COLOR-LINE DIVISION OF SOCIAL MILIEU DURING THE EMANCIPATION ERA IN THE UNITED STATES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPRAISAL

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to explore the depiction of racism in the era of emancipation by reviewing two representative texts: Of Our Spiritual Strivings by W. E. B. Du Bois, and The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in United States written by David Fremon, and telefilm The Birth of a Nation directed by D. W. Griffith. After the official abolition of slavery by 13th Amendment of the Constitution, the problem of racism not only emerged but reached to its peak in that epoch in United States. It adversely affected both the black and white races for a period of almost one hundred years. Racism divided social milieu in US based on skin color. Dogmatically the darker in color would mean the cursed. The hatred against Blacks was institutionalized. Racially biased laws called Jim Crow Laws were enacted by many southern states. Private gangs such as Ku Klux Klan were formed who would find excuses for lynching and killing the blacks. The blacks were marginalized up to a limit which shook their souls and called ‘double consciousness’ by W.E.B. Du Bois. The essay tries to reconnoiter the traces of miseries of blacks from slavery towards racism through interdisciplinary critique of selected writings and a film.