Afraid Of The Dark By Rosemary Bray Essay

In the 1960s life for African Americans was not the best, yet neither was it the worse. As many African Americans had already experienced the agonizing pain in slavery. In the 60s, the battle for civil rights had defined the decade. All beginning in February of 1960 when four African American students sat down at a “Whites-Only” counter and refused to leave. The uproar began when thousands blocked segregated restaurants and shops across the upper south, which drew the country’s attention to “Jim Crow” laws. There was a movement in Chicago known as the Chicago Freedom Movement which was led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Rosemary L. Bray, her mother, her abusive father and younger siblings all attended the march which demanded changes like equality for schools in the City of Chicago. In this memoir Unafraid of the Dark held many phenomenal

Bray’s father possessed and her, her mother, and younger siblings all were victims, not only physically but verbal as well. It was difficult for Ms. Bray to deal with the behavior, yet she managed. Ms. Bray and her siblings weren’t physically abused as much as their mother was, which was still just as painful when they could hear the “slapping sound of flesh against flesh and the thump of their mother’s body against the wall.” (p.8).The violence was often and many times Ms. Bray would step in to protect her mother which always did not help much. As Ms. Bray got older she began to not only stand up for her mother, but herself and what she believed in as well. As the reader the violence that was read transported many emotions between wrath, melancholy and helplessness. Domestic violence cases are always hurtful especially since it frequently derives from loved ones. Not only for the characters, but as for the reader as well, it was a relieving feeling that after many years of pain Ms. Bray, her mother, and her siblings all felt free once their father passed