Essay On Rubin Carter

Back in the early 1900s, every African American faced racial discrimination in some kind of way and many did not realize how they were affected. Rubin Carter never gave up as he faced difficult problems relating to racial discrimination. His struggle with prejudice throughout his childhood, and career left a lasting impact on the need for civil rights due to being wrongfully convicted. Racial discrimination was a huge problem in the North during the 1930s and African Americans faced hard times because of this crisis. Clearly, Rubin Carter faced many harsh consequences during his childhood.
Rubin Carter was one of many African Americans who was racially discriminated and faced with segregation for years during the mid 1900s in Paterson, New Jersey. (“Rubin Carter”) During the 1930s and early 1940s, African Americans in the south were stuck in a sharecropping system where they would work extremely hard for only a percentage of the money the crop made. ("Great Migration.")The Sharecropper still treated them poorly and they wanted to escape from this system immediately. So the Great Migration began, which was when African Americans started to migrate to the North from the South in large groups. ("Great Migration.") Although there was not a huge amount of serious segregation like schools or public restrooms during this time, African Americans still dealt with it. Rubin Carter was twice wrongly convicted of a triple murder and imprisoned for almost twenty years because of his race. (“Rubin Carter”) He was wrongly accused because he and his friend fit the description of the killers, which was “two negroes in a white car.” In the North, such as New Jersey racial segregation was becoming more intense in the end of the 1940s. Schools wer...

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...ecause of his race he spent nearly twenty years in prison but kept a positive attitude during the those years, which paid off in the end. His many accomplishments such as writing his auto- biography have showed people how it was different for African Americans back in the mid 1900s. It also showed how he felt during the twenty years in prison. Lastly, the organization for wrongly convicted founded by Rubin Carter has helped many people today and has shown how his fight paid off. Thanks to Debbie Oakley for taking his position, it will continue to help people trapped in this horrible crisis. Therefore, because Rubin Carter never gave up he was able to overcome racial discrimination during his time. He has taught people around the country that people should not be judged because they are different and African Americans especially should not be looked at as diverse.