Benjamin Mays: Civil Rights Activist

Who was John Lewis? John Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama and grew up in a family of sharecroppers. He also grew up in an area of segregated schools. Lewis went to college in Nashville, Tennessee at Fisk University, where he learned about nonviolent protests. Lewis helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and joined the freedom riders.

Andrew Young was born into a middle class family in New Orleans, and from a young age he knew what he believed in and was always very passionate about it. He was a very important civil rights leader, and still is today. Throughout his life he has made some amazing accomplishments, gotten incredible awards, and has made major changes in the civil rights movement. Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was born on March 12th, 1932. He was born into a middle class family in New Orleans, Louisiana during the Great Depression.

James L. Farmer . (January 12 , 1920-July 9 , 1999) was a civil rights activist and a leader in the American civil rights movement “who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation” , And he served alongside Martin Luther King Jr. (He was the initiator and organizer of the 1961 freedom ride) , which eventually led to the Desegregation of inter-state transportation in the united states of America. James L. Farmer was interested in Racial Equality , he was the co-founder the Committee Of Racial Equality in Chicago with George Houser and Bernice Fisher .

Martin Luther King Martin Luther King! He was amazing, and important man towards Civil Rights! It’s a shame that he got assassinated! Wait, What?

Growing up in a prominently white family with very little diversity aside from some cousins with Bolivian, Chinese, and Vietnamese backgrounds, I can’t say I grew up with really any black culture. I went to schools that were evidently white and then was taught history only made by white Americans. The only time we ever discussed the crucial past of black history was in February during Black History Month. How can we segregate black and white history when black history is American history?

It takes a great deal of courage to fight for something that’s bigger than you. Activity 3: Imagine what the world would be like if the very few brave souls who live in it chose not to stand up against the evil that, in most circumstances, outweighs the good. Only a handful of people are brave enough to set aside their fears and perform acts that benefit the greater good. Works of fiction call these people superheroes, we simply call them heroes. Martin Luther

Booker T Washington was an Civil rights activist, educator, author, orator, and advisor for many presidents. Washington was the most influential African American male in the late 19 century and early 20th. Booker Taliaferro Washington was born on April 5, 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia. He was raised by his mother, Jane, who was a slave ; his father, was an unidentified white male. In most states prior to the Civil War, the child of a slave became a slave, it was also illegal to teach slaves to read and write.

African Americans are considered to be a racial minority, but even with this on our shoulders African Americans can still rise up in their own field of expertise. Take Michelle Alexander as a strong example for an African American,a woman, to become so successful in her life so far. She is a writer, civil rights advocate, and a professor of law at Ohio State University. How did she get to this place in her life? Michelle started as a graduate to Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University.

This source has authority because the interviewer, Robert Penn Warren, was a man who was both a poet and a novelist. He used his poetry to fight for civil rights. Warren supported civil rights movements which reveals that he is truly knowledgable about the topics that are discussed in the interview. The source is a recording of Martin Luther King himself so it is a reliable source where his words are not changed or overrexaggerated. This assures that the statements declared in the interview are his true beliefs and not made up by somebody trying to make him seem different than he actually was.

There are several borders that are crossed every day. Border crossing is a hotly debated topic and immediately images of physical borders come to mind, however, nonphysical borders have been just as prevalent in the past and modern history of several nations. Nonphysical borders, such as the border between citizens and politics, have been manufacturers of social change for centuries. In the United States the border between citizens and politics has always had an active role especially when the need for political change arises. While government leaders have supreme power and are entrusted to make change, citizens need to be heard in politics and need to have the ability to make political change.

Danny Lyon is a New York City based photographer who was heavily involved in the civil-rights movement. According to Vince Aletti from The New Yorker magazine, Lyon ended up in a Georgia jail in 1962, with Martin Luther King, Jr., in a nearby cell. A year later, he was given the opportunity to become the staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Lyon had a passion for social change so he fully immersed himself in the cultures and communities he documented. Throughout the period of the civil-rights movement, he recorded marches, sit-ins, arrests, and the aftermath of bombings.

Martin Luther King Jr. spent his days fighting for the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Knowing the dangers of those who oppose him, King travels to Memphis, Tennessee to deliver “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to the sanitary workers. In his speech, King utilizes words with heavy connotation and paralipsis, as well as several others, in order to unite the people and proclaim nonviolence rebellion. Martin Luther King Jr. begins by alluding to the Bible before the crowd in order to make his message more relatable and clarify his objective; saying, “I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promise land.” He continues using repetition to rally the people and affirm his support, saying, “I wouldn’t stop there,” when referring to places and times that he could go to help the cause.