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Civil rights movement in the 1950's
American civil rights movement
African American Civil Rights Movement
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Mary Catherine was a white child that grew up in the 1950’s. Back then it was normal for white folk to have black maids cleaning the house and take care of the children. Mary had two black female maids, one was named Odessa Cotter. Odessa was a hard working woman that had a husband: Herbert Cotter, and three children: Theodore, Franklin, and Selma. Odessa worked five days a week, she even worked on Christmas day. “The Long Walk Home” is a movie on Odessa and her family as they take a stand for what they believed in: equal rights. At the beginning of the movie Odessa is dropped off at a park with Mary and some of her white friends by Miriam, the employer of Odessa. After Miriam leaves Odessa is setting up a picnic for the children and getting ready for them to eat. While she was setting up the plates a white police office comes by and insults her to leave. Later that day Miriam calls the police department to come out and apologize to them. Right away I could see Miriam has a little respect for Odessa. Later that day Odessa’s children come home with a letter saying the blacks are g...
This passage bothered me. It is probably the part that bugged me the most about this book. There are many African Americans who are better behaved, smarter, more artistic, more athletic, etc. then white children. There are also many African Americans who are less educated and more poorly behaved than white children, but the same for both of these things go with white children. It bothers me that she knows that if the worst child in the class was white she wouldn't care if the best child in the class was white. I think that throughout the book she often generalizes with African Americans and doesn't even realize it. She claims that she is getting better, but I don't think that she really is. She keeps trying to have the African American children become the same as the white children.
Mary had very loving and caring parents whose names were Sam and Pasty McLeod. Her father, Sam, often worked on the farm that they owned. Her mother, Pasty delivered and picked white people’s laundry. Mary often got to come along and play with the mother’s daughter. Once, Mary got into a fight with a little white girl who said that Mary couldn’t read at that time in South Carolina, it was illegal to teach a black person. This made Mary mad, and she wanted to do something about it.
Brent confronts her reader one on one in order to reemphasize her point. She uses the family and sentiment to appeal to and challenge the 19th century white women reader in order to effectively gain their support in the movement for abolition. Understanding what was going on in our nation, in the southern states, and in the northern states is incredibly important when reading this story. Slaves were nothing more than property and, in many cases, were treated with less respect than the family dog.
Slavery was a practice throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and through slavery, African-American slaves helped build the economic foundation of which America stands upon today, but this development only occurred with the sacrifice of the blood, sweat, and tears from the slaves that had been pushed into exhaustion by the slave masters. A narrative noting a lifetime of this history was the book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African written by Olaudah Equiano. Equiano was a prominent African involved in the British movement for the abolition of the slave trade. He was captured and enslaved as a child in his home town of Essaka in what is now known as south eastern Nigeria, later he was shipped to the West Indies, he then moved to England, and eventually purchased his freedom (Equiano). Olaudah Equiano, with many other millions of slaves, faced many hardships and was treated with inconceivable injustices by white slave masters and because of the severity of these cruel and barbarous occurrences, history will never forget these events.
Freedom riders were a group of men and women young and old who boarded buses and planes bound for the south. There main aim was the get rid of the Jim Crow laws. They would ride through the towns sitting wherever they liked regardless of their race (this was breaking the law in Southern States) A few times, the freedom riders would be met with no resistance, but more often angry racist mobs awaited their arrival at the stations. As a non-violent group, the freedom riders would not fight back to the abuse they received.
Unlike the earlier era, in which they had received freedom but it was so new to them, and they truly didn’t understand what it meant to be a free group, they began to move into a time period where they were finding their voice, and “finding their freedom”. Instead of writing about becoming free, and wanting freedom, they begin to act free. They begin to prove they were free by giving off confident in their culture and in their work. In her writing she has many different subsections where she rebuttals the ideas pushed onto the African American race. She proves the stereotypes wrong using the truth. The first example is, under the section titled “originality” she wrote, “it has been said so often that the negro is lacking in originality that has almost become a gospel. Outward signs seem to bear this out. But if one looks closely its falsity is immediately evident.” and , “So if we look at it squarely, the Negro is a very original being. While he lives and moves in the midst of a white civilian, everything that he touches is re-interpreted for his own use. He has modified the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly the religion of his new country, just as he adapted to suit himself the sheik haircut made famous by Rudolph Valentino.” this passage shows how much she believes in her race. She isn’t asking for anything from anyone. She doesn’t beg for respect, acceptance, or freedom, she is telling them to treat them like they are free. This passage really exemplifies the theme of accepting themselves and their culture during this time period. The African Americans were able to begin to stand up for themselves and up against the falsely acclaimed stereotypes that have been made against them. During this time period they were recreating the culture that had been taken away from them. They were finding their voice through
Since the beginning of American history, citizens who resided the country lacked the basic civil rights and liberties that humans deserved. Different races and ethnicities were treated unfairly. Voting rights were denied to anyone who was not a rich, white male. Women were harassed by their bosses and expected to take care of everything household related. Life was not all that pretty throughout America’s past, but thankfully overtime American citizens’ civil liberties and rights expanded – granting Americans true freedom.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of the Brown v. the Board of Education. This was a very historical moment because their ruling eliminated, the "separate but equal " doctrine. Their ruling called for school integration, although most school were very slow in complying if they complied at all. The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Color People, viewed this ruling as a success. The schools lack of the obedience toward this ruling, made it necessary for black activism to make the federal government implement the ruling, and possibly help close the racial gap that existed in places other than public schools. During one of the boycotts for equality, a leader emerged that would never be forgotten. Dr. Martin Luther King, who was leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, quickly became the spokesperson for racial equality. He believed that the civil rights movement would have more success if the black people would use non violent tactics. Some say he was adopting the style of Ghandi. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC, was formed by King and other activist in 1957. They were a group of black ministers and activist who agreed to try and possibly help others see the effects of a non violent movement. Also following the strategies set by the SCLC, a group known as the SNCC or the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, began a string of sit-in and campaigns as the black population continued it's fight for equality. It was the undying efforts of the two groups that paved the way for the march on Washington. This march which drew a crowd of at least 200,000, was the place that Dr. King, gave his famous "dream speech." Both the SNCC, and the SCLC were victims of lots of threats and attempted attacks, yet they continued to pursue freedom in a non violent fashion. However near the late 60's they had another problem on their hands. There was a group of activist known as the Black Panthers who were not so eager to adopt the non-violent rule. The believed that the civil rights movement pushed by Dr. King and is non-violent campaign, which was meant to give blacks the right to vote and eliminate segregation, was not solving problems faced in poor black communities. This Black Panther group, stabled the term "black power", which was used a sort of uplifting for the black self esteem.
Moody’s position as an African American woman provides a unique insight into these themes through her story. As a little girl, Moody would sit on the porch of her house watch her parents go to work. Everyday she would see them walk down the hill at the break of dawn to go to work, and walk back up when the sun was going down to come back home. At this time in her life, Moody did not understand segregation, and that her parents were slaves and working for a white man. But, as growing up poor and black in the rural south with a single mother trying to provide for her family, Moody quickly realized the importance of working. Working as a woman in the forties and fifties was completely different from males. They were still fighting for gender equality, which restricted women to working low wage jobs like maids for white families. Moody has a unique insight to the world of working because she was a young lady that was working herself to help keep herself and her bother and sister in school. Through work, Moody started to realize what segregation was and how it impacted her and her life. While working for Mrs. Johnson and spending the nights with Miss Ola, she started to realize basic di...
Second wave feminism has proved to have an intense effect on the western societies. The essay second wave feminism focuses on a wide range of issues of women such as work place discrimination, women education, reproduction and many others. Second wave feminists can be grouped into integrationists and radical feminists. The essay explains about the differences between these two groups, the role of women in the society and the benchmarks women have set up regarding gender equality. Women have replaced the old scenario in which women were treated as objects of male desires and needs and led to independent and equal participation along with men (Beauvoir, 1952).
A social justice movement is defined as “a group of diffusely organized people or organizations striving toward a common goal relating to human society or social change” (Dictionary.com). Social justice is ingrained in the history of the University of Maryland because of its proximity to Washington DC and its liberal affiliation. The most infamous protest at the University occurred in 1970. Thousands of demonstrators occupied and vandalized the University 's Main Administration building and ROTC offices, set fires all over the campus, and blocked Route 1, the main artery into College Park. Armed with bricks, rocks, and bottles, the protesters skirmished with police armed with riot batons, tear gas, and dogs (Kiger). In the past and present,
Without question the Civil Rights Movement is still in action. There has been in addition to this fight. People who love each other are being hated for loving someone of their same gender. Racism is still as strong as ever. The oppositions for this is pathetic. Mexicans, Blacks, Middle Easterners, Asians, Lesbian, Gay and Transgender individuals etc, have all been humiliated so they can feel like they do not belong. Stereotypes have taken over this technological era. Any chance someone gets to post a racist, cruel, and or rude comment they do it, for attention. We should not seek attention this way. Instead we should promote love and unity. This is what the Civil Rights Movement is all about. It might feel like a loss of pride for the ones who are opposing, but I cannot stress enough that this it is for the better. Everyone deserves a chance to live their life without the fear of knowing that at any moment society has the power to hurt you, to destroy every part of your being without mercy. It is hard to lead a life full of guilt and self hate because of who you are and who others have defined you to be. There is so much things that one feels when they are categorized by society. There is so much self doubt, insecurity, guilt, and the pain of feeling dirty and small because of how society sees you and labels you. Why is it necessary to label everything and define it. Why cant we all accept the fact that not everyone is the same, and that that doesn't make us any less human. So many chances are lost because people are discouraged because of who they are to society . Many coloured students in school have it hard. Their life isn’t easy at home or school. From personal experience I could tell you that many of the coloured students a...
The civil rights movement in America was and is to this day a historical landmark. It marked a change in thought, a change in society and a change in the political structure as we know it in America. We are now living in the product and the efforts made by the civil rights activists. It is one of the most recent monumental changes that took place in America and for the world by extension back in the 20th century.
In order to make a case that the Black Power Movement was a logical extension of the African American freedom struggle based on the longstanding African American strategies and goals for change, it is important to look at the longstanding strategies and goals, and compare them to the Black Power movement, using the examples of strategies taken by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) in Alabama. Knowing this, it can be determine whether the Black Power movement built upon those strategies, or went against them. There are several noteworthy strategies used in this comparison. The names of these strategies are based off of the people who are synonymous with them. They comparisons are as follows: W.E.B DuBois’ Talented Tenth Plan, Booker T. Washington’s “Cast down your bucket” Plan, Thurgood Marshall’s Legal Campaign, and Dr. Martian Luther King Jr.’s Non-Violence Movement. In addition to determining whether or not the Black Power movement utilized these strategies, it is equally imperative to ask, assuming that the movement went against these strategies, if it was practical or logical, given the circumstances faced by SNCC and the LCFO, not to implement them.
Great African American musicians of the40’s, 50’s, especially 60’s and 70’s, like Jimi Hendrix for example, where not have always been in the headlines for the right reasons. They, Hendrix especially, were not always forefront leaders in movement like the Civil Rights era like Malcolm X or Martin Luther where.. That may be true, but by simply being a successful African American musician in times like these would speak volume, and have profound influence. Jimi Hendrix explained it bests, when he summed up the power behind, not just his music, but all music, when he told us...