Segregation and Desegregation

This week’s lecture was spoken by Dr. Richard Wright and he came to talk to us about segregation and desegregation. Dr. Wright’s lecture, in my opinion, was the best we’ve had so far. I felt that his lecture really broadened my perspective of segregation and what it meant for the black community as a whole, which leads me to my first point. Dr. Wright stated that in segregation, it was the first time blacks would work together, share, and build communities to protect one another and look out for each other. Because of segregation in was instinctively imposed in blacks to have each other’s back. To overcome the oppression of the whites blacks had to join forces, and that was a big underlying topic in Dr. Wrights lecture. Contrary to the idea of segregation bringing togetherness, the partition of black people commenced with desegregation. Once African Americans achieved what they had been fighting for, it seemed as though there was no need to remain united. Blacks were losing their connectivity and harbored a sense of individuality.  Not only that, black education had gradually declined, which then leads me to my last point. Educating black children, before desegregation, was taken with the utmost seriousness. Dr. Wright told us that, during that time period, education was viewed as a weapon to use against the struggle for liberation. The goal was to be the most powerful intellect and not be an irrelevant intellectual. However, the rises of liberation lead to a decline in connectivity and education. An idea I thought to be quite ironic and unfortunate.