Alexander Hughes
far as to refute the Old Negro’s existence, rather asserting an awakening or a finding of the African American self.41 Often the Old Negro concept served to contrast the goals of New Negro self-re-creation. The Old Negro in the United States experienced two hundred fifty years of slavery, repression and oppression. As slaves, the argument sometimes went, African-Americans needed to develop and maintain submissive, servant demeanors toward whites in order to survive.42 In the realms of economics, education, politics and society, the institution of slavery completely deprived enslaved African Americans of their rights, as understood today in much of western society and as exemplified in the United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” as the “inalienable rights of all members of the human family.”43 The New Negro rejected all things counter to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for African Americans present in the characterization of the Old Negro and in the oppressive society which continued to violate African Americans’ basic rights. This sense of the Old Negro’s constitution is made more interesting by the presence of free African Americans dating back to the beginnings of North American slavery, reflecting the complexities often underlying group stereotypes. As a result, the Old and the New are often distinguished by beliefs and actions rather than historical inheritance. In the paradigm of New Negro discourse, as promoted by Harrison and others, New Negroes were independent, while Old Negroes were dependent; New Negroes sought education, Old Negroes were content with manual labor; New Negroes worked for economic strength in independent business or for collective strength found in unions, while Old Negroes labored under capitalist modes akin to slavery; New Negroes accepted nothing less than equality, while Old Negroes accepted inequality. Most importantly, for New Negroes the means always justified the ends when fighting against systemic and societal injustices.
[32] The University of Oregon McNair Research Journal