Healing, Resistance, and Collecting: The Struggle to Maintain Black Culture and Empowerment Post-Abolition

Following emancipation and suffrage for black men after the Civil War there was an unprecedented growth in power for the black community as they were able to cast ballots for other black men to public positions. The rapid increase of people of color in offices alarmed the previously-helpful white allies, who mainly saw them as new voters, not new competition for offices. As aid from allies waned, oppression from enemies grew, as the KKK and other white supremacists sought to quell the new "uppity" black people through lynchings and other gruesome spectacles. From this era arose four major viewpoints from the black community on how to address the trends: Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Arturo Schomburg, all of whom looked to preserve the rights and lives of the black community in this time of aggression and a lack of support.