Final Reflections

While I have been writing about my favorite topics from this semester, I thought it would still be beneficial to write about my final reflections since the semester is now over. Before taking this class, I thought I was pretty educated on the Black Power Movement and the Black Arts Movement. I had learned about it throughout various classes in high school and college and thought that was good enough. Boy, was I wrong.

After taking this class, I realize that I really did not know anything at all about the movements. I had one image of the movements in my head and that is the same one that most people have before actually being educated on the topic. I thought the BPM was unsuccessful and did not do much good for black people in the long run, but that was not the case at all. While the movement may not have had the outcome that was expected, it helped to ignite the fight for equal rights for black people and showed that when they band together, black people can accomplish so much.

Throughout this class, I learned more than I have learned in my whole educational career, and I only wish a class like this was a requirement for everyone in college. Many people have this warped image of the BPM and the reasons that black people feel the way they do, but you never fully understand until you are reading the literature they were writing and listening to them speak through documentaries. Personally, I feel like this class definitely changed my outlook for the better and gave me such a better understanding of the movements and black people’s fight for equal rights. It also introduced me to several writers who I had never read before. The writers during this time were fantastic due to the issues and oppression they were facing being reflected in their literature. All in all, this class was probably one of my favorite classes that I have taken in my college career and I hope that as I further my education, I can take more classes that focus on this time period and topic.