Response 17: “The Rights to the Streets of Memphis” Mrs. Wright made the narrator get the groceries, even with the chance of being beaten up. She stated, “Go now! If you come back into this house without those groceries, I’ll whip you!” I believe that she was wrong to do this because although it did teach him to stand up for himself, it got the message across through violence. Children should not learn that violence is the answer to get their way, which I believe this lesson taught the narrator. This experience also made the narrator extremely frightened both in the home environment and the outside environment. The narrator exclaims, “[Mrs. Wright] slammed the door and I heard the key turn in the lock. I shook with fright. I was alone upon
Homer Plessy vs. the Honorable John H. Ferguson ignited the spark in our nation that ultimately led to the desegregation of our schools, which is shown in the equality of education that is given to all races across the country today. “The Plessy decision set the precedent that ‘separate’ facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were ‘equal’” (“The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow”). The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson not only illuminated the racial inequality within our education system, but also brought to light how the standard of ‘separate but equal’ affected every aspect of African American lives.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar born June 27, 1872 in Dayton Ohio. Dunbar mother was a laundress and his father a former slave, soldier and plasterer. As a student Dunbar was the only black in his senior class, nevertheless he was still nominated President of the class. During adulthood Dunbar eloped with Alice Ruth Moore who was a teacher. Dunbar had no children. As editor of his own newspaper “Dayton Tattler” his writing inspiration surface. Many of his family experiences of slave and plantation life influenced Dunbar later writing. There was often controversy about Dunbar dialect poetry, it was said to cruelty misread black history, and it was written for white audience. Before his death on February 9, 1906 Dunbar was considered influential because his poetry influence Harlem Renaissance writers such as James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes and Claude Mckay.
When the crash came in 1929, Darrow and his son Paul were hit hard. Instead of being comfortably well off, Darrow found that he had to go back on the lecture and debate circuit. For the most part, he was content to being more of an entertainer than what he had been earlier in his life – a pleader of causes. In fact, Variety, the Hollywood showbiz paper, described him as “America’s greatest one-man stage draw” (Tierney, 1979, p. 399).
After hundreds of years of slavery in the western world, the end of the American Civil War brought forth a new age of questions which debated what rights qualifed as unalienable civil and human rights, and who should be afforded them. Whether it be the right to marry, the right to own land, the right to work, the right to vote, or the right to be a citizen, African Americans had to fight for and prove that these were rights that could not be denied to them as freedmen in America. After the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, there was a great split in opinion between white and black Americans about what American freedom entailed and whether or not African Americans had fair access to it.
On March 25 1931 nine African American teenagers were caught riding a train illegally at Scottsboro, Alabama they would have been sent away with a minor charge but got in to a fight with white teenagers, they successfully scared them off but one still remained. After the train started picking to a dangers level the one left was hanged out of the train. The other parts of the gage went to the local police station to report them. But after closer examination the deputies found 2 white women Ruby Bates and Victoria Price aboard. None of them would answer any questions Do to the pressure on them they told police they have been raped by 6 of the nine.
Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil and David Richmond were freshmen at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina located in Greensboro. On February 1, 1960, they walked to the F.W. Woolworth Company store, sat on stools meant exclusively for white customers and asked to be served. When they were denied, they remained seated until the store closed. The story of the “Greensboro Four” initiated a movement that would eventually accumulate to over 70,000 sit-in participants within the next year in downtowns all across America.1 While Greensboro did initiate the movement, it would not have been sustained without the help of Nashville, TN. By comparing and contrasting the
While in jail, Martin Luther King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” one of Dr. King’s longest letters. This letter talked about about why some laws should and be broken and why there was such a need for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King wrote “when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity”. This quote is important to the Civil Rights Movement because it emphasizes how many black brothers and sisters were being drowned, beaten, and hated purely on the color of their skin. They were being segregated, one example being “Funtown”, an amusement park for the white children only, Dr. King demanded this to stop. Alongside writing about the Civil Rights Movement, Dr.
The reason for this is because in the story, Sam was staying at his father’s house and while he was there, his mother called several times to know how to cook a lemon-chicken recipe. However, Sam was trying to avoid talking his mother because he told her not to call as he was visiting his father. Also, he mentioned that he will talk to his mother about the letter once he comes back home.The letter was about him wanting his father to get custody over him and also mentioned that he is not trying to hurt her. Furthermore, while Phyllis and Sandra were going back and forth on the phone for a short period, Sandra called again but this time Sam picked up the phone instead. Over the phone, Sandra began to yell at Sam because she got into a little argument with Phyllis which wouldn’t of had happened if Sam picked up the phone. In quote, Sandra said “ You little bastard! Don’t bother coming home. If I never see you again I’ll die happy!” (Schwartz, pg. 83) This quote shows the negative words that Sandra would exchange towards Sam in their relationship. Sam attempts to get away from his mother shows that the relationship is unstable because of the lifestyle his mother lives. He doesn’t like the fact that he lives in a apartment with his mom that treats him poorly because he never does anything wrong. Sam isn’t a bad child who disrespects her all the time. Later in the story, Sam discusses living with his mother in her apartment and he says, “Everything! The cooking, the cleaning, the shouting. Everything!” (Schwartz, pg. 87) In this quote, we can see that in the relationship, Sam holds a lot of responsibility when it comes to taking care of the house because his mom relies on him to cook dinner and clean the house. This is important because it
Since women spent much time in the house especially in the kitchen, women did not have an opinion or voice in legal work. For example, Mrs. Peters was defending the men for doing their job and not allowing Mrs. Hale to talk about injustice. Although most of the murder evidence was in the kitchen giving the power and knowledge the women have in the domestic area, the male counterparts overlooked these pieces of evidence. According to the story, women discovered the evidence the men seek among the kitchen items but the men dismiss it as the potential of trifles that concern women. These men were unable to see the importance of the kitchen things because the kitchen is a woman’s place (Glaspell 148). Thus Glaspell empowers women for having vast knowledge and information due to the time they spent in the house and showed that the women have an advantage over the men since the men underestimate women’s intelligence and believe that the investigation is a man’s job and responsibility. Hence, Mrs. Wright is a woman by gender anything these women take to Minnie is deem harmless concludes the court attorney. Thus, since Mrs. Wright request items such as her apron were below the men’s notice, they left the evidence under the women’s control to hide and clean out. The story also teaches men to allow women to have a voice and input because their lack of concern in domestic issues made it impossible for them to find the evidence they searched for because men take for granted their
The mother walks in sad, cold, and exited. She tells her children there is a woman with a newborn baby and 6 children all in one bed trying to keep warm, and they are starving. She asks her 4 girls if they would give them their breakfast for a new year's gift. “As pap spoke, in came mama looking very cold, rather sad and very excited” This shows the mother was sad, cold, and exited. “My little girls, will you give them your breakfast, as a New Year's gift” This shows that the mother wants to help the poor family. This paragraph is showing she wants to help the family and not being selfish. This is not the only example of unselfishness in this story.
In this narrative essay, Brent Staples provides a personal account of his experiences as a black man in modern society. “Black Men and Public Space” acts as a journey for the readers to follow as Staples discovers the many societal biases against him, simply because of his skin color. The essay begins when Staples was twenty-two years old, walking the streets of Chicago late in the evening, and a woman responds to his presence with fear. Being a larger black man, he learned that he would be stereotyped by others around him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” (135).
When the parents run off without them and never come back for a long time, and when Uncle Trash scams the boys out of everything they own and takes off for days at a time, then sells their belongings and buys cigars and alcohol with the money he made. Growing up being forgotten about can have serious, long lasting effects on children. The author tries to portray the boys as being forgotten so the audience reading will understand that it is a serious issue. “During the knocking down nobody notices our mother. She is a flatfooted running rustle through the corn all burned up by the summer sun”. At the end of the story the mother finally returns to see her house burned down by the sons she left in the hands of their drunken
The practice of civil disobedience has long been discussed as to whether it inspires true social change, or only creates conflict within society. The peaceful resistance of Martin Luther King Jr. can be used as a primary example supporting the positive effects of civil disobedience. While the morality of his actions against the previous law of segregation can be debated, the positive influence of ending segregation is undeniable (Bill of Rights Institute). However, King’s methods of achieving this change, such as peaceful protesting and marches, should not be confused with the non-peaceful rejection of laws. While riots and violence encourage hate and separation, civil disobedience displays how society could function peacefully without the laws being opposed (Bill of Rights Institute). It is then demonstrated that the peaceful resistance to laws, or civil disobedience, positively impacts a free society.
In the story " Introduction to Shelf Life" by Gary Paulsen, the impression i got off Paulsens mother was that she was careless and insensitive towards her son. For example the text states "my mother promptly enrolled me in public school, took me there the first morning, handed me over to a teacher, and left. This detail shows that the mother was eager to get rid of her child and didnt want to have any quality time with her son, an addition to that she handed her son to the teacher and made him everyones issue but hers. The story also states "i sold newspapers, trying to scrape together a little money so that i could buy better clothes." This demonstrates how Paulsens mother is insensitive because her son had to go out and make his own money
Fear can cause people to do thing that they normally wouldn't do. In the text, a party of 17 slaves made arrangements to escape from their masters and head to Canada. One woman from the party was Margaret Garner. Margaret Garner had 4 children that she was trying to escape with. The party arrived to Joe Kite's house to wait until night to cross over to Canada. Joe Kite went up town to ask the counsel, he was told that they were in a very unsafe place and went directly back to his house. Once he arrived at his house, but he was too late, his house was surrounded by the masters and officers. The fugitives decided to fight and began to shoot at the officers. Margaret Garner said she would kill herself and her children before they would return to bondage. As the fugitives were getting overpowered, Margaret Garner grabbed a butcher knife and cut the throat of one of her daughters, as she reached for her other daughter, she was overpowered and arrested. On her way back to slavery, she jumped off the boat and drowned her child to save her from slavery.