Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North by Thomas J. Sugrue is a comprehensive description of the civil rights movement in the North. Sugrue shows Northern African Americans who assembled against racial inequality, but were excluded from postwar affluence. Through fine detail and eloquent style, Sugrue has explained the growth and hardships integral in the struggles for liberties of black Americans in the North. The author explores the many civil rights victories—such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Act of 1965—but also takes the reader on a journey of many lesser known issues that occurred throughout states in the North and Mid-west United States. Sugrue illustrates the struggles of black
Oppression is a topic that was debated across the United States. The cruel treatment that African Americans were subjected to led to a civil war. Benjamin Banneker, Olaudah Equiano, and Phillis Wheatley played significant roles in the fight for equal rights for all. They all wrote about their experiences and oppression that they faced. This essay will discuss their writings and determine the significance of each writing.
Wells is consistent throughout her pamphlet in using an outraged and assertive, yet collected, tone. She strives to appeal to her audience’s emotions and move her readers through compelling diction and language. Using pathos, she attempts to evoke the same terror, anger, and distress that African Americans experience in the South. In her pamphlet, she states, “They have cheated him out of his ballot, deprived him of civil rights or redress therefor in the civil courts, robbed him of the fruits of his labor, and are still murdering, burning and lynching him” (Wells-Barnett). Through her language and tone, Ida B. Wells has the objective of starting an uproar in the South and abolishing the gruesome Lynch Law.
There have been conflicts in the equality of our society. Black rights have taken several decades to achieve, and even today the black community faces racism. A notable time regarding black rights would be the early 1900s, when blacks were beginning to utilize their rights in the US. Although blacks were freed from slavery and confinement, they still faced troubles in equality that lasted throughout the 1900s. Zora Neale Hurston’s
Langston Hughes was a very famous poet but also a dreamer during the 1920s when discrimination and racism were main problems in the society. He was a civil right activist who proposed the idea of equal opportunities between all races by writing poems, books, and playwrights; many of his famous literatures affected Americans in many crucial ways. Hughes’s main idea against the society was equality however he discovered that it is difficult to change people’s “norms” and stereotypes. Therefore, his humorous and serious type of writing effectively appealed to many audiences which eventually played a big role of achieving racial equality and equal opportunities.
Angela Davis’ book Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture provides her critique on how today’s democracy is continually weakened by structures of oppression, such as slavery, reconstruction, and lynching. By utilizing her own experience and employing views from historical figures like Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Dubois, Davis examines the chain of racism, sexism, and political oppression. She speaks of the hidden moral and ethical issues that bring difference within people’s social situations. In the “Abolition Democracy” chapter, she describes the relationship between the production of law and violation of law demonstrated in the United States.
Since day one of US history, there has been and will probably always be a social, economic, and racial divide. “Open Letter to The South” is a poem that addresses the issues of not only the racial division in this great country, but it also concentrates on the issues that all working class American’s face, even in today’s society and economy. In the poem, Langston Hughes speaks against the words of Booker T. Washington “Separate as the fingers.” He speaks about how whites and blacks should come together and become one, no matter their birth rights or history. He mentions
Hope, Rage, and Sacrifice Oppression is an illness that has plagued the world for centuries. This is shown in “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou as the birds are trapped by oppression and the birds must break free from it. Maya Angelou and Paul Laurence Dunbar use the central symbols of the free bird and the caged bird to reveal the theme of oppression. The symbols of rage and hope accompany the theme oppression.
In Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy” there is end rhyme present but no real rhyme scheme. Those are some of the rhythmic elements Dunbar uses in his writing. Dunbar writes his poems on very serious matters, such as life and dreams and identity. In his poem “We Wear the Mask” Dunbar writes about people wearing masks but the true meaning of the poem is how people will try to hide their identity to look like a better more perfect person. In his poem “Life” dunbar writes about how life is not always good and at t8imes life seems to be really bad.
The two poems “Sympathy” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou are so similar, yet so different. Both of the poems are very similar because they both share a single underlying theme which is Freedom. Both Dunbar and Angelou wrote their poems about a universal concept that individuals will find at some point in their lifetime. These poems show that when one fights for their rights they will face difficulties, but them having hope will help for them to overcome their pain. The birds in “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” demonstrate that if they get caught up in a trap the birds are still able to fight for what they want.
Angelou and Dunbar show similarities when they describe feeling trapped like caged birds, but their portrayal of the birds contrast in their actions
In conclusion, the two poems have similarities and differences. Sympathy and Caged Bird revealed the struggles the birds and the slaves faced; going through tortures. The caged birds are just like slaves being whipped and being locked up. Many times, others would be hurting on the inside, but many don’t express it on the outside, so that’s why the caged bird
The narrator is aghast when he realizes that the bird can speak. The narrator, both confused and amazed, starts showering the ebony bird with questions. His confusion only grows stronger when he realizes that the bird has only one reply for, Nevermore that he keeps on repeating. The poems major themes are death and sorrow and the nature of the
You cannot appreciate the good if you do not experience the bad. However in the poem “Sympathy”, by Dunbar, you can visualize the darker side of hope seeing as he gives more insight in the hurting side of hope. Both the poems use the metaphor of a bird to visualize the overall meaning of the poem. Dunbar uses his bird as a metaphor for the lack of freedom and
If we compare the bird’s wings to Tom Robinson’s hope, the feet to his heart, and his action of running to the action of opening his throat to sing, we can visualize the song that Tom Robinson would sing, one about him losing hope and not wanting anyone to control his life anymore, and so in this manner he is very much like the caged bird in this poem. Similarly, Tom Robinson’s physical struggles can be compared to the caged bird in the poem “Sympathy”. In the novel it’s written “Tom