The two writings, “A Letter Home” and “Waiting for Dan,” both reveal similarities and differences in how they view their American historical events. In “A Letter Home,” Kara, a student from Kent State University in Ohio writes a letter to her parents about a protest that took place at her campus during the Vietnam War. In “Waiting for Dan,” a wife is waiting for her husband to come home after an incident that occurred on the Freedom Ride during the American Civil Rights Movement. Through these two stories, they share a few similarities and differences with their protesters at Kent State University and first Freedom Rides. To start off, the protesters in Ohio and the first Freedom Rides share a comparison between their characters’ actions …show more content…
She adds on with how the students reacted to that; buildings on campus were burnt, bonfires were set downtown, police cars were attacked with bottles, and store windows were shattered (as shown in paragraph two). In the beginning, before Kara starts her letter, background information is given to the reader as to why might the students reacted that way: “Many American opposed the war and wanted it to end.” Given this, it allows the reader to understand that the students from Kent State University protested because they did not have the same view or were satisfied with American soldiers attacking Cambodia. This is similar to what the freedom riders did in “Waiting for Dan.” The freedom riders were riding a bus to remind America it was important that everyone should have the same rights. The people who rode were African American, and because this story takes place during the American Civil Rights Movement, they were not treated equally as white people. Since they were African American, this caused many to react in a violent way: “An angry crowd mobbed one bus, and riders were savagely beaten; the other bus was firebombed” (6). Due to this, many of them were put into prison, leaving many families and others concerned. Besides their characters’ actions, “A Letter Home” and
Black liberation was stalled once again in 1961 and 1962, as white savagery reared its head again and black people were forced to deal with the reality that success was not inevitable, yet. Still more "sit-ins", "shoe- ins" were led to combat segregation in public places which were met with violent responses from some white people. These responses ranged from burning down a bus with black people to assaulting black passengers on a train car in Anniston. These racist white people also targeted other white people who were deemed as sympathizers to black struggle or "nigger lovers". Police refused to arrest the white aggressors and in some cases also refused to protect the black people. The Freedom Rides resulted in both losses and gains in the civil rights movement. People came to the realization that justice will not be won through merely trying to persuade Southern whites with peaceful protest but only "when
Anne Moody's story is one of success filled with setbacks and depression. Her life had a great importance because without her, and many others, involvement in the civil rights movement it would have not occurred with such power and force. An issue that is suppressing so many people needs to be addressed with strength, dedication, and determination, all qualities that Anne Moody strived in. With her exhaustion illustrated at the end of her book, the reader understands her doubt of all of her hard work. Yet the reader has an outside perspective and knows that Anne tells a story of success. It is all her struggles and depression that makes her story that much more powerful and ending with the greatest results of Civil Rights and Voting Rights for her and all African Americans.
This documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault’s book “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice”. It was a radical idea organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that alarmed not only those who challenged the civil rights but also deliberately defied Jim Crows Law that were enacted between 1876 and 1965, by challenging the status quo by riding the interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups. This law segregated public services like public transportation, public places, public schools, restrooms, restaurants, and even drinking fountains for black and whites. Though these activists were faced by various bitter racism, mob violence and imprisonment, they were successful in desegregating the buses and bus facilities in the Deep South in September 22, 1961. They strove for nonviolent protest for justice and freedom of African Americans freedom.
On May 4, 1961, the Freedom Riders left the safety of the integrated, northern city of Washington D.C. to embark on a daring journey throughout the segregated, southern United States (WGBH). This group of integrated white and black citizens rode together on buses through different towns to test the effectiveness of newly designed desegregation laws in bus terminals and areas surrounding them (Garry). Founded by the Congress of Racial Equality (Garry) , or CORE, the first two Freedom Ride buses included thirteen people as well as three journalists to record what would become imperative historical events in the Civil Rights Movement. This group of fifteen people would begin to emerge as an organization that would eventually reach 400 volunteers (WGBH). Those involved were mostly young, college students whose goal it was, as said by the CORE director James Farmer, to “…create a crisis so that the federal government would be compelled to enforce the law.” (Smith). But on their journey throughout these southern states, the Freedom Riders faced many challenges, threats, and dangers.
Claudette Colvin attended Booker T. Washington High School, where she was very studious. Claudette's family did not have enough money to afford a car, so she relied on the city's gold-and-green buses. On March 2, 1955 when Colvin was about 15 years of age, she was arrested for violation the local law. She refused to give up her seat to a group of white men that boarded the bus shortly after. She was on a bus called the Capital Heights, which was the same bus and the same year that Rosa Parks committed the same "crime" as Claudette only 9 months later. On this day, four white men got on the bus, and Claudette was sitting somewhere near the emergency exit. She was looking out the window when the white men stopped at her seat and said nothing. The bus driver ordered her to give up her seat to one of the men, and she ignored the order. She has given her seat up to white people before, but this is the day she was fed up with it. Claudette heard what the bus driver was saying, but she decided that day she was not giving up her seat to a white man just becau...
This essay has compared the differences between the societies in these two novels. There is one great similarity however that both make me thankful for having been born into a freethinking society where a person can be truly free. Our present society may not be truly perfect, but as these two novels show, it could be worse.
The focus of the video documentary "Ain't Scared of your Jails" is on the courage displayed by thousands of African-American people who joined the ranks of the civil rights movement and gave it new direction. In 1960, lunch counter sit-ins spread across the south. In 1961, Freedom Rides were running throughout the southern states. These rides consisted of African Americans switching places with white Americans on public transportation buses. The whites sat in the back and black people sat in the front of the public buses. Many freedom riders faced violence and defied death threats as they strived to stop segregation by participating in these rides. In interstate bus travel under the Mason-Dixon Line, the growing movement toward racial equality influenced the 1960 presidential campaign. Federal rights verses state rights became an issue.
Both stories, Response to Executive Order 9066 and "Mericans", establish a common American Identity theme. The main idea of these two stories is how people may or may not relate to their cultures. Both are narrated by teenage girls, and both establish a common theme that your appearance does not define you.
...ing little room for imagination. It shows the negative effects that people will go through when under the thumb of society, it shows the importance of each, individual person being equal despite their variance. The Short Bus, is an important mark in Human Rights history; it is important because it accounts for people, people who have had very little representation prior and people who can now begin believing that their disability isn’t the end of who they are and can become. In relation to Human Rights, this is just another violation to peoples basic life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that has guided this country for many years; it is a discrimination that needs to end and a discrimination that almost everyone has participated in at one point in their life.
Another big difference between the protests is that Kara and Dan were not supporting/protesting the same cause. Kara wanted to protest the soldiers from violating their privacy at their university and for attacking Cambodia. She felt that it was unfair for the soldiers to have immediately turned to creating a “war” with Cambodia. Unlike Kara’s protest, Dan was against discrimination, which isn’t related to countries or college. He wanted everyone to be equal and have the same rights.
Erin Gruwell began her teaching career at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California where the school is integrated but it’s not working. Mrs. Gruwell is teaching a class fill with at-risk teenagers that are not interested in learning. But she makes not give up, instead she inspires her students to take an interest in their education and planning for their future as she assigned materials that can relate to their lives. This film has observed many social issues and connected to one of the sociological perspective, conflict theory. Freedom Writers have been constructed in a way that it promotes an idea of how the community where the student lives, represented as a racially acceptable society. The film upholds strong stereotypes of
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi is a narrated autobiography depicting what it was like to grow up in the South as a poor African American female. Her autobiography takes us through her life journey beginning with her at the age of four all the way through to her adult years and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The book is divided into four periods: Childhood, High School, College and The Movement. Each of these periods represents the process by which she “came of age” with each stage and its experiences having an effect on her enlightenment. She illustrates how important the Civil Rights Movement was by detailing the economic, social, and racial injustices against African Americans she experienced.
The 2007 movie Freedom Writers gives a voice of hope and peace in a fragile environment where hate and sorrow battle in the life of urban teenagers. This drama film narrates the true story of a new English teacher, Erin Growell, who is designated to work in an inner-city school full of students surround by poverty, violence and youth crime bands. During the beginning of the movie, the teacher struggles to survive her first days at this racially segregated school in which students prejudice her for being white and ignore her authority in the classroom. The teacher encounters the life of students who are hopeless for a better future and attached to a delinquency lifestyle of survival. In addition, she confronts a reality of lack of educational
The film Freedom Writers directed by Richard La Gravenese is an American film based on the story of a dedicated and idealistic teacher named Erin Gruwell, who inspires and teaches her class of belligerent students that there is hope for a life outside gang violence and death. Through unconventional teaching methods and devotion, Erin eventually teaches her pupils to appreciate and desire a proper education. The film itself inquiries into several concepts regarding significant and polemical matters, such as: acceptance, racial conflict, bravery, trust and respect. Perhaps one of the more concentrated concepts of the film, which is not listed above, is the importance and worth of education. This notion is distinctly displayed through the characters of Erin, Erin’s pupils, opposing teachers, Scott and numerous other characters in the film. It is also shown and developed through the usage of specific dialogue, environment, symbolism, and other film techniques.
...n people have nothing. If people had more compassion for others the United States would not have all the problems that it does today. Mrs. Erin Gruwell had compassion for the students; when they saw how much she cared they changed their perspectives on life. Against all odds toward against Mrs. Erin Gruwell, she had the power of human will to teach the student. The writer introduced several scenarios on how young innocent children were influenced by family and friends of the same racial background to create hatred and gang’s violence against other races. Five messages in Freedom Writer are: Non judgmental, Racism, having compassion, the power of the human will, and education. Being non judgmental, having compassion and having human will helped Mrs. Erin Gruwell educate the children at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School. Segregated by race, united with education.