black men equal citizenship and suffrage. Although many southern states soon dismissed these amendments in their legislation, it was nevertheless a significant leap in American history and offered a theoretical basis for blacks' struggle for social justice in the future. Besides the Amendments, early in Reconstruction, the creation of Freeman's Bureau, the black representatives in Congress along with black education, all foreboded a brighter future toward the ultimate social equality for black men. Those were the "dreams" for all African Americans ----- to be recognized equally as part of the community, to be protected under laws and to enjoy their freedom and natural rights. With all the progresses made during Reconstruction, Black men's dreams " [loomed] larger" and became closer, from which blacks have dared to hope for more than just physical liberty and a piece of land; they have expanded their former understanding of liberty, calling for universal education, political rights, and higher economic status. However, "what the truth can be" did not match the sight through telescope. In fact, a counter-revolution emerged and gradually "turned the telescope around". The white Southerners soon restored their political power and attempted to abridge free blacks' rights through a "separate but equal" legal system. Black men were soon disenfranchised by the literacy test or poll tax, entrapped in share-cropping system and caught in huge economic burden and poverty. As the telescope turned around, the history relapsed into the old days of oppression and discrimination. Reconstruction failed and the once promising future dwindled away. However, Hughs used the metaphor "telescope" ironically to describe that both emancipation and reconstruction are illusions, that neither of them offered a tangible reality or fulfilled the actual revolution. Hughs also wrote this poem on the 100th anniversary of Civil War, ironically to show that after decades all those sacrifices and war efforts became futile, and the revolution died in the womb.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not illusions but that the goals of Emancipation are really far away
DeleteLangston Hughes wrote the poem Emancipation: Long View Negro at a time when The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing in the 1960s. In it he examines America’s attempt at reconstruction as he focuses on freedom and dreams and he uses the symbolism of a telescope to show how something can be out of reach. The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 as well as the passing of the 13th amendment in 1865 brought hope to many freed slaves and their dreams seemed possible for a short while; hence the symbolism of a telescope. The first line of the poem “Emancipation: 1865” brings emphasis to both of these events because freedom and equality became less of a dream. However though the 13th amendment abolished slavery it did not grant citizenship or equal rights. With the passing of the 14th and 15th amendments former slaves were given equal rights and the right to vote, in this time period it seemed like the United States believed their claim that all men are created equal; this is what Hughes was addressing in the 1st stanza. However virtual slavery became prominent throughout the South following emancipation and the 15th amendment. In the second stanza Hughes also uses the telescope to symbolize the counter-revolution and how the United States took steps backwards with the passing of the Jim Crow Laws. Some laws included a poll tax, a literacy test, and a requirement for black men to prove they were descendants of former slaves. Taxes such as these were extremely unfair and set out to take away the rights of black men legally. Hughes wrote this poem at a critical moment in the United States’ history when he knew all eyes were on freedom, equality, and the rights of everyone.
ReplyDeleteThis is true but think of the greater vision one gets from a turned around telescope. If we were traveling through a period of time or even to a destination, how would that destination look like through the telescope? Maybe like we'd never get there. Consider this.
DeleteLangston Hughes wrote this poem 100 years after Emancipation as a review of reconstruction. In the beginning, he states that there was enormous hope for equality in the country. The Civil Rights Amendments, freedom of the slaves, and reconstruction provided the citizens a telescope, which showed an America unbound by slavery and racism. The truth was much smaller than what was in the telescope. Jim Crow laws, the KKK, and federal withdraw from the south turned the telescope 180 degrees, so now, all people see is a speck of hope in the future. Obviously, Langston views reconstruction as a failure. He looked back upon 100 years, in which blacks were treated basically like slaves and progress within those years was minimal at best. Southern Whites abridged African-Americans voting rights, through intimidation and reading tests. They refused to serve them in private institutions, and severely limited public resources to the African American population. Virtual slaves, and citizens in name only. The truth is that reconstruction did little in paving long term equality. During reconstruction, blacks got their rights fully respected, but reconstruction had to end. Republicans in the north lost their enthusiasm for social equality, neglecting to enforce the rights of blacks in the south. Since then, not much has been done to overcome racial segregation. Langston Hughes captures the disappointment in the failure of reconstruction to actually reconstruct the country into a more equal and righteous society.
ReplyDeleteHughes's poem "Emancipation: Long View Negro" details how emancipation was supposed to solve the issue of slavery, but the problem of slavery still persisted into the twentieth century. His line "Telescope of dreams" shows that everyone who looked through the telescope, a metaphor for everyone's expectations, saw an equal and unbiased future. What actually happened, however, was the opposite. The telescope, when turned around, shows everyone's fears about what could happen because of reconstruction. This future was shows emancipation, which "was [seen] as so large/becomes so small". The largeness of emancipation was the scale at which emancipation and reconstruction were supposed to change slavery, and the smallness is how little it actually did. Hughes's language in the second stanza exposes his critique on reconstruction, and how little it actually did. Living while the civil rights movement was in full swing, he would have seen how, even a century later, the oppression and racism did not cease. Hughes’s perspective would have been the telescope turned around, looking back on the dreams of the people who thought emancipation was salvation. Because he emphasizes the lack of magnitude emancipation had, he shows his opinion against how reconstruction worked out. Interestingly, he ends his poem with the word “Again”, which makes it sound like it is a second attempt at reconstruction that has failed. This could be, however, a reference to how reconstruction has been given up, as during that time period, there was rampant abuse and killing of blacks. This was very similar to how they were treated before emancipation; the only difference is that before they could hope that the idea of “freedom” would save them.
ReplyDeleteIn “Emancipation: Long View Negro,” Langston Hughes labels America’s Reconstruction Era as a deceptive illusion, a hoax. The commencing years succeeding the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation suggested a promising future for blacks in America. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 had created the first statutory definition of the rights of citizenship. Moreover, blacks in the South were able to voice their opinion in local and federal elections after the Reconstruction Act of 1867 passed in Congress. A year later, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, declaring that a citizen of the United States had an equal opportunity to be treated as a citizen, despite his or her background. With these pieces of legislation passed, African-Americans finally had an optimistic future. They finally had an opportunity to become true American citizens. However, as Hughes suggests, White Southerners in the Counter-Revolution prevented such strides in American Civil Rights, combating to restore slavery and to protect their way of life. They burnt down schoolhouses provided by the Freedman’s Bureau, they killed blacks, and they decided that they were not going to allow themselves to become disenfranchised. Furthermore, the Federal Government did not take the necessary steps to prevent such a resistance. Following the decision of the 1876 Supreme Court case, United States v. Cruikshank, the Southern states were able to openly interpret the Fourteenth Amendment, rendering it ineffective. The Compromise of 1877 followed suit, terminating yet another piece of legislation imperative to transitioning into equal citizenship for blacks in America: the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Now, Southern Democrats were able to end Reconstruction, to begin the Jim Crow South, and to push their political agenda. The Equal America that blacks had been so close to achieving now seemed like a fantasy. Hughes’s poem concluded with such a negative evaluation of the Reconstruction Era, because blacks in the 1950s and 60s were facing similar issues to those in the 1860s and 70s. Federal legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were futile attempts to precipitate significant change in America. The federal pieces of legislation were deceptive illusions to blacks at the local level, and according to Hughes, Reconstruction, like Civil Rights (up to 1965), was a failure.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem, Emancipation: Long View Negro, Langston Hughes, reflects that Reconstruction in its beginnings aspired to rehabilitate a once divided nation but in reality, little had been accomplished by the efforts of the Reconstruction era, even after 100 years after Emancipation The poem illustrates that in 1965, true equality for Blacks in America seems as unattainable as it did a century ago, as suggested by the image of the backwards telescope. Hughes expresses that even though legal slavery has been abolished and blacks are free in the eyes of the law, a new type of virtual slavery is introduced to the American theater and has been thriving for over a century in the many forms of legal segregation and discrimination. The Civil Rights Act aimed to facilitate and foster actual equality for Black Americans after Emancipation, however blacks were still disenfranchised by the Jim Crow laws that hindered their integration into society These Jim Crow Laws were in violation of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, disenfranchised Blacks in America. Despite the sole intentions of 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to eliminate discrimination by protecting the civil liberties of Blacks, the population still faced persecution by the distorted definitions of representation promoted by the states. The ideologies of the Reconstruction era and its goals of equality and restoration became lost in the prevention of its execution. True equality in these years seemed like a far off dream instead of an attainable reality and the Hughes’s final message was that Blacks were free, yet far from equal.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Hughes' purpose/message in using this metaphor? What does he want his readers to understand?
DeleteHughes Poem, "Emancipation: Long View Negro" is a short but very telling personal account that represents the multitude condition of black former slaves in the South and frankly, in much more of the country than many are comfortable to internally reveal in reflecting. In looking back and examining history, it is a common yet still fatal flaw to assume that after the Civil War and the emancipation, the lives of slaves turned rosey. Hughes's poem and honest, raw account of his personal story that held prevalence to so many of the era and succeeds in the task of reminding modern day reflectors back of the insufficiencies of seeing only the positive. In fact, Hughes goes as far as to say that the Jim Crow era of the South seemed to be reminiscent of the pre abolition days, arguing that in fact very little progress had been made. In the beautiful words that only a poet can contrive, Hughes creates the image of a telescope to symbolize the essence of the era and the dilemma that he is greeted with every morning. While so many view the era to be a success and major stride for equality, that reality was only half of the story; only the flip of the object yielding quite the contrary view. History is a study that requires a different means and mode of observation to finally get to the best interpretation. Hughes and this example of a specific poem reflecting on the Antebellum period remind us of the importance of not accepting one way as being the only way and the need to observe history from as many angles as possible.
ReplyDeleteLangston Hughes's poem "Emancipation: Long View: Negro" offers a simple yet powerful view on the politically consumed Reconstruction topic. In the poem, Hughes simplifies the immensely complicated issue of Reconstruction into a metaphor centered around a telescope aimed toward the goal of omnipresent freedom in America. The metaphor helps voice the notion that the initial optimism of the Reconstruction period unfortunately never manifested, while the core basis of dispute in the Civil War, slavery, never truly died out. With this poem, Hughes view on the Reconstruction period is clear; The period of Reconstruction was only a time of dreaming and not a period of action and change. He understands that the post civil war period was of vital importance, and its ultimate goal, to protect the newly instituted freedoms of the former slaves, conclusively failed. Hughes can accurately make his claim due to his location in the timeline of American history. During his lifetime, he witnessed the atrocities and violations of freedom toward the minorities of America, specifically the African Americans. As he lived through a modern period that in most ways surpassed the old ways of the past, he surely noticed a lack of protection of civil rights, and the Reconstruction period holds full responsibility for this regression. When Hughes wrote the poem in 1965, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States had already made significant progress with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the search for equality. These Acts mark a momentous time in history, a possible end to a period that has witnessed a bright future with the passing of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment, but a dark and gloomy reality with the Jim Crow laws in the South and the overall de-progression in the protection of equality and freedom of rights for the former slaves. Hughes's perspective toward the Reconstruction period and the civil war highlights the immense failure for true integration for the blacks in the post civil war era, and the still primeval treatment of the blacks in the midst of the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteIn his poem, Emancipation: Long View Negro, Langston Hughes criticizes the Reconstruction movement. This is understood as he lived through a time period where he saw major changes throughout the United States. The way in which he writes about Reconstruction, portrays that the United States was closer to equality back in 1865 with the Emancipation Proclamation, than they were when Hughes wrote this poem in 1965; 100 years later. After the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the war in the 1860s, one would assume that blacks would now begin to progress and gain rights and eventually advance to a fairly equal society within the United States. However, this was not the case. Reconstruction allowed for the Southern States to deal with blacks' rights in any manner they chose. Because of this the rights given to blacks in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments really meant nothing because they were not being enforced. Hughes brilliantly uses the metaphor of looking through the larger end of the telescope. This symbolizes the struggle of gaining equality and the possibility of gaining this anytime soon. Looking through the smaller end in the 1860s you would see equality and blacks' rights very close. However, turning it around and looking through the larger end in the 1960s, one hundred years later, you see equality far, far away and very small. Through his poem, Langston Hughes truly conveys the Reconstruction period in how it was a large step back for America as a whole.
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