Courage is similar to being the ripened fruit on a barren tree, it gives life and color to a dull exterior. The courage that others display gives our nation determination for another day. Courage is the ability to prevail through hardships, to reveal your true inner nature, and to stand up for what you believe, when the rest of the world falls as a slave to conformity.
Radio Free Dixie: Robert F Williams & the Roots of Black power by Timothy B. Tyson is a true story of a different perspective besides Martin Luther King jr or Malcolm X. It shows the life of Robert F. Williams a very influential black activist, and racism in all of its honesty. This showed that the “civil rights movement” and the “Black power movement” emerged from the same problems. They were fighting for the same goal too for African American freedom. He had experienced racism even though he was half white, and experienced it. The book was very informative of life when racism was more apparent. I think that books like this show that standing up to racism is an option. It shows that even children of a younger age were involved in the situation.
Sojourner Truth was a prominent abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Born a slave in New York State, she had at least three of her children sold away from her. After escaping slavery, Truth embraced evangelical religion and became involved in moral reform and abolitionist work. She collected supplies for black regiments during the Civil War and immersed herself in advocating for freed people during the Reconstruction period. Isabella escaped slavery in 1827, one year before mandatory emancipation in New York State, by fleeing to a Quaker family, the Van Wageners, whose name she took. She moved to New York City, worked as a domestic, became involved in moral reform, embraced evangelical religion, started her street-corner preaching career,
When thinking of black history month and how so many people fought for the rights of African American people, most of think of patriarchs like Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, but how many of us know of the feats done by people like Claudette Colvin or Noble Drew Ali? Many people such as them go unheard of during this time of year and yet, they have accomplished such high feats considering what they went through. Being a minister and a politician who denounced racism like Henry McNeal Turner or the protests that prisoned Soledad Brothers began have not been recognized for so long and its time to remind people of what they have done. Many feats have been done, such as leading a revolt against a police station that refused to do the law services to a black family in need or the case of going against imperial influence from Britain. You can only wonder who else went unnoticed. Luckily, this essay shall fill you in.
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L. McGuire, does not sound at first like a book that would provide ample information about the role of the Ku Klux Klan in the Civil Rights Era, but through the various cases and demonstrations presented by McGuire, the reader is given insight into the Ku Klux Klan that has yet to presented by another author read for this study. In her book, McGuire analyzes various court cases and movements from the early 20th century into the 1970s to show the growth of the civil rights movement through black women's resistance. She focuses on the particular women involved and the role that respectability
Who was Jeannette Rankins? Jeannette Rankins was born and raised in Missoula County, Montana. She lived a very long, successful life in many different areas of the government. She was an American politician, women’s rights advocate, and was the first woman to hold national office in the United States (“Jeannette”). She attended the University of Montana and graduated in 1902 where she went on to try working as an elementary school teacher. After realizing she did not want to do this, she went to the New York School of Philanthropy, but she soon realized that she did not enjoy this either. Eight years later she went to the University of Washington, where she joined the state suffrage organization (History). She had many great accomplishments in life and was an important figure during the 1900s.
“Unbought and unbossed” is an interesting film that covers issues with African American women, and sexual politics that also offers a simple literary perspective of a black woman who puts herself in the middle of at the some of the most political and important issues like: black nationalism, feminism and african american women, etc. Chisholm herself writes in her book “unbought and unbothered”, “…My present attitude toward politics as it is practiced in the United States: it is a beautiful fraud that has been imposed on the people for years, whose practitioners exchange gilded promises for the most valuable thing their victims own, their votes. And who benefits most? The lawyers. (Chapter 4)”. Shirley was very active in the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People
Selflessness is defined as “concern more with the needs of others than with one’s own” (dictionary.com). Suzanne Spaak is the perfect example of selflessness. She was willing to die for a meaningful cause she believed in: rescuing Jews throughout the Holocaust. Spaak did whatever she could to help the struggling Jews, and joined an underground movement that’s goal was to put an end to racism. She risked all that she had to stand up for what she believed in, putting all personal problems aside, to do what she knew in her heart was right. Because of her willingness to do whatever it took to help, many innocent children and adults’ lives were saved. By examining Spaak’s selflessness, bravery, and persistence, it is clear that she was indeed full of moral courage.
Coretta Scott King was unconventional in her youth but later made a great contribution to society. Her contributions not only impacted society, but were also impacted by her unconventionally.
Harriet Tubman spent most of her life trying to help slaves. She was a slave herself, she was born in Dorchester Country, Maryland in the year 1822. She started working at a very young age, by the age of 5 she was already doing child care and consequently by 12 she was doing field work and hauling logs, as she got older the job got harder. When she turned 26 Harriet decided to make a life-changing decision when her master died, she decided to abscond. She married a free black man. When she decamped, she spent 10 years helping the underground railroad, spent a day in Combahee River Raid, ---- years in Nursing 54th Mass, and spent most of her life, 50 years of it, care-giving. So, what was Harriet's greatest achievement? Harriet Tubman’s greatest achievement was the Underground Railroad while her other accomplishments were significant.
One of the themes addressed in Claudette Colvin Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose was determination to overcome obstacles. This book is about how Claudette a young girl from Montgomery, Alabama refused to stand up on the bus and then the book continues with the repercussions to come after. The main theme addressed in Claudette Colvin Twice Toward Justice was determination to overcome obstacles because people of all ages made sacrifices to participate in the boycott and African American used determination in unity.
In the book March by John Lewis, the reader is taken on a journey through Lewis’s childhood up until his engagements in the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the book Lewis recounts the oppressive realities of segregation along with his and others’ enlightened ideas towards abolishing the degrading treatments. Simultaneously, Lewis expresses the underlying theme of the connection between geography, community and politics in which he supports that they all perpetuate each other. The connection between these three are dependent upon one another given that geography lays the foundation for the physical aspects of a community and communital perceptions, which ultimately fuels the voice for politics.
June Callwood is one of the greatest representatives of contemporary Canadian history and being considered that means that person has left an impressive impact affecting the lives of Canadians as we know it. Callwood's social contributions include her help to the homeless, women’s help, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer plus (LGBTQ) community. Her political impacts include her influence on the rights of women, her numerous foundings of organizations to support those in need, and providing society with information for change. Her journalistic achievements include her work in women’s rights, organizational change, and her journalistic inputs of founding many unions, leading the way for women writers, and providing society with brilliant, educating works. Without the lasting impression Callwood
Rosa Parks’s influence on the fight for equality was arguably the most impactful of all the leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks first embarked on her Civil Rights journey by becoming involved with the NAACP. The author of the History website page on Rosa Parks claims, “in December 1943 Rosa also joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and she became chapter secretary” (Rosa Parks). Rosa started out as a follower, but became dedicated to the organization so she ran for a board position. About ten years later, the famous Rosa Parks story took place in Montgomery. The author of the Rosa Parks page emphasizes that, “By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus in 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States” (Rosa Parks). Simply put, Rosa inspired the rest of the African American communities around the United States to protest through boycotts whenever they had the chance to do so. Determined to get the bus segregation law overturned, Parks and her fellow NAACP
Segregation has open the door to the people who were born free, to scape those who have power over their heads. In the play Blues for Mister Charlie, Richard a black twenty-two-years old male killed and thrown into the weeds. James Baldwin write this play to emphasize, the life of Emmet till a fourteen-years-old black boy who was killed and thrown in the river. He uses the play to show the life of Till, by adding some information about his life and what his family went through in order to convict the man who killed him the same way Richards family fought for his death. This play show in both ways how racism can obstruct the way justice work.