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Booker T. Washington
Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved writer in the 1700s who became the first Black person to publish poetry in the United States. She was born in Africa, sold into slavery in the U.S., and bought by the Wheatley family, who educated her and encouraged her writing. Reynolds and Kendi cite her as one of the earliest “extraordinary Negroes”—she caused public controversy because white people didn’t think that Black people were intelligent enough to write poetry. She forced racists to come up with the theory that slavery made Black people into savages.
Phillis Wheatley Quotes in Stamped
The Stamped quotes below are all either spoken by Phillis Wheatley or refer to Phillis Wheatley. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 28
Quotes
In the book, he claimed to be exempt from being an “extraordinary Negro,” but racist Americans of all colors would in 2004 begin hailing Barack Obama, with all his public intelligence, morality, speaking ability, and political success, as such. The “extraordinary Negro” hallmark had come a mighty long way from Phillis Wheatley to Barack Obama, who became the nation’s only African American in the US Senate in 2005. With Phillis Wheatley, racists despised the capable Black mind, but with Obama, they were turning their backs on history so that they could see him as a symbol of a post-racial America. An excuse to say the ugliness is over.
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Phillis Wheatley Quotes in Stamped
The Stamped quotes below are all either spoken by Phillis Wheatley or refer to Phillis Wheatley. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 28
Quotes
In the book, he claimed to be exempt from being an “extraordinary Negro,” but racist Americans of all colors would in 2004 begin hailing Barack Obama, with all his public intelligence, morality, speaking ability, and political success, as such. The “extraordinary Negro” hallmark had come a mighty long way from Phillis Wheatley to Barack Obama, who became the nation’s only African American in the US Senate in 2005. With Phillis Wheatley, racists despised the capable Black mind, but with Obama, they were turning their backs on history so that they could see him as a symbol of a post-racial America. An excuse to say the ugliness is over.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
