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American slavery and american freedom essay
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"The Sixties"
Freedom has been discussed and debated for a while now and yet no one can completely agree that it exists. Since the Civil, War America has been conditioned to be divided politically. The conflict over the meaning of freedom continues to exist from the civil war, throughout the sixties and in the present. The Civil War was fought over the question of what freedom means in America. The issue was in the open for all to see: slavery. Human slavery was the shameless face of the idea of freedom. The cultural war in the sixties was once more about the question of what freedom is and what it means to Americans. No slaves. Instead, in the sixties and seventies four main issues dominated the struggle for racial equality: opposition to discriminatory immigration controls; the fight against racist attacks; the struggle for equality in the workplace; and, most explosively, the issue of police brutality. For more than two centuries, Americans demanded successive expansions of freedom; progressive freedom. Americans wanted freedom that grants expansions of voting rights, civil rights, education, public health, scientific knowledge and protections from fear.
HOST: Today, in our studio we have three famous personalities of the sixties. We will be asking about their experiences and how they saw America change in their lifetime. This will give us three different perspectives of struggle during the sixties, and how their definition of freedom differs from each other. First we have one of the most visible advocates of nonviolence and direct action as methods of social change, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
HOST: Dr. King, Welcome to the talk show.
Dr. KING: Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.
HOST: Dr King, tell us how did you get the world to see the struggle of black America?
Dr. KING: "My goal was to draw on traditional American values and deep traditional Christian values in the cause of civil rights and to use the mass media. I knew that television was now putting daily events right into people's living rooms every single day, and if I could shape the way the black movement was presented it would have a powerful effect on public opinion. I used television, in effect, to force white America to think, to face up to what it really wanted the country to be. I knew that Americans are not willing to stand by with all this injustice existing?
If he had not made clear that he was a trustworthy, knowledgeable, and honest man, he would not have made his point clear. King’s statement “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever,” (Martin Luther King 24) is a strong reminder of history. If people do not realize their emotions in a nonviolent way, they will seek violence until they are heard. That statement is one of the strongest concerns to show why direct action was important, as well as, convincing the reader to consider their immoral practices. King goes above any beyond in sharing his beliefs because if he had not, the audience would not have been persuaded. Furthermore, the information and evidence he demonstrated was necessary at that
Throughout history, Americans have sought to spread the spirit of equality, which is believed to be the realization of true freedom. Before establishing this freedom, every American had only one question stuck in their head: What is freedom? Our country received it in the year of 1776 from the British through a series of difficulties and wars. African Americans defined it as an escape from slavery, while immigrants defined it as their acceptance into a new society. More yet, women of the women’s suffrage defined their freedom as their recognition into society and for their rights to be equal to that of every other man. These different perceptions of cultures/groups in America tied together to form an American view of freedom. Freedom is something that every American should be willing to do anything in order to maintain. We may have weapons of mass destruction, but when it comes to living in a peaceful, American lifestyle, our freedom is our greatest weapon.
Everyone that has been through the American school system within the past 20 years knows exactly who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is, and exactly what he did to help shape the United States to what it is today. In the beginning of the book, Martin Luther King Jr. Apostle of Militant Nonviolence, by James A. Colaiaco, he states that “this book is not a biography of King, [but] a study of King’s contribution to the black freedom struggle through an analysis and assessment of his nonviolent protest campaigns” (2). Colaiaco discusses the successful protests, rallies, and marches that King put together. . Many students generally only learn of Dr. King’s success, and rarely ever of his failures, but Colaiaco shows of the failures of Dr. King once he started moving farther North.
Dr. King effectively expresses why his critics are wrong in a passionate tone. He is extremely zealous about the rights that African-Americans have been neglected to have and should have, as well as everyone else. Mr King was criticized for his “untimely” actions in Birmingham. “This wait has almost always meant ‘never.’” (King 264) Martin Luther King isn’t just a bystander witnessing the injustice; he is a victim and one of the few who is willing to fight for justice well deserved.
Dr. King is a man who is over flowed of nothing but creditability. Not once he pointed his finger as a child would and blame the Caucasian men for forcing the African-American to attempt to survive a horrific ordeal of history. He encouraged his brother and sisters of color not to protests with bitter and physical violence but to engage hands and peacefully demand to be treated equally. He encouraged his colored brothers and sisters to go back to where they are from with not despair in their hearts, but hope that one day there will be freedom within reach.
For example, whites had sympathy for African Americans and parents had sympathy for their children. The way that King tells his speech takes the focus off of race and reestablishes it on the aspiration of a world without racism. “.by making his audience no longer hate Negroes and instead hate racism and wish for a new, better world.” (L., Anson). Dr. King made the audience sympathize with African Americans, helping the audience realize that racist people and biased ideas caused the true dilemma of discrimination.
The documentary “Sixties: Years that Shaped a Generation” illustrates a period in United States history defined by cultural movement. Several citizen led campaigns were developed to challenge long established American institutions and traditions. This age of defiance, cultivated a counter culture which stood against social injustice, racial inequalities, and the war in Vietnam.
The Who, a band defined by their destructive stage performances and appeal to the rock ‘n’ roll scene of the 1960’s, revolutionized the music world with their hit “My Generation” in the fall of 1965 (Erlewine). The four band members, Pete Townshend, Rodger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon, took the world by storm with the song as it appealed to the younger population and defiantly projected hatred towards the old and wise (Greene, Simon, and Schuster). “My Generation” was a call to the conservative adults of the 1960’s that traditional principles were of the past, and the vibrant, young aged had arrived and were there to stay (Shmoop Editorial Team).
The 1960’s and early 1970’s were a time that eternally changed the culture and humanity of America. It was a time widely known for peace and love when in reality; many minorities were struggling to gain a modicum of equality and freedom. It was a time, in which a younger generation rebelled against the conventional norms, questioning power and government, and insisting on more freedoms for minorities. In addition, an enormous movement began rising in opposition to the Vietnam War. It was a time of brutal altercations, with the civil rights movement and the youth culture demanding equality and the war in Vietnam put public loyalty to the test. Countless African-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, women, and college students became frustrated, angry, and disillusioned by the turmoil around them.
To some people the 1960s were the best of times, to others it was a
This letter addressed the criticism he received while peacefully protesting. It was also a response to the injustices he witnessed and experienced while visiting the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Birmingham branch. He explains how he and the SCLC organized their plans of nonviolent action for change in not only the segregated schools in Alabama, but for the discriminated people of America. Dr. King declares, “Justice too long delayed is justice denied” (344). He states that African American people have waited more than 340 years for constitutional and God-given rights (King 344). His pleas for recognition of the mass injustices and his assemblies of nonviolent actions caused a wave of changes to occur across the country. His teachings and actions paved the way for African Americans and other minorities to be given the opportunity to exceed expectations and not to be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. One such person became our 44th President.
The definition of freedom depends entirely on how the phrase “freedom from…” ends. Perhaps a most straightforward understanding of freedom is the laissez-faire emphasis on limiting the power of government to interfere in economic and social matters. In this state of absolute freedom, however, inequalities exist between people, so that freedom from a controlling government does not imply individuals’ freedom of contract, movement, legal protection, equal rights through citizenship, or political voice. In light of the persistence of slavery in the US through the 19th century, freedom as an individual’s legal status separated people who could be citizens from people who were lifelong slaves. Even among legally free people, economic inequalities restricted the practical freedom of many, particularly through voting requirements and dependence on a crop lien system that severely restricted mobility and freedom of contract and trade. In the boom of industry, terms like “wage slavery” drew attention to the lack of freedom of working class people to assemble as unions, to contract for a family wage, to receive education and medical care, and to fulfill the “American Dream” of to improving their living conditions through hard work. These inabilities were imposed not by a government that infringed upon personal liberties, but from a harsh capitalist economy that created an increasingly poorer lower class and, despite capitalist rhetoric, restricted social mobility based on merit and sharpened the division between socioeconomic classes. By the turn of the twentieth century, groups like the Populists and Progressives were calling for radical changes in government oversight of business, expansion of national currency, and subsequent redist...
In his speech, he proclaimed a free and better nation of equality and that both races, the blacks and the whites, should join together to achieve common ground and to support each other instead of fighting against one another. King’s vision is that all people should be judged by their “personality and character and not by their color of skin”(‘I Have a Dream”). All points he made in his speech were so strong that lots of people were interested in his thoughts. He dreamed of a land where the blacks could vote and have a reason to vote and where every citizen would be treated the same and with the same justice. He felt that all Americans should be equal and that they should forget about injustice and segregation. He wanted America to know what the problems were and wanted to point out the way to resolve these problems.
Although the sixties were a decade in which the United States became a more open, more tolerant, and a freer country, in some ways it became less of these things. During the sixties, America intervened in other nations and efforts were made to stop the progress of the civil rights movement. Because of America’s foreign policy and Americans fight against the civil rights movement, it is clear that the sixties in America were not purely a decade of openness, tolerance, and freedom in the United States.
“Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.” These are the words of Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States of America, speaking on the topic of freedom, a subject he frequently dealt with during his long presidency. Over the years, freedom in the U.S. has become an increasingly controversial topic, and the effectiveness of the government in affording these freedoms has been called into question. Through certain historical documents and events, the government’s effectiveness at ensuring freedoms for all can be confirmed. The occurrences of several major events in the history of America eventually gave all blacks equal rights and fostered a culture of change in American society. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, written by President Abraham Lincoln, was one of the most