The Great Books: A Polaris for the African American People
Purpose of this Journey?
A multimedia presentation to show how classics and Great Books have been a tool for liberation and hope in the Black community and also can be used to bring unity.
The Difference Between Classics and Great Books
What is the Drinking Gourd?
Use of the North Star (Polaris)
Follow the Drinking Gourd Vs. 1
When the sun comes back, and the first quail calls
Follow the drinkin' gourd
For the old man is waiting just to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin' gourd
The Light of Freedom for Frederick Douglass
Like this song is a map to freedom, following the light of the North Star, Frederick Douglass and others also followed another light to freedom...the light of literacy found in Classic texts. (Listen to an original jazz piece by Frederick Douglass Jazz Works here.)
“Press On” by Frederick Douglass Jazz Works
Listen to the symbolism of Douglass’ struggle to gain freedom represented in this song.
The Light of Freedom for Frederick Douglass
The master’s words to Douglass were harsh but true. From the moment he was exposed to literacy, even though the mistress was made to stop, Douglass was compelled to learn to read.
Frederick Douglass on The Columbian Orator
“From this time I was most narrowly watched. If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself. All this, however, was too late. The first step had been taken.”
“I was now about twelve years old, and the thought of being ~a slave for life~ began to bear heavily upon my heart. Just about this time, I got hold of a book entitled "The Columbian Orator." Every opportunity I got, I used to read this book. Among much of other interesting matter, I found in it a dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave was represented as having run away from his master three times. The dialogue represented the conversation which took place between them, when the slave was retaken the third time. In this dialogue, the whole argument in behalf of slavery was brought forward by the master, all of which was disposed of by the slave. The slave was made to say some very smart as well as impressive things in reply to his master-- things which had the desired though unexpected effect; for the conversation resulted in the voluntary emancipation of the slave on the part of the master.” (from Narrrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave)
Frederick Douglass on The Columbian Orator
“In the same book, I met with one of Sheridan's mighty speeches on and in behalf of Catholic emancipation. These were choice documents to me. I read them over and over again with unabated interest. They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance. The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder. What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights. The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery; but while they relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another even more painful than the one of which I was relieved. The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.” (from Narrrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave)
Jazz Music, Classics, Literacy and Liberation
Follow the Drinking Gourd vs 2
Well the river bank makes a mighty good road
Dead trees will show you the way
Left foot, peg foot, travelin' on
Follow the drinkin' gourd
DuBois Discusses the Veil
W.E.B. DuBois talks about a darkness of being an oppressed people. It’s not just the evil of slavery or the physical bondage, or the physical brutality or the being ripped from families, but this darkness is a mental darkness. They were taken from their native land, tongue, culture and literacy and placed where they could understand NOTHING. Dubois writes about the importance of classics in educating Black people in his SOULS OF BLACK FOLK.
DuBois on How Classics and the Canon Liberate
“I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed Earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?” (from the essay “Of the Training of Black Men” in Souls of Black Folk)
Follow the Drinking Gourd vs 3
Well the river ends, between two hills
Follow the drinkin' gourd
There's another river on the other side
Follow the drinkin' gourd
Anna Julia Cooper and Classics
Anna Julia Cooper retained so much hope in America, although she was a former slave (actually the daughter of her master). She was willing to dwell here and do her part to make our country a more perfect union. She read the texts that helped her understand her foreign land and in doing this she gained a deeper understanding of her role in this space. She was not seeking assimilation, but equality and inclusion and reading classics gave her the insight to learn how that can happen.
Classical Education and Anna Julia Cooper
She was educated classically after she was emancipated at St. Augustine’s and at Oberlin. She had a BA, Master’s and PhD and taught classically in the M Street School (eventually Dunbar High) many times teaching fluently in Latin. She eventually served as principal at the M Street School. She is the author of A VOICE FROM THE SOUTH which is a collection of her essays and speeches on civil rights, women’s rights and education.
Who Was Anna Julia Cooper?
Anna Julia Cooper on Classical Education
“The old education made him (black people) a ‘hand’ solely and simply. It deliberately sought to suppress or ignore the soul. We must, whatever else we do, insist on those studies which by the consensus of educators are calculated to train our people to think, which will give them the power of appreciation and make them righteous. In a word we are building men, not chemists or farmers or cooks or soldiers, but men ready to serve the body politic in whatever avocation their talen is needed. This is fundamental. This first for all men- rich men or poor men, high or low, the aim of education for the human soul is to train aright, to give power and right direction to the intellect, the sensibilities, and the will. Certain studies, certain courses, certain exercises have been tested, tried, accepted by the experience of centuries in the steady progress of humanity.” (From the essay “On Education” from A Voice from the South)
Anna Julia Cooper on Classical Education
“Teachers from Aristotle to the present have sifted and analysed the various branches of learning to get at their relative worth as educative factors...The only way to meet those skeptics who still ask with a half sneer “What is the use of this or that study for Negroes?” is with the query “is it good for men?” Has it been selected for curricula universally and has it stood the test for the discipline it gives in direction of thought-power, power of appreciation, power of willing the right? These are the things we need. If these studies are means to those ends there can be nothing incongruous or unreasonable in trying them on our pupils in all faith as to the divine possibilities in all human development.” (From the essay “On Education” from A Voice from the South)
Follow the Drinking Gourd vs. 4
Well, where the great big river meets the little river
Follow the drinkin' gourd
The old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin' gourd
James Baldwin on Recreating Our Heritage through the Canon
Douglass and Cooper did not deny the pain of enslavement or their heritage, but they recognized that this sadly was their home now. James Baldwin expresses an even deeper understanding of why through all the pain they chose to “dwell” here and used classics to facilitate that “dwelling”:
Baldwin Continued
“I brought to Shakespeare, Bach and Rembrandt to the stones of Paris, to the cathedral of Chartres, and to the Empire State Building, a special attitude. These are not really my creations, they did not contain my history. I might search in them forever for any reflection of myself. I was an interloper; this was not my heritage. At the same time I had no other heritage which I could possibly hope to use---I had certainly been unfitted for the jungle or the tribe. I would have to appropriate these White centuries...make them mine...otherwise I would have no place in any scheme.” (from Notes from a Native Son by James Baldwin)
The Polaris of Classics Shines Its Light on Unity
Follow the drinkin' gourd
Follow the drinkin' gourd
For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin' gourd
To hear the song “Follow the Drinking Gourd” click here.
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Eric Bibb
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is filled with numerous references to classic texts and in his autobiography he talks about how classics helped him to shape his philosophy for the Civil Rights Movement.
Phillis Wheatley: The Trojan Horse
From Dr. E. Ashley Hairston, we gain a
perspective on the work of Phillis
Wheatley. She was brought to the US
from Senegal and purchased in
Boston by John Wheatley to be his
wife’s servant. They gave her a
Classical education, where she learned
Latin and learned the classic texts.
She became a published poet and used
poetry to bring attention to the
intellect of Black people. Even writing
A poem for George Washington.
Huey P. Newton
Huey P. Newton was co-founder of the Black Panther and taught himself to read by reading Plato’s Republic. When he reads “The Allegory of the Cave” in Plato’s Republic, he decided he wanted to free Black people.
Plato’s Republic: The Cave
I found it interesting that in talking about the Republic we see the allegory of the Cave, but I understand. We are all in the darkness of our caves and thus we resist unity. When Frederick Douglass began to read these texts the light of truth lifted him from the Veil-the darkness. What if all of humanity here did the same? Could reading the words of the ancients and the texts of those who referenced the ancients, give us deeper insight into our shared humanity? Could reading classics bring us all together in a more perfect union through the light of truth that they shine upon our minds?
Human Family by Maya Angelou