Ralph EllisonEssay Preview: Ralph EllisonReport this essayLife in Oklahoma City by Ralph EllisonThe author Ralph Ellison is a renowned writer and scholar with significant nonfiction stories credited to his name. He was born in Oklahoma City about the year 1913. His family had a small business wherein his father worked as a foreman but soon died when he was only three years old. After several years, he later found out that his father wished that he would someday become a poet after the great American essayist popularly known as Ralph Waldo Emerson who became his namesake. His mother was Ida Millsap Ellison who was involved as a political activist campaigning for the Socialist Party. Moreover, she was arrested several times in violation of the segregation orders.
| Previous p: Ralph EllisonSlavery in the Oklahoma City area: An Overview of Violence and Discrimination in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1911, “The Crime of Slavery and Slavery in Oklahoma City, OREGON”, 1864, page 24. This book, “Slavery and Slavery in America”, was the first major work of this type of work with over 50 volumes. It describes slavery in Oklahoma City, a city that had been ruled by and for the slave owner since the 1830s. Slavery was most commonly practiced under the influence of industrialization as a method of obtaining labor under the “labor system” and used by many in the industrial class (including white men in the railroad industry). The slave owners continued to “work on” American industry (the slave system, it was said, was essentially a slave economy) through the late-1850s until the great industrial Depression of the 1930s, a time that gave way to World War I and the Cold War. The slavery trade, which has been widely credited with helping create the United States of America, also played a role in making the United States wealthy and in enabling African Americans to own and be exploited by the white men. Slavery was largely abolished in Oklahoma until the late 1940’s where it was reintroduced with more and more “modernization” techniques and more and more women were moving away from the black labor force. The most notable result was the rise of the black economy, which consisted of a wide swath of cotton, hard-packed cotton, and other commodities while also utilizing an ever-growing population of the newly-sourced low-wage labor. The major focus of the black cotton industry was located near the city of Algonquin (one of Oklahoma City’s most prominent centers of activity in African American history), where the trade in goods and services was mostly done via railroads at high profits. As a result, many of the slaves working in the area (particularly black women) had “slavery as their only means” and they were enslaved for many years, usually by their masters. It had more than ten million Africans working over 300 years under occupation. As a result, black women with “slavery as their only means” became the majority of African Americans, almost all of whom were subject to the same law as men and often their sons were considered “slavery captives” as well. To better understand the slave trade, it is useful to use one of its most well-known historical examples. The slavery that started with the arrival of slaves from Africa and to whom this was connected is described in the chapter, “Black Slavery: Colonial America: African American Suffrage and the Rise of the Slave Trade,” by Edward D. Gorman, published by the University of Tulsa in 1975. According to this book African Americans were enslaved more than any other group of people in society: the majority of Africa lived about 10 times as long as the typical American living in the whole of Europe and about 12 times as long as the average American in France or Spain. Many aspects
At the time of the birth of Ellison, life in Oklahoma City then was still considered as part of the frontier. His parents were originally Southerners from a lineage of slaves. When his parents got married, they proceeded to the west toward Oklahoma in the hope that the lives of their children would be better in this state. Oklahoma during this time held the distinction and reputation for its freedom. However, it wasn’t long, however, before the prejudices of Texas and Arkansas soon fell upon Oklahoma.
When Ellisons’ father died in the year 1917, Ida had supported Ralph and his younger brother working as a domestic aide at the Avery Chapel Afro-Methodist Episcopal Church. The family moved into the rectory and Ellison was exposed to the minister’s library. When he grew up, Ellison grew engrossed with the topic of literature which became a medium for him to grow and love his studies. Moreover, the enthusiasm he showed for reading was encouraged by his mother who had brought home plenty of books including magazines from houses which she had cleaned. There came a time when a black Episcopal priest in Oklahoma city challenged the white custom of barring blacks from the public library. As a result, this custom was overturned. As such, it became another outlet for Ellison to further his passion for reading. Although his family was sometimes short of money, Ellison and his brother were able to study well and had a healthy childhood lives.
Ellison grew and developed a liking in music where he studied piano and the trumpet. It was during this time that Oklahoma City was famous with several great jazz musicians. This influenced him to study classical composition and follow his yearning for music. As such, he wrote an essay entitled “Remembering Jimmy” among the entries in his book of criticism Shadow and Act. There were always traces of the theme of music in his writings and personal life.
Ellison would always quip that he is foremost a novelist and not an activist. He believes that all his writings or followers of his principles are a reflection of his desire for the freedom movement. He is convinced with his calling that he is primarily responsible for the continued health of the American culture and literature. It is clear to Ellison that writing is an instrument to be able to put order in chaos. It is never the consideration of a writer to fall in a trap by writing on topics dealing with Negroness.
It should be noted that America during the time Ellison was growing up was prominently a separation of the blacks from whites which was evident in the year 1900s. Moreover, the blacks were very much not allowed to use the same public facilities as the whites. As such, the blacks experienced extreme discrimination and racism. Fortunately, Ellison grew up in a quite relatively unbiased atmosphere. His environment belonged to a close-knit black community that supplied him with support and images of endurance and courage and much more the interest for music.
During his teenage years, Ellison together with his friends agreed and created for themselves an ideal and goal to look up to. They aspired to be in the league of Renaissance Men who had broad intellectual interests. They were a group who were also accomplished in both the sciences and arts. The friends believed that they have the power to be able to do whatever they would want in life as well or much better than any men belonging to any race. Ellison places into practice this line of thinking by concentrating the more on the medium of music and further participating in an intense way in the music program for about twelve year under the auspices of the Frederick Douglas School in Oklahoma City.
Ellison was trained to play many instruments but he had a preference for the trumpet. As such, he played in many marches, concerts, and town celebrations. He never forgot to pursue and achieve the ideal of being a Renaissance Man. In between his activities, he spent time playing football, experimenting in electronics and working on small jobs.
He left Oklahoma because the colleges then did not accept blacks as enrollees. He then proceeded to pursue college education at the Tuskegee Institute in Washington. At Tuskegee, he excelled in his music program as well as sculpture and sociology classes. In the year 1935, Ellison got hold of T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Wasteland” where he became captivated with it. Soon, Ellison began to study modern fiction and poetry as well as writing his own poetry. By the following year, 1936, Ellison, at the height of the Great Depression, went to New York to study sculpture and thus find employment as a musician. This was a recourse he took to fund his last year at Tuskegee. However, he never returned to college but ended up spending the rest of his life in New York.
Ellison was lured by the cities energy and reputation of freedom. It was here that he met Richard Wright, the editor of The Daily Worker. It was the turning point of his life where he began to immerse himself in his writing. He has received such prestigious awards as the Russwurm, the Medal of Freedom, and the Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et Lettres. Despite of the overwhelming success of Invisible Man, Ellison never published another novel in his lifetime. After his death his collection of essays and writing were published under the title Juneteenth, to generally unfavorable reviews.
Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington.The writing of Booker T. Washington was encapsulated in the famous Atlanta Exposition Address given by a self-educated and Negro educator. The address talks about the wisdom of the Founding Fathers that