..."What says the law? You will not kill. How does it say it? By killing!" as stated by Victor Hugo author of Les Miserable. This seems to be the main argument against the death penalty. However the death penalty, a huge controversy on its own, is made even more complicated when we begin to discuss the ideas of race, racism, and other biases. Research shows us that more racial and culturally diverse juries, especially death qualified juries, can help to fight this problem. Education on the research of bias prosecution and the criminal justice system itself may also help combat the problem. A diverse and representative jury should decrease the impact of prejudice United States Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’ Connor once observed “Conscious...
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...presidential involvement and the use of media post WW2.We also see improvements in education and NAACP. More importantly how the NAACP and southern states responded to these factors, later shaping the result to black civil rights. During this time America saw two presidents come to power: Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961). Both of which affected the civil rights movements in different ways. Truman who was vice president to Roosevelt was elected officially in 1948, Born in Missouri in the late 19th century he had been brought up in an area that saw racism towards coloured people as a natural occurrence, and this was also the case for Truman. Truman had first encountered blacks as family servants with his ancestors previously owning slaves. Truman had told his sweet heart Bess that: “One man is as good as another, “So long as he is honest, decent and not a Nigger or a Chinaman”. (Sanders, 2003, p60) So he is an unlikely candidate to eventually be bringing the lack of rights of the blacks to light and standing behind the civil rights movement later in his career. With the number of racial murders on the rise in the south, Truman set up and implemented a civil rights committee to produce a report “Secure These Rights” brought attention to the on-going plight of the blacks. On the 2nd of February the president presented this report to congress with the aim of enacting new legislation to set up a Civil Rights Commission and Employment Practices Act. He aimed...
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...emancipation. But before we get an insight into this subject, it is important to know in brief the events that led to the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was elected the President of United States in 1860, and this propelled anxiety and fear in the minds of the southern states who believed that the government will pass laws that will dampen their economy and the 'southern way of life.' This was primarily because of the reason that northerners hadn't too much at stake in the institution of slavery. Their economy chiefly depended on industries and factories. South, on the other hand, depended on slaves heavily for their work. The plantations of indigo, tobacco, rice, and cotton (after the invention of cotton gin) required hard labor and the slaves were made to work for long hours so that profit was maximized. Many people believe that the Civil War was about North's struggle to emancipate the slaves and South's fight to continue the slave trade. However, it should be remembered that the North did not go to war to emancipate the slaves, instead Abraham Lincoln, before becoming the President had explicitly stated that his aim wasn't to abolish slavery, but to contain its spread. However, the southern states (none of which had voted for Abraham Lincoln) believed that the election of Abraham Lincoln was detrimental to their economy, and hence, there was no other option than secession. South Carolina was the first state to declare secession from the...
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...10/13/06 American History Essence Harden 5/2/00 African-American Civil Rights “Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.” –Coretta Scott King, page666 The 1960’s were a time of great turmoil in America and throughout the world. One of the main topics that arouse was black civil rights. In my essay I plan to compare the difference of opinion between these particular writers and directors, towards racism and the civil rights movement in the 1960’s The movement truly got underway with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King jr. and Malcolm X in the early 1960’s. Students who wanted to bolt on the equality and protest bandwagon quickly followed. Most of the students went to the Southern states (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, etc.), to stop the racism and hate crimes. The truth of the matter is that the violence and abhorrence would get worse before it got better. The Klan became stronger and more violent, committing many more lynching and gruesome murders. Bit by bit most of the Caucasian Americans came around to the idea of integration, and did not believe that the African Americans as a ‘threat’ anymore. The only reason that this great monumental change occurred was because of the great leadership of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King jr., and not to mention the thousands of other less famous civil rights leaders, that worked to change the views of their community. There also where lobbyist and protesters...
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...there are so few black coaches in basketball, Jimmy ‘the Greek’ Snyder remarked that black athletes already hold an advantage as basketball players because they have longer thighs than white athletes, their ancestors having been deliberately bred that way during slavery. ‘This goes all the way to the Civil War,’ Jimmy the Greek explained, ‘when during the slave trading . . . the owner, the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so he could have a big black kid, you see.’ Astonishing though it may seem, Snyder intended his remark as a compliment to black athletes. If black men became coaches, he said, there would be nothing left for white men to do in basketball at all. Embarrassed by such rank and open expression of racism in the most ignorant form, the network fired Jimmy the Greek from his job. Any fool, the network must have decided, should know that such things may be spoken in the privacy of the 95 locker-room in an all-white club, but not into a microphone and before a camera. Of course, Jimmy the Greek lays no claim to being educated or well informed. Before he was hired to keep audiences entertained during the slack moments of televised sports events, he was famous as a bookie. He claims expert knowledge about odds and point spreads, not about history, biology or human genetics. But those claiming to be educated—and employed on that basis—have proved to be just as superstitious as Jimmy the Greek. Belief in the biological reality of...
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...the past couple of decades African American women have been afforded a 60 percent increase in the number of faculty and an 80 percent increase in the amount of women administrators. Yes this is a huge percentage of change, but even with these advancement African American women still represent less than seven percent of the total percentage of administrators. The women that do manage to break down the transparent barriers encounter countless problems throughout their career that Caucasian male or females or even African American males could even grasp. The careers of these heroines are often filled with unimaginable amounts of internal/external stressors, bouts of having to cope with being oppressed, seen as tokens or having to deal with racism and/or sexism, but yet they persevered. Through all of this they are still underappreciated, under compensated, and standing directly under the glass ceiling. Throughout this study I will attempt to identify the stressors that these women often endure, identify coping strategies of those that made it, and bring the subject to the attention of the oppressors....
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...indicates a positive correlation between past levels of lynching and current social control practices against minority groups, we posit an inverse relationship for facets of social control that are protective of minorities. Specifically, we hypothesize that contemporary hate crime policing and prosecution will be less vigorous where lynching was more prevalent prior to 1930. Analyses show that levels of past lynching are associated with three outcome variables germane to hate crime policing and prosecution, but the effect of lynching is partly contingent on the presence of a minority group threat. That is, past lynching combined with a sizeable black population largely suppresses (1) police compliance with federal hate crime law, (2) police reports of hate crimes that target blacks, and in some analyses (3) the likelihood of prosecuting a hate crime case. Our findings have implications for research on law and intergroup conflict, historical continuity in the exercise of state social control, and theories that emphasize minority group threat. Steven F. Messner University at Albany-SUNY onflict theories of crime and criminal law posit that the state largely serves the interests of dominant groups in society (Quinney 1974; Turk 1969; Vold 1958) and this function can be expressed in two distinct ways. On the one hand, the legal apparatuses of the state— law and law enforcement—can be used to sub- C Direct correspondence to Ryan King, University at Albany, SUNY, 351 Arts and...
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...George agrees with other historians that Jim Crow was not a real person but one of fiction (6). Jim Crow laws were created in the late 1800’s and lasted until the 1960’s. Louisiana did not pass the first Jim Crow law until 1890, even though racial segregation and discrimination had their start much earlier. Soon after, other southern states passed similar laws prohibiting blacks from being seated with whites on railway cars. After studying the history of Jim Crow, Kantrowitz believed that the Jim Crow system was based on the assertions that whites believed themselves to be superior to blacks intellectually and morally. Sexual relations between blacks and whites were also a big issue because many whites believed that the mixing of races would produce a mongrel race and would destroy the fabric of America (35-38). On the other hand, George conveys that the main idea behind the Jim Crow laws was two-fold because Jim Crow was established to keep blacks separate and to make them believe that they were an inferior race (9). Jim Crow had the law on its side because no matter what, the law made it clear that discrimination against the blacks in the Southern states was okay. Many whites did not have a personal problem associating with blacks, as long as, they were able to demonstrate that they were superior and blacks did not perceive themselves as being equal (Litwack 16-17). At the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, the Government agreed with the North, forcing the defeated...
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...History in The Birth of a Nation, D. W. Griffith. Leticia Vázquez Soriano Literatura y cine en países de habla inglesa: interrelación semiótica y narrativa 18th January, 2012 Curso 2011-2012 Index Introduction........................................................ pp. 1 Historical filmic context...................................... pp. 3 History in the film............................................... pp. 4 Use of intertitles...................................... pp. 5 Free interpretation of facts..................... pp. 7 Fiction mixed with reality........................ pp. 8 The film as history............................................... pp. 10 An autonomous language........................ pp. 10 Critical reception......................................pp. 14 The cinema: a mass spectacle.................. pp. 15 Bibliography......................................................... pp. 17 Introduction In this essay I am going to talk about history in The Birth of a Nation by David Wark Griffith. By “history” I mean: the historical filmic context of the film, which was released in 1915. I am going to show how history is represented in the film. We can see some facts that may have been changed in some aspects in order to guide our minds to what the director want us to think. We also find, as a method to support this, the introduction of fictional characters in some much known historical events of the United States. To end with, I am going...
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...Answer the following questions regarding Gandhi, King and Mandela: What Made Non-Violence Work? Any suspicion of plagiarism will result in a non-submission of assignment. Failure to complete assignment by the start of the fall semester or suspicion of plagiarism will result in a 5% loss of class average for the first semester grade. Read the background essay to gain more knowledge about these men. Answers should be typed. Plagiarized responses will receive no credit. Document D Questions: 1. What non-violent tactic is being threatened by Gandhi to protest the salt tax? 2. What is civil disobedience? 3. Provide an example of civil disobedience. 4. Inference: Why did Gandhi write the letter to Lord Irwin, telling him in advance what he intended to do? 5. What are the risks of civil disobedience to society? Document E Questions: 1. What is a lunch counter sit-in? 2. Is a lunch counter sit-in an example of civil disobedience? Why? 3. Explain the difference between a strike and a boycott? 4. How does King justify breaking the law at his trial? Examine the Picture 5. What can you tell me about the sit-in and the times from Blackwell’s photo? Explain. a. b. c. Document F Questions: 1. Does the document provide evidence that Mandela supported civil disobedience? Explain. 2. Did Mandela believe that acts of civil disobedience must be non-violent? 3. Under what circumstances...
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...Answer the following questions regarding Gandhi, King and Mandela: What Made Non-Violence Work? Any suspicion of plagiarism will result in a non-submission of assignment. Failure to complete assignment by the start of the fall semester or suspicion of plagiarism will result in a 5% loss of class average for the first semester grade. Read the background essay to gain more knowledge about these men. Answers should be typed. Plagiarized responses will receive no credit. Document D Questions: 1. What non-violent tactic is being threatened by Gandhi to protest the salt tax? 2. What is civil disobedience? 3. Provide an example of civil disobedience. 4. Inference: Why did Gandhi write the letter to Lord Irwin, telling him in advance what he intended to do? 5. What are the risks of civil disobedience to society? Document E Questions: 1. What is a lunch counter sit-in? 2. Is a lunch counter sit-in an example of civil disobedience? Why? 3. Explain the difference between a strike and a boycott? 4. How does King justify breaking the law at his trial? Examine the Picture 5. What can you tell me about the sit-in and the times from Blackwell’s photo? Explain. a. b. c. Document F Questions: 1. Does the document provide evidence that Mandela supported civil disobedience? Explain. 2. Did Mandela believe that acts of civil disobedience must be non-violent? 3. Under what circumstances might have Mandela supported...
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...Racial & Ethnic Short-Answer Questions (15) Should reparations be paid to the descendants of victims of slavery? • Some reject the decision made in the Bakke case that providing a remedy for the effects of racial discrimination is unconstitutional. They argue that the idea of reparations is rooted in international law. • Affirmative Action is inadequate, the ‘Maafa’ (meaning disaster, i.e., slavery) is a crime against humanity, and therefore compensation is required. • In the past 50 years apologies and financial compensation has been given to a wide range of groups, including survivors of the Jewish holocaust (as well as descendants of the victims), Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned during the Second World War and native Americans who had their land illegally seized in the USA. • African Americans have been demanding compensation for slavery since the end of the American Civil War. Immediately after the abolition of slavery, the demand was for 40 acres and a mule to ensure they would not be dependent on their former slave-owners. Then, between 1890 and 1917, there was a movement to lobby the government for pensions to compensate for their unpaid labour under slavery. Since 1989, Congressman John Conyers Jnr (Michigan) has introduced a bill every year to study the case for reparations. Each of these initiatives has been largely ignored by the political establishment. • Reparations would ensure full recognition of the scale of the Maafa and, at the same time...
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...GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery 2 INTRODUCTION Booker T. Washington’s commanding presence and oratory deeply moved his contemporaries. His writings continue to influence readers today. Although Washington claimed his autobiography was “a simple, straightforward story, with no attempt at embellishment,” readers for nearly a century have found it richly rewarding. Today, Up From Slavery appeals to a wide audience from early adolescence through adulthood. More important, however, is the inspiration his story of hard work and positive goals gives to all readers. His life is an example providing hope to all. The complexity and contradictions of his life make his autobiography intellectually intriguing for advanced readers. To some he was known as the Sage of Tuskegee or the Black Moses. One of his prominent biographers, Louis R. Harlan, called him the “Wizard of the Tuskegee Machine.” Others acknowledged him to be a complicated person and public figure. Students of American social and political history have come to see that Washington lived a double life. Publicly he appeased the white establishment by remaining cautious in his charges and demands. Privately he worked tirelessly to undo the effects of institutional and cultural racism. Although he seemed to have made a grand compromise, first with...
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...African Americans and their involvement in Olympic Swimming; Why are there so few African American swimmers? Marcos Mendez Georgia Southern University Abstract This paper explores the phenomena that we see in Olympic Swimming. Whites dominate this sport and African Americans hardly ever participate in this sport. This research paper explores why that is, by examining numerous sources. These sources were obtained using the internet. From the research conducted, their seem to be varying answers to this question. However the main ones are genetics and socioeconomic factors. Consequently, the genetic research is not a direct correlation to why African Americans don’t participate in swimming. Genetics only points out that differences in muscle composition, bone density, and buoyancy have some effect on a person’s ability to swim. The major cause for this goes into the past to segregation and economics. History of Olympic Swimming Swimming was learnt by prehistoric people in order to cross bodies of water. This can be proved in ancient egyptian paintings( 2011 Olympic. Org). Swimming did not truly become an organized sport until the early 19th century when British swimming clubs began to hold competitions. Swimming was added to the Olympic in 1896. History of African American Swimming Now lets look at African swimming. In 1451 when Europeans began exploring Africa. Europeans regarded Africans as “ The best swimmers in the world.” They attributed these swimming skills...
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...Civil rights Movement Truman Harry Truman is not a name usually associated with America's Civil Rights movement if only because the main 'points' happened after his presidency - Montgomery, Little Rock, Birmingham, the careers of Martin Luther Kingand Stokely Carmichael. However, some very important civil rights issues were covered in his presidency. Truman’s ancestors had owned slaves. His first recollection of African Americans was a household servants within his family - and he did not come from a prosperous family. While he was dating his future wife Bess, she claimed that he told her that he felt that one person was as good as any other as long as they were not black. He also criticised the Chinese in America, the Jews - to whom he referred to as "Kikes" and the Italians in America who he called "wops". Hence, Truman’s background produced what one would have expected and the young Truman would have had the same views as most other youths in Independence. When he got involved in politics at an early age, he did what any aspiring politician did in the South, he paid $10 to join the KKK. Public office changed Truman. Why? Did he feel that America could not claim to be the democratic capital of the world while African Americans were treated thus? Or were his motives political? The African American population was big enough to have some political clout. Was he out to fish for their votes with his adoption of the civil rights cause? Truman and civil rights legislation: Before...
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