Black Studies Lecture Summary

Professor George Lipsitz’s lecture was about the collective intelligence and gathered from centuries of struggle for black people in America and how it is key for Black survival and dignity. Black Studies can be applied to this topic through our exploration of these centuries of struggle, from the Atlantic slave trade to the Reconstruction period to the events in Flint, Michigan and Ferguson, Missouri which Professor Lipsitz highlights. Throughout these centuries we see various tactics and crises that contribute to the continued subjugation of black people, whether this was enslavement, lynching, or legislation. Black Studies also applies to Professor Lipsitz’s lecture through what we learned about notable people who resisted the endless cycle

In Black Studies lecture we learned about the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments; which did the following: the 13th abolished slavery, the 14th granted full citizenship to black people and the protection from state interference, and the 15th granted the right to vote to black people. However, the misuse of these amendments have been a constant hindrance to a true democratic system. In lecture, the misuse of the 14th amendment was the lack of enforcement. After the Civil War, the South was heated due to the Confederate loss, and through the Klu Klux Klan and Black Codes, the citizenship of black people, as granted by the 14th amendment, was completely ignored and, ostensibly, nonexistent. The 15th amendment meant basically nothing, due to the implementation of poll taxes and the perpetual disenfranchisement of black people. Professor Lipsitz, talking about slavery, said, “It is responsible for the undemocratic political institutions.” And an example he gave for why it is responsible is “The way the 14th amendment is misused in law.” From the misuse of these amendments when they were first created to how they are being misused now, are a continued method of preserving slavery, or as Lipsitz articulated, “The nation’s commitment to protecting