...the people who are oppressed. How far do you agree or disagree? I personally do not agree that violence is the only effective weapon available to the oppressed people. It is not the only way for people to get their view across or secure their rights and justice. However, throughout the history of mankind, violence has been widely used as a method to gain control over a person or a group of people or a nation. Unfortunately, the present day media is also filled with news of violence. What exactly is violence? Violence can be described as an act of intentional harm to some individual or group. Violence can be physical, mental or sometimes even emotional. It disturbs peace and harmony in the society and slows down the overall development. Securing ownership over land and resources, power hungry leadership, extremism, racism, sociocultural differences, ethnic and caste conflicts are causes of violence. For example, the violence between the Indians and the Pakistanis over the land of Kashmir is motivated by the desire of securing land and resources. The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is driven by religious differences and extremism. There are constant fights between different tribes in many parts of Africa. These African tribal conflicts are usually motivated by ethnic and caste differences. Centuries prolonged conflicts between the "blacks" and the "whites" were the results of racism. There are still residues of similar conflicts in different corners of the world...
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...Gianni LaRagione History 17B Prof. Coburn November 18, 2013 Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was the time in America in which Blacks and other minorities started getting more independence and more equal rights. This movement required several courageous leaders and many life changing events occurred in order for America to become the integrated nation that it is today. A lot of protests and boycotts took place but they were usually non-violent, which the minorities discovered worked the best. Throughout this period in time schools, public places and other everyday places slowly but surely became integrated. One of the first major events that happened was the Brown v. Board of Education case. Oliver Brown, who was an African American, had a daughter. The school at which she attended was far from her house and in order to get there she had to pass by a unruly neighborhood which she was uncomfortable walking through. There was a school right across the street from her house but since the rule was “separate but equal is constitutional” she could not attend it because it was a white only school. Her father complained and the case was taken to the Supreme Court. The ruling of Plessey v. Ferguson was overturned and the new ruling was that “separate but equal isn’t equal.” After this event most school became integrated. The first time a jury became integrated was after the Hernandez v. Texas case. A Mexican, Pete Hernandez was wrongly accused of murder. At...
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...the basis for understanding our individual identities within the context of a civilized, democratic society, we should be able to co-exist harmoniously in a country founded on the following familiar words from the United States Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The reality of the situation, however, is arguably that white culture has interpreted these words to mean that anyone who identifies themselves as not white, either by some physical trait, or a set of ideologies that do not mirror the protestant values on which this country was founded, is essentially and innately substandard. As a result, they are marginalized and assigned a sub-par position within society. Certain groups are notable for the social and political resistance they begin to demonstrate against the white establishment. Two notable groups which have shown (and continue to show) such resistance are African-Americans and the LGBT community, significantly notable because both groups, while varying dramatically in some elements of their struggles, also dramatically parallel one another by virtue of the fact that both aim to have their human identity acknowledged and affirmed. This paper will discuss the significance of resistance as it applies to the acknowledgement and affirmation of a shared and immutable...
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...Civil Rights African Americans, like numerous ethnic groups in the U.S., had a long struggle in gaining their civil rights. When most people think of the Civil Rights Movement in America, they think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, secured his fame as the voice of non-violent, mass protest in the 1960s. But "the Movement" achieved its greatest results, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, due to the competing strategies and agendas of diverse individuals. Even black Americans, the primary beneficiaries of this landmark legislation, did not agree on the tactics that should be used to secure the equal protection of their rights. Several important black leaders shaped the debate over how to achieve freedom and equality in a nation that had long denied them their civil rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. first came to national prominence through his leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955-56. This mass protest helped desegregate public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama. A gifted preacher and committed pacifist, King thought that non-violent, direct action against racial segregation provided the best means of securing the full integration of blacks into the mainstream of American life. As he wrote in his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," "I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means...
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...Maya Angelou has been through, so far in her life, if she was not a strong enough person, she probably would have drowned herself in sorrow and punished herself for all that has happened in her life. Instead, she moved back to Stamps, where her grandmother lived, and began to meet with Ms. Bertha Flowers, who was a family friend and teacher. Ms. Flowers helped Maya with literature, art, and managed to help Maya find her voice again. When Maya hit thirteen years of age, she decided to reunite with her mother in San Francisco. She attended high school and worked very hard. She also received a scholarship to study dance and drama at the California Labor School. Maya had to drop out of high school to become San Francisco’s first female, African-American streetcar conductor. Finally, she returned to school, even though she was pregnant, and still managed to graduate high school. At seventeen, Maya was a single mother, who worked numerous jobs, such as, being a cook, waitressing, and even prostituting, just to be able to support herself and her son. Once again, I feel that in order to be able to make it through high school while being pregnant, is a very challenging task to complete. Apparently, Maya Angelou was...
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...1960's there was many inequalities that really held back many people from especially the African Americans to have the right of being just like everyone else. But as well all know the white refused to give those type of right to them. So this is when the African Americans would start to take a stand for one another in a Civil Rights Movement lead by many African American activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Eisenhower. These Americans stood up for what they knew was right not only for them but fir the good of their people. Martin Luther King Jr. immediate purpose was to convince Americans across the country to embrace racial equality and to further strengthen the resolve of those already involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Audiences could really embrace these words that Dr. King was saying in his "I Have A Dream" speech. Though audiences' purposes are not as easily summarized to the fact of the racial inequality towards the whites and African Americans. Some at the time may have sought to be inspired by Dr. King. Opponents to racial equality who heard his speech may have listened for the purpose of seeking to find ways to further argue against racial equality. Audiences since then may have used Dr. King's speech to educate or to advocate for other social justice issues. Eisenhower also having to do with acting to those same ideas of inequality. Eisenhower viewed civil rights as a local opinion. Openly and successfully defying the Federal authorities even when...
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...justice, equality, liberty and freedom for all, he worked tirelessly for racial equality and civil rights within the United States of America and his values of beliefs have been referenced the world over in similar pursuits. He is most well known for a speech he gave on the steps of Washington D.C.’s Lincoln memorial in 1963 entitles “I Have a Dream …” at the “March on Washington”. Section 1 (a) Montgomery Bus Boycott In the city of Montgomery Alabama 1955, it would not be surprising to see buses segregated by race; in fact city law to enforce it. When entering buses whites entered and sat at the front filling towards the rear, blacks entered and sat at the rear filling toward the front. If there were no more seats the next black person onto the bus was to stand, when the next white person got on the closest row of black people to the front were required to stand (Clayborne 224). The boycott began after a number of black women had been arrested for not vacating seats, the most recent before the boycott being Mrs. Rosa Parks (Phibbs). The boycott was organized and led by a number of now prominent civil rights activists along with Martin Luther King Jr., including but limited to: Ralph Abernathy, a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement and an officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Jo Ann Robinson, a Montgomery educator and civil rights activist, Robinson was instrumental in promoting awareness of the boycott (Hine 69-70); Claudette...
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...audience really stood out when addressed those who categorized him as an extremist; he listed people in history who were “extremists” these people included: Jesus, Paul, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln and a few more. What King was really saying is that they only called him extremist because what he wanted was something they were against, not because his means were extreme. His appeal to ethics was critical when he wrote about how we should only be obligated to follow the just laws and that the unjust laws can be disobeyed in an attempt to make a change. This act or lack of action is called Civil Disobedience. Civil Disobedience has been used many times throughout history and he uses some of these examples in his letter: Socrates, Early Christians, and the Boston Tea Party. These are effective points because his opposition probably saw these examples as acceptable, but in their eyes his form of civil disobedience was not. Martin Luther Kings appeal to emotions his strongest element and is really evident through the entire letter, when he writes about the cruelty of the Birmingham Police Department, about telling his daughter that they cannot go to the new amusement park, and many more examples. King wrote an incredibly effective letter that should break the hearts of all of its readers whether they read it at the time or are reading it...
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...in a cell for 1 day, however after his release he was later found dead. While living with the Grandmother, Maya became an elected mute; she felt her words had such power that they caused the death of others (her mother’s boyfriend) and as result choose not to speak at all. While living with her Grandmother, she responded with the following words: “Sister, Momma don’t care what these people say, that you must be an idiot, a moron, ’cause you can’t talk. Momma don’t care. Momma know that when you and the good Lord get ready, you gon’ be a teacher.” As a teenager, Dr. Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She later finished high school, giving birth to her son, Guy, a few weeks after graduation. As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center stage. In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and, in 1957, recorded her first...
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...Parks the Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement | Rosa Park was a famous black American woman who helped fight for equal rights in Alabama. Rosa was born in February 4, 1913 in Alabama. Rosa grew up at that time when black people did not have the same rights as white people did. Rosa Parks went to school at the black elementary school in her town. Rosa left school because of a death in her family. Her first job was sewing clothes for people. She and Raymond, her husband, become active in the fight for civil right for black people. They joined in the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to help in the fight for equal right. Rosa Parks sits on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956 and she sat on the bus, there were no more seats where the black people could sit. So she sat where the white people sat. Then a white person came and he wanted to sit, so the bus driver told Rosa to get up and stand. But she refused, so the bus driver called the police and she got arrested. A lot of people admired Rosa because of how she helped the civil right movement. Just because the laws were changed, things didn't get any easier for Rosa. She received many threats and feared for her life. Many of the civil rights leader's houses were bombed, including the home of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1957 Rosa and Raymond moved to Detroit, Michigan. Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience in 1955 inspired the modern civil rights movement, died on Monday, the 25th...
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...Still I rise Favorite Poem Essay Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise is an astonishing piece of art. The reason I chose this poem is because it’s not only a poem, it’s a story. The poem is about Maya Angelou’s beliefs being a women of color about discrimination. It’s not just her personal story but a universal experience for those with an African American background. Throughout the poem, Maya Angelou uses many poetic devices to give us more in-depth meaning behind what is in the poem. These poetic devices help her poem flow, create emotion, and makes the read more interesting. The poetic devices Maya Angelou focused on throughout her poem are repetition, rhyme, metaphor, and symbols. These poetic devices work together to create an overall effect on the meaning of the poem, creating the poem to be more thought-provoking to the reader. The first poetic device Maya Angelou uses throughout her poem is repetition. In the poem, she continuously uses the phrase “I’ll rise” (Angelou 12). The repetition of this phrase emphasizes the hope and confidence she has to overcome the struggles she is facing as an African American. The idea of moving forward and being a successful individual despite what society may bring towards someone is given off by this repetition of the strong phrase. The repetition allows the reader to notice the importance of never giving up on their own beliefs even when they’re different. These words at the end of the stanzas gives it strength and brings the poem back...
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...The Power of Freedom “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (Martin Luther King Jr.). Just like Martin Luther King Jr. said people who faced oppression couldn’t wait around expecting to be given freedom. Instead, in order to earn it, they would need to fight and demand for it. The same ideas are portrayed through the writing of a fellow activist, Maya Angelou. In “I know why the caged bird sings” by Maya Angelou, the idea of freedom is explained through the use of metaphors and imagery. To begin, the metaphors used compare two perspectives of life. The poem itself is one large extended metaphor with other metaphors dispersed throughout. The main metaphor explains the lives of two barricaded races; “The caged bird” representing those who lacked freedom and “The free bird” representing those with freedom (Angelou). A caged bird could be a metaphor for any group of people facing oppression while the cage represents physical barriers. The freedom appointed to the free bird is opposite to that given to the caged bird. To show how the caged birds dealt with this segregation Angelou writes, “The caged bird sings/with fearful trill of the things unknown/but longed for still/and is tune is heard/on the distant hill for the caged bird/ sings of freedom” (Angelou). The caged birds “fearful trill” represents the bird’s worry that it will never have a chance to experience that same freedom. Though he’s fearful and his ambition is unmet...
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...and the cotton gin then she work for a years when her costumer depend on her she built a stall between them then she built market. This is the "New Directions" by Maya Angelou. Mrs. Annie Johnson the main character in the New Directions is Maya Angelous grandmother. Maya Angelou is the writer. Annie Johnson is the same person called Momma and Mrs Henderson in " I know why the caged bird sings" which was maya Angelous childhood story. In this essay maya explains how her grandmother pursued a goal of providing for her family (2 sons) at the end of the turning century, economic success was not easy for an African American woman. In many parts of the countrydiscrimination kept African Americans from obtaining an education or high paying jobs. In addition to that being a woman. Woman were considered being men's inferiors and were excluded from the best jobs. Many African American woman could only find work as servants, such as cooks or maids. Annie Johnson however was determined to overcome these obstacles. Starting off by dumping her husband, him taking everything including all the money she starts off with nothing and ends up in the end with a store with people dependent on...
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...Luther King, Jr. vs. Malcolm X The civil rights movement was a social and legal struggle to gain full citizenship rights for African Americans. There were many different leaders and influential people that helped throughout the civil rights movement. There was not one specific event that triggered this movement, but arguably a confluence of events triggered the modern civil rights movement. Events such as; the murder of Emmit Till in 1955, Rosa Parks and the refusal to give up her seat in 1955, and the legal victories in the Brown cases in 1954-55. Boycotts, sit – ins, protest marches, and refusal to abide by segregation laws were the activities the civil rights organizations and people took part in to show that something needed to be changed. Most of these events and activities took place in the south, where the segregation laws were persisted. Two very influential men and leaders of groups and organizations were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. They led protests and other civil rights movements events in hope for freedom. Both of them were great speakers and knew how to get people to follow them. These two leaders had different types strategies when it came to leading the African American organizations. December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white male on a Montgomery bus, and was arrested and put in jail. This led to boycotts from the buses and marked the beginning of the modern civil rights movement and also put Martin Luther King...
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...Historically, the Civil Rights Movement was a time during the 1950’s and 60’s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. Looking back on all the events, and dynamic figures it produced, this description is very vague. In order to fully understand the Civil Rights Movement, you have to go back to its origin. Most people believe that Rosa Parks began the whole civil rights movement. She did in fact propel the Civil Rights Movement to unprecedented heights but, its origin began in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the cornerstone for change in American History as a whole. Even before our nation birthed the controversial ruling on May 17, 1954 that stated separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that argued by declaring that state laws establish separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Some may argue that Plessy vs. Ferguson is in fact backdrop for the Civil Rights Movement, but I disagree. Plessy vs. Ferguson was ahead of it’s time so to speak. “Separate but equal” thinking remained the body of teachings in America until it was later reputed by Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and prompted The Montgomery Bus Boycott led by one of the most pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. After the gruesome death of Emmett...
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