Julian Bond's Role In The Civil Rights Movement

404 Words1 Page

Since the 1960’s, Julian Bond has acquired a leading figure role in the civil rights movement. Currently teaching history at the University of Virginia, he was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Clearly, throughout his interview he admires and resents Jefferson simultaneously. Conflicted with Jefferson’s position on slavery, as an African American, Bond can’t make sense of Jefferson’s vision of liberty and equal rights when, in fact, he owned slaves himself. Although, this does not diminish Jefferson’s character in his eyes, he is convinced it is a disgrace to his generation. Surprisingly, Bond also considered his perception for Sally Hemings, unruffled by the romantic relationship between them. Ultimately disappointed in the way he lived his private life, nonetheless, he was proud of Jefferson’s perspective on freedom. …show more content…

Unlike Bond, Franklin felt no remorse for Jefferson’s contradicting manner. Admitting forgiveness for Jefferson’s transgressions, he is undoubtedly sure he recognized his actions. Franklin believed he was satisfied with the institution of slavery, considering his fear of setting his slaves free. Although, he was not at all a hero to him, Franklin respected Jefferson as a talented and brilliant American. Quickly dismissing Sally Hemings as his mistress, Franklin was more interested in pointing out the exploitation of all African Americans. Granting all this, Franklin concluded Jefferson’s legacy was a gift and a curse; one should observe the importance of the Declaration of Independence despite his particular position on

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Annalysis of Benjamin Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1791 Benjamin Banneker, the son of former slaves, astronomer, and almanac author, wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson, in a courteous but forceful manner, challenging the framer of the Declaration of Independence and secretary of state on the topics of race and freedom. He touches on the topics of the way blacks were treated and seen by the common white American citizen and how it is an injustice. In his letter, Banneker uses ethos, logos, pathos, repetition, syntax, and juxtaposition to sympathize with Jefferson about former hardships to perhaps reach common ground.

    Read More

  • Book Review of The Strange Career of Jim Crow

    2071 Words  | 5 Pages

    Woodward’s The Strange Career of Jim Crow immediately became an influential work both in the academic and real worlds because of the dramatic events that coincided with the book’s publication and subsequent revisions. It was inspired from a series of lectures that Woodward delivered at the University of Virginia in 1954 on the Jim Crow policies that the South had reverted to in order to deal with the dynamics of its Negro population. The original publication debuted in 1955, just prior to the explosive events that would occur as part of the civil rights movement climax. Because of these developments in less than a decade, the book’s topic and audience had drastically changed in regard to the times surrounding it. Woodward, realizing the fluidity of history in context with the age, printed a second edition of the book in 1966 to “take advantage of the new perspective the additional years provide” and “to add a brief account of the main developments in ...

    Read More

  • A Nation Under Our Feet Summary

    534 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first part of this book looks into African American political activity during the pre-Civil War and Civil War periods. He uses this part of the book to show that blacks, even while in slavery, used their position to gain rights from their slaveholders. These rights included the right to farm their own plots, sale of their produce, and to visit neighboring plantations. This was also the period

    Read More

  • Benjamin Banneker's Letter To Jefferson

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery in the United States of America occurred throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. During this time, over 305,000 slaves were imported into present-day America. In 1791, Benjamin Banneker, a self-educated mathematician, astronomer, and writer, wrote a letter to the secretary of state at the time, Thomas Jefferson. Banneker said to Jefferson, “ I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity, to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevails with respect to us.” This was Banneker’s main purpose of the letter: He wanted to inform Jefferson of the unfairness and injustice slavery brings. Benjamin Banneker’s incorporates ethos, pathos, and logos throughout his letter and that is what makes it such an impactful piece of writing.

    Read More

  • Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow

    2031 Words  | 5 Pages

    The original edition of The Strange Career of Jim Crow had as its thesis that segregation and Jim Crow Laws were a relative late comer in race relations in the South only dating to the late 1880s and early 1890s. Also part of that thesis is that race relations in the South were not static, that a great deal of change has occurred in the dynamics of race relations. Woodward presents a clear argument that segregation in the South did not really start forming until the 1890s. One of the key components of his argument is the close contact of the races during slavery and the Reconstruction period. During slavery the two races while not living harmoniously with each other did have constant contact with each other in the South. This c...

    Read More

  • Benjamin Banneker Analysis

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Using his personal experience, persuasive arguments and a polite but firm tone, Banneker was able to offer Jefferson and unique and powerful perspective on the plight of the African Americans living both in captivity and freedom. By using Jefferson’s own words, he heightened the impact of his argument and could more easily point out his hypocrisy. By maintaining his tone throughout, he created the opening to continued discourse on this important subject matter. He knew he had to walk a fine line in his communication with someone in a position to make changes in this brand new

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Anne Moody's Coming Of Age In Mississippi

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anne Moody’s memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, is an influential insight into the existence of a young girl growing up in the South during the Civil-Rights Movement. Moody’s book records her coming of age as a woman, and possibly more significantly, it chronicles her coming of age as a politically active Negro woman. She is faced with countless problems dealing with the racism and threat of the South as a poor African American female. Her childhood and early years in school set up groundwork for her racial consciousness. Moody assembled that foundation as she went to college and scatter the seeds of political activism. During her later years in college, Moody became active in numerous organizations devoted to creating changes to the civil rights of her people. These actions ultimately led to her disillusionment with the success of the movement, despite her constant action. These factors have contributed in shaping her attitude towards race and her skepticism about fundamental change in society.

    Read More

  • The Concept Of Presentism In Douglas L. Jefferson And Paul Finkelman

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    His writings show how he truly views slavery. In the first document, found in the Declaration of Independence, he claims that King George III is violating the rights of Africans by taking them and selling them into slavery elsewhere in the world. In the last document, written to Holmes regarding the Missouri Compromise, he states how people would be happier having a greater surface for the slave trade. This is a perfect example of how Jefferson was hypocritical; he simply contradicted himself. Although these documents were written forty years or so apart, I believe that it is still important to note his hypocrisy. This is mainly because Jefferson owned slaves throughout this entire time

    Read More

  • The Strange Career of Jim Crow

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    C. Vann Woodward’s book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, has been hailed as a book which shaped our views of the history of the Civil Rights Movement and of the American South. Martin Luther King, Jr. described the book as “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” The argument presented in The Strange Career of Jim Crow is that the Jim Crow laws were relatively new introductions to the South that occurred towards the turn of the century rather than immediately after the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Woodward examines personal accounts, opinions, and editorials from the eras as well as the laws in place at the times. He examines the political history behind the emergence of the Jim Crow laws. The Strange Career of Jim Crow gives a new insight into the history of the American South and the Civil Rights Movement.

    Read More

  • Hollitz 6

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jefferson feared the immigrants could explode into “unbounded licentiousness” doing so would bring down the curtains of the new republic. He also feared that unless men obeyed their moral sense and exercised self-control they would “live at random” and destroy the republican order. In Jefferson’s view, slavery was not only a violation of black’s rights to liberty, it also undermined the self-c...

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance: Planned Phenomenon and The Search for An Identity

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lewis’s viewpoint is not without it’s truths. The Harlem renaissance was overseen by a number of intellectuals such as Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Dubois. Booker T. Washington‘s, a highly influential speaker of the age, words appealed to both Caucasians and African-Americans. Washington forged an interracial bridge of communication through his unique tactics in the quest for equality. He believed in more subtle ways of gaining equality through hard work, cunning, and humility. He stated, “The wisest among my race understands that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.”(Salley, 15) With this statement, Washington himself denies that this new awakening in equality and arts could be forced,...

    Read More

  • Simple Justice

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    This story was set in the deep south were ownership of African Americans was no different than owning a mule. Demonstrates of how the Thirteenth Amendment was intended to free slaves and describes the abolitionist’s efforts. The freedom of African Americans was less a humanitarian act than an economic one. There was a battle between the North and South freed slaves from bondage but at a certain cost. While a few good men prophesied the African Americans were created equal by God’s hands, the movement to free African Americans gained momentum spirited by economic and technological innovations such as the export, import, railroad, finance, and the North’s desire for more caucasian immigrants to join America’s workforce to improve our evolving nation. The inspiration for world power that freed slaves and gave them initial victory of a vote with passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. A huge part of this story follows the evolution of the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment more acts for civil rights.

    Read More

  • Historical Methodology

    2024 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.

    Read More

  • Human Dignity in A Lesson Before Dying

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Grant and Jefferson are on a journey. Though they have vastly different educational backgrounds, their commonality of being black men who have lost hope brings them together in the search for the meaning of their lives. In the 1940’s small Cajun town of Bayonne, Louisiana, blacks may have legally been emancipated, but they were still enslaved by the antebellum myth of the place of black people in society. Customs established during the years of slavery negated the laws meant to give black people equal rights and the chains of tradition prevailed leaving both Grant and Jefferson trapped in mental slavery in their communities.

    Read More

  • Thomas Jefferson President And Philosopher Summary

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    After regulating the tax system and supporting almost money for the American revolution, Thomas Jefferson spent many years in Paris, France to face with big debt came from the revolutionary changes. It was also the moment that Thomas Jefferson met and started a relationship with a fourteen-year-old lady named Sally Hemings. The relationship between Thomas and his mistress lasted for a few years before the problem occurred. In 1789, Sally Hemings was pregnant at the same time Thomas Jefferson wanted to come back to Virginia. She remained to stay in Paris, where did not care about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and her, which was maintained as a man and his mistress. Paris was also the place that young lady would be safe from becoming the victim of the slave trade, which would happen in Virginia. In addition, Sally Hemings’ age at that time was almost the same as the age Thomas Jefferson’s oldest daughter, which could be a big problem for Sally in Virginia. Facing with the concern of his mistress, Thomas Jefferson gave her a promise that her children would be free at the age of twenty-one to convince Sally returning Virginia. Eventually, Thomas Jefferson kept his promise, all of

    Read More

More about Julian Bond's Role In The Civil Rights Movement

Open Document