Voice of Houstons Past :: essays papers

Voice of Houstons PastFor most of American history, African-Americans contain been considered andtreated as inferiors. Their folksongs and tales have been benignly lookedupon as harmless, meaningless expressions of a dull-witted race whose onlycontribution to American life was a strong back and a weak mind. until nowafter the Civil War, the ingrown prejudices continued to relegate thefreedmen to the bottom rung of a strict caste ladder. Their folklore wasrepeatedly treat or belittled. Only since the climax of black awargonness,pioneered by men like W. Dubois and Frederick Douglas, has the AfricanAmerican community realized that their culture is uniquely American andsingularly important to the understanding and government activity of theAmerican cultural and artistic scene. It is one of the few elements oftheir heritage that they can look back on and recognize as valuable inAmericas development. This is the total of the black folksongs,stories, and art they fill a void and force recognition of the AfricanAmerican contribution. These superstitions and folklore from the pastdemonstrate the influences wielded upon African Americans of today, aswell as pave the way for a new form of folklore, which is told throughart.In order to effectively illustrate the progression and correlation ofearly African American folklore and the emergence of a new breed ofartist, a specific group of artist all utilizing the same type of art formwill be discussed. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be on recentAfrican American artist in Houston, Texas all of whom utilizeplace-specific art to convey their images and messages. ahead discussingthe current art movement, it is vital to understand the history of thesuperstitions and folklore which are the inspiration for Houstonsplace-specific art.A Brief History of African American Superstition and Folklore Since theirarrival on American soil, African Americans have contributed to ourcollective culture. Their songs, poems, stories, spirituals, and proverbs,while at times reinforcing the white theory of supremacy, gave them afoundation of identity that was passed from generation to generation. Theghost stories and superstitions are probably the best known examples ofearly black culture. This is because white men used them as a means toprove the blacks innate inferiority to whites. They ignored the obviousfact all cultures posses similar superstitions, even their own.The problem in collecting and evaluating black folklore is themisinterpretation and lack of understanding of early black dialects. We essential read the transcriptions with some care and occasionally wonder whatthe white man did when they were confronted by sounds strange to theirears some tried to transcribe the actual sound, but others, assumptive