June Jordan’s poem, “Poem about my rights” is about a woman who is describing her experiences and the unremittent concern for basic human rights for males and females. It is a personal and emotional poem about her view of the world and how change is needed. Although majority of the poem is written about how Jordan’s basic rights were not given, the poem also includes sections at which the reader sees the need for equal basic rights for both male and female is needed. This essay will comprise of my response to the poem, both as a poem and an oral performance. Throughout the poem Jordan uses repetition and in the oral performance uses her voice to enhance her message and feelings.
In the late 19th century, state and local governments imposed restrictions on voting qualifications which left the African community economically and politically powerless and passed segregation laws, known as Jim Crow laws. Therefore the movement focused on three main areas of discrimination to address, racial segregation, education, and voting rights. Racial segregation is the separation of humans into ethnic groups. Segregation affected many African-Americans day-to-day life, forcing them to go to separate restaurants, water fountains, public toilets, schools, and even making them ride the back of the bus. In 1955 African-Americans in Montgomery, Alabama formed a boycott in protest of the segregated seating on the city buses, In response to Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, getting arrested for refusing
When all blacks were released from slavery, what rights did they really have? During that time, African Americans were not entirely free with all of their desired rights, as they still did not have complete political, economic, and social rights. Back then, African Americans did not have wholesome political rights. According to document A which shows the voting and jury rights of blacks in the north of 1860, only a few states, the New England states, had rights to suffrage. And this was only the male population of the New England region.
From 1954-1968, the majority of Americans worked together to achieve their goal of putting an end to legal laws of discrimination and racial segregation in the United States through the Civil Rights Movement. In the poem, “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, the letter “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., and the article “A Letter To My Son” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, all demonstrate the struggles and unjust lives that African Americans went through back in the days till today. In Hughes’s poem, the readers are being demonstrated that the American Dream is inaccessible for African Americans because of the racial segregation and the usual poverty that most black people lived in. In King Jr.’s letter, he expresses the way laws were constructed to serve injustice to African Americans. In Coates’s letter to his son, he wrote about the racial injustices that African Americans lived through from now and back then.
The ultimate goal of the movement was to achieve equality, and once African Americans were granted basic political rights, and could vote and participate in politics, their economic and social conditions would also slowly become better. In conclusion, the Civil Rights Movement, a major turning point in history, not unlike the women's suffrage movement, affected political rights, which had an impact on the social and economic status of African
During the tumultuous period of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, the goal for bettering the lives of African-Americans was desired by many. However, the means of attaining that goal, varied greatly among the representatives of the movement. The African-American civil rights efforts were spearheaded by men of peaceful protest for integration, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and in contrast leaders such as Malcolm X who expressed separatist ideals. Other groups of civil rights advocated took an outright violent approach, such as the Black Panthers. The first leader, Martin Luther King Jr., was a reverend from Atlanta, Georgia, who advocated peace and tolerance between all races.
Since the 18th century to the 21st century, the United States has witnessed a numerous amount of changes towards their African American population. They started off as slaves to white slave owners, and slowly worked their way to citizens under the 13th amendment in 1865. Even though African Americans were legally citizens, they encountered countless injustices which still occur centuries later. African American literature from the 1900’s can give insight into the changes and similarities of the mindset of blacks, specifically “Still I Rise” (1978) by Maya Angelou and “I, Too, Sing America” (1926) by Langston Hughes. Both literary pieces contain the similar essence in regards to blacks; African Americans will rise into glory, and their true
Jordan lives independently and is in control of her life. She does what she wants and is not concerned about other people’s opinions. Jordan also is the complete opposite of women like Daisy because she does not like “being at a disadvantage” which means she wants to be the dominant one and have control over herself(58). Jordan also has “demands of her...body” which hints that Jordan is not the purest woman(58)). She does not care about chastity and the old ways, and instead she embraces the new age and creates her own rules.
Jordan challenged the occupation that always the man taken, an excellent golfer, took higher education and graduated from a famous college, additionally she gave herself a masculine name. Actually Jordan Baker indicated some acute parts of women in the 1920s. In order to promote women personalities, they attend thousands of parties in extreme dress and got drunk. She is the great example of fighting the right for the women. It is no doubt that there is no women right without her.
One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we’ve come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.” This quote demonstrates how Martin Luther King, Jr. was against Segregation. He even says “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” On the other hand, Governor George C. Wallace points out how he is for segregation. In the text it states, “In the name of the greatest people that ever trod the earth, I draw a line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . .