In the 1968 Olympics,
several black athletes, especially Carlos and Smith, claimed that
instead of being accepted on an equal basis, they were being
exploited.
The decade of the 1960s has been marked by a militant spirit
throughout the Afro-American community; this spirit was
reminiscent of the new Negro of the 1920s although it appears to
be more cynical and disillusioned. LeRoi Jones and James Baldwin
are only the best known of dozens of contemporary black writers.
Their bitterness, undoubtedly, springs partly from the dashed
hopes of the new Negro. Unfortunately, at the very time that the
Afro-American community was stepping forward with new confidence,
the nation was tottering on the brink of economic disaster. The
year 1929 brought a harsh end to the optimism of the 1920s.
Black Nationalism
Although Langston Hughes had been confident that the American
dream could be made to include his people, thousands upon
thousands of other Afro-Americans, especially among the lower
classes, were extremely dubious. In 1916, Marcus Garvey came to
Harlem, and before long his Universal Negro Improvement
Association had opened chapters in urban centers all across the
nation.
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