African Americans needed to find a new identity in the New World and were considered an underclass for a long time. ... The mission to find their own voice was even more difficult for African American women who became targets of numerous insults, both during and after slavery, and were forced to be silent and to stand in the shadows for a long time. ... The ways in which Helene shows her affection for her daughter are not exactly motherly in 'the sense that Helene critiques Nels' appearance or does not allow her daughter to behave like a child. ... Instead of Helene helping Nel to i...

• Word Count: 5084
• Approx Pages: 20
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Despite sharing a similar fate, the protagonists' unique approach to racism demonstrates the changing values of contexts across time and culture. ... Under a different time period, Desi is granted much more power and rights than Desdemona as a woman. ... The dehumanizing statements such as "she is stolen from me" and "I won her daughter" further evokes the Elizabethan paradigm. ... Empowerment of woman individuality and rising concerns towards racism are beneficial values which ascended through time. ... Despite her father's strong denial against her relationship,...

• Word Count: 1401
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The story opens as the narrator, Mama, and her youngest daughter, Maggie, await a visit from Dee, the oldest daughter, and a man who may be Dee's husband. ... The political climate of the story reveals a more respectful Dee in light of acceptance of hardships of African-Americans in the period of time the tale takes place. Everyday Use is set in the late sixties, a time when African-Americans were struggling to define their personal identities in cultural terms. ...

• Word Count: 973
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Their heritage belongs in a continent overseas and in a time a century has faded away. Paul Dunbar's "Sympathy" paints this metaphor between him and his race, the gap and loss of this time, and the brutality it leaves upon the souls generation after generation of black families whose ancestors were once slaves. Dunbar understands the pain of the caged bird, because his parents were former slaves, and he had to grow up learning to understand that his world was not the same as the pale kids that were his age (like an iconic photo of when Martin Luther King, Jr. had to explain to h...

• Word Count: 1871
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731 to the daughter of a former indentured slave, an African American woman named Molly Walsh, who emigrated from England and was in bondage for seven years. ... He had an eighth grade education by the time he turned 15 and took over the operations of the family farm. ... In Benjamin Banneker's studying of the stars, he was the first to notice and write about the Star of Sirius, being two stars instead of one, challenging the astronomers of his time. ... He was also the first scientist to study the relativity of time and space two centuries before Einstei...

• Word Count: 1655
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Basketball is an ageless game thought and learned from generation to generation, from father to son, father to daughter, etc. ... The Romas, one of the greatest female ball clubs of all time, played against male and female teams, never lost a game for six years after World War 2 (1939-1945). Mignon Burns, Corrine Robinson, Lillian Ross, Lola Porter, Issadore Channels, and Virginia Wills were among the Romas best players of all time. ... Not knowing what the future holds, she went on to become one of the greatest women ball players of all time. ...

• Word Count: 2290
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In In Search of Our mother's Gardens, Walker describes the African American women of the past as mute shells, people in a sort of zombie like state waiting for the time when their artistry, their inner world will finally be known and recognized, (Walker 402). Quilting was a way to abide their time and a vehicle to carry their voice, even though only a few could understand it. ...

• Word Count: 1911
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate