Written in Nashville, Tn on June 15, 2019

“Consciousness” is the function of the human mind that receives and processes information, crystallizes it and then stores it or rejects it with the help of the following:

1. The five senses

2. The reasoning ability of the mind

3. Imagination and emotion

4. Memory

“Without human beings in this world, conscious human beings in this world, in effect, there would not be a world. We bring the world into being through our consciousness. And through our consciousness, we create the world we live in. Out of the totality of reality our consciousness cuts our world at the fist itself. In other words, the kind of world you exist in reflects the kind of consciousness that you have. And notice if you change your consciousness or values and orientation, you enter into a different world. You interact with different people, people often you didn’t know existed in the world, social situations that you might not have even recognized, until you entered into a new level of consciousness.” Wilson 1998

When we discuss the consciousness of Afrikans in America we must acknowledge the birth of the first major learned society. A collective of great minds with the initiative to inspire, motivate, and liberate the masses by setting expectations to combat racism white supremacy also its pseudo: historical, scientific, economic, artistic cultural identity on blacks. 

The American Negro Academy (1897) purpose was to: “promote the publication of scholarly work, aid youth of genius in the attainment of higher culture at home or abroad, gather into its archives valuable data and the works of Negro authors, aid by publications the dissemination of the truth and the induction of the Negro race, to publish if possible an Annual designed to raise the standard of intellectual endeavor among American Negroes.” Moss Jr. 1981

“From it’s establishment until it’s demise in 1928, the ANA claimed as members some of the most important leaders in the black American community. Alexander Crummell, th first president, was an Episcopal clergyman who held an A.B. Degree from Queen’s College, Cambridge University. Other founders included Francis J. Grimke, a Presbyterian clergyman trained at Lincoln University and Princeton Theological Seminary; W.E.B. Dois, professor of economics and history at Atlanta University; William H. Crogman, professor of classics who was on the faculty of Wilberforce University; and John Cromwell, a lawyer, a politician, and former editor of The People’s Advocate, a black newspaper published in Washington, DC., from 1878 to 1884.” Moss Jr. 1981:2 

Other notable members of the ANA Francis J. Grimke, Kelly Miller, Carter G Woodson, Jesse E. Moorland, Alain L. Locke, and Arthur A. Schomburg. A serious group of doers not talkers who would become the vanguard for the mental liberation of Negroes in the development of their Afrikan consciousness. Each would challenge academia over the years by writing articles that later would be published and available to the public. “Between 1897 and 1924 the ANA published twenty-two occasional papers on subjects related to the culture, history, religion, civil and social rights, and social institutions of black Americans. While the quality of papers varied, all of them help to illuminate the many ways in which, during the first quarter of the twentieth century, an important segment of the small community of educated American blacks attempted to intellectually defend their people, justify their own existence, and challenge ideas, habits, attitudes, and legal proscriptions that seemed to be locking their race permanently into an inferior caste.” Moss Jr. 1981:2

The ANA would spark heavy conversations within many different cultures. It would lead the way as an astounding foundation for black thought. “At its birth the ANA was hailed by blacks on three continents as a welcome step forward in the efforts of their own race to liberate itself from the crippling legacy of slavery and the problems created by the hostilities of prejudiced whites. Through its work the ANA proved this to be an accurate prediction. It was both a sustainer and perpetuator of the black protest tradition in an age of accommodation and proscription. 

The Talented Tenth knew over 100 plus years ago that teams win. They knew the importance of the collective and in order to sustain the minds and hearts of the masses the youth would be intricate in the forward thought among the Negro. The American Negro Academy was the conscious community at its roots. The infant stage before a wave of intelligentsia and the group of like minds one can truly learn from. When we open a book, read an article, watch a play, move to the rhythm of a beat, enjoy the artistic view of an Afrikan painting, express ourselves poetically, or embrace a dress code of some sort from the motherland just remember the influence our forefathers had on the development of our consciousness. We owe as Afrikans in America a lot to the American Negro Academy: “Prior to its establishment the black American community had no institution comparable to it.” Moss Jr. 1981:303

Sources: Wilson, Amos 1998 Blue Print For Black Power lecture: https://www.brown-watch.com/mind-is-a-motherfucker-watch-a/2016/7/3/dr-amos-wilson-we-empower-white-people-by-the-nature-of-our.html

Moss, Alfred A. The American Negro Academy: Voice of the Talented Tenth. Louisiana State U.P., 1981.

Vithoulkas, G, and D F Muresanu. “Conscience and Consciousness: a Definition.” Journal of Medicine and Life, Carol Davila University Press, 15 Mar. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956087/.

Thompson, James D. “Handbook of Learned Societies and Institutions: America : Thompson, James David, 1873-1932 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Washington, D.C. : Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/handbookoflearne00thom/page/253.

Picture Sources: Talented Tenth American Negro Academy. “1901 Right On the Scaffold The Martyrs Of 1822 American Negro Academy Slavery.” Worthpoint, 1901, www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1901-right-scaffold-martyrs-1822-1727739801.

Kapadia, Sunil, et al. “Aspects Of Negro Life Greeting Card for Sale by New York Public Library/Aaron Douglas.” Fine Art America, 13 June 2019, fineartamerica.com/featured/aspects-of-negro-life-new-york-public-libraryaaron-douglas.html?product=greeting-card.

Talented Tenth. “American Negro Academy Membership List.” American Negro Academy Membership List, 1917, 1897, credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b010-i006.