www.reflector.com/features/strengthening-family-ties-42 -
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Published on: 2/8/2009
Last Visited: 2/8/2009
Changes in the American family, including the black family, can be traced back to just after World War II and the social reforms of the 1950s and 1960s, said David Dennard, a professor of African and African-American history at ECU.
Women continued to join the work force and the country experienced a major period of reform with the Brown vs.
Board of Education court decision in 1954.
In addition, the 1960s brought movement away from conservative values, changing lifestyles, laws and entertainment.
"That's when we saw a major shift in larger society," said Dennard, who is an associate professor in the Department of History.
"We were all affected by that shift.
The community was changing, and it changed more radically for blacks," he said.
Changes in education, values and accountability had a drastic effect on the black family, Dennard said.
"We really suffer when we don't know our history.
We try other things to compensate, drugs, sex, jewelry. ...
That won't do it.
There's still something missing."
The link to black history, the struggles and triumphs, began to suffer as a side effect of desegregation, Dennard said.
With desegregation blacks began attending predominantly white schools, leaving black schools behind — including the nurturing, discipline and history they provided.
"We built those schools; they were in our neighborhood," he said.
...
Education was a main staple in the African-American community, even if the students' parents didn't get through grade school, Dennard said.
With integration, black students lost the curriculum that taught about their heritage to one that was already in place at white schools that only talked about what whites had accomplished.
"When we talk about American patriots, who was the black patriot?"
Dennard said.
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