A very diversified popular art was developing. Occasionally someone took notice of it and utilized it, but most "serious" musicians ignored these popular forms of music. Finally, Antonin Dvooak came to the rescue. Dvooak visited the United States for two years (1893-95) and he was the first to advise the American composers to look seriously at the music and cultures around them, especially the music and culture of the Negro. (Cooper, 570).
Since Dvooak was an ethnomusicologist (one who studies music of ethnic peoples) in his home country of Czechoslovakia, he saw what the American composers had completely missed: the rich culture of the African-Americans. This culture, like the need for an American artistic perspective, had been around and begging for an audience since the founding of the country (and even before). (Cooper, 569-573) However, the African was a slave, not really counted as a citizen; his ideas were not to be taken seriously by most white people. Since the protests of the Africans against the brutal conditions of slavery went largely unheard, Black Nationalism came into being. .
Black Nationalism is the name given to revitalization movements among black Americans. It emphasizes black pride, desire to control their own communities, and sometimes the desire to form a black nation in Africa or some part of the United States. (Black Nationalism, 1) (Third Way, 2) Organized Black Nationalist movements appear to have begun with Paul Cuffe, a black sea captain. From 1811 to 1815, he made the first attempt to establish a black American colony in Africa, transporting several dozen people there. In 1817, shortly before Cuffe's death, the American Colonization Society was founded to accomplish his plan with greater efficiency. They founded the country of Liberia and between 1822 and 1861, nearly 15,000 blacks chose to return there. In 1850, the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law (which required that all escaped slaves be returned to their owners) encouraged blacks to embrace colonization because of the hopelessness they saw in their situation in America.
