Blog #11

In reading Pauline Hopkins' “As the Lord Lives, He Is One of Our Mother’s Children”  and Claude McKay's poems, I was able to realize the social changes in the United States after the Civil war. Though there were positive changes in reference to African Americans gaining little rights, lynching became a big problem facing this minority group. When we look at change, we see positive but then as soon as it grows, it gets beaten to the ground in this case. What was so hard for me to understand and maybe this goes along with a perplexing question is that though they were given rights, how was lynching to be able to take place.
In the reading "As the Lord Lives, He is One of Our Mother's Children," lynching was brought to this small town and many whites went after black men in jail first and were to lynch them in front of the crowd. "They only way you can teach these niggers a lesson is to go to the jail and lynch these men as an object lesson. String them up! That is the only thing to do" (pg 245). However, Rev. Stevens discovered a black man who can pass off as a white male hiding from being lynched. In the end, however, the individual is lynched though the true murderer had been caught and he was innocent. While reading this, it brought many questions in regards to freedom and the American dream. The same idea came to mind when reading the poems by Claude McKay. "If we must die, o let us nobly die. So that our precious blood may not be shed."  The reason the Civil War was fought was primarily in reference to slavery. After, they were gained extra rights and many would think that this would be it. However, things changed dramatically when the idea of lynching came about. Due to the fact that many whites feared that blacks would now become a threat, they referred to this as a way to deal with the problem. In tying it all together, the question still comes up to how this was even seen as something right politically and morally. If they had gained rights, what's there to be in fear of? How is lynching solving a purpose and how does it correspond with what was written in the Constitution?