...Maggie Rivas Rodriguez. Texas Mexican Americans and Postwar Civil Rights. University of Texas Press, 2015. The purpose of this book is to shed light on important advancements in post-war Mexican American civil rights efforts, specifically in Texas. Rodriguez highlights 3 milestones, two take place at the local level in West Texas and the third examines the creation of a national civil rights organization catering to the legal needs of the underrepresented Mexican American population of the United States. In highlighting these events, Rodriguez is aiming to educate not a specific racial or socioeconomic group, but rather to a general audience as well as to those who may already be educated in Chicano civil rights endeavors. Rodriguez succeeds in doing so in the easy to read and straight forward language of the book. It very much gives the feel of having a conversation with an elder of the community, in that it quotes many people directly and recollects certain pieces of the story from the protagonists themselves in present day. The interview transcriptions are left in Spanish as to “preserve and convey the flavor of the interview…”. The book focuses on three case studies and breaks them into two parts, Part 1: Claiming Rights on a Local Level and Part 2: Claiming Rights on a National Level. In the first chapter the reader learns of the efforts taken by Mexican American parents of Alpine, TX to integrate their children’s schools, and go as far as the capitol to do so. The...
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...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 his trail...
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...Dear Martin Luther King Jr, We are two leaders to our people in this time of the civil rights movement. We are two leaders leading are fellow Black Americans in two very different directions. I of an Islamic culture and yourself as a Baptist, I having a past of wrongs and an illegal violent lifestyle and you being born into christianity and lastly you wanting segregation to end completely and for white people and black people to come together as one, and I wanting black people to be independent from racist whites meaning having their own business, communities etc. So with this being said although our ways of fighting for justice are opposite our goal is still the same. The purpose of this letter is to propose to you Martin Luther King Jr a proposition of I and yourself to join forces. I suppose, do to this proposal you would want to know more about myself aswell as my past and my beliefs. My past is not the brightest. I was not born Malcolm X, I was born Malcolm Little to My father Earl Little. My father was killed by the KKK (white racist) I believe that this is one of the reasons I feel the way I do towards white americans. Not only was my father murdered, but he did not receive justice in fact the police blamed him for his death calling it a suicide. I refuse to believe that my father beat himself up, tied himself up and through himself in front of a train. At my age of adolescence I lived in harlem with my sister during this time I got caught up in the hustling and...
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...1965 today we have lost a legacy. Malcolm X was a strong speaker, and was moved by many African Americans. He did so much to make us feel connected with our African American heritage. He would say the words that we would think but were scared to say. Malcolm X lost his life by the Nation of Islam; everyone is surrounded by questions of this fearless man’s death. The files The Files of Malcolm X, reveals The Smoking Guns in the FBI reports, which was dated for February 22, 1965, the files declares that Malcolm X had 10 gun shots penetrating to the chest, his thigh and ankle, also there were 4 bullets pleats into his chest and thigh. When his autopsy was done, they found 1 gun being noticed as a millimeter slug, 1 - 45 caliber slugs, with numerous shotgun shots, that were all around and about in his body, torn through the heart of Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. When Malcolm was in prison, he got religious, he wanted to change his criminal past, and became a member in the Nation of Islam. After Malcolm was released he started to preach on street corners. I have to say that Malcolm X was a very brave young man and stand up type of guy that did a lot to make blacks feel more connected to African American heritage. He stood up for African Americans and spoke out words and things that they were too afraid to say. He educated them on how to stand up for themselves and their rights as how to carry themselves as black men. He was so amazing that no one would have thought that a...
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...Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture. 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, 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 album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom. In 1960, Dr....
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...Ever since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War there has been the issue of race and equality and rights. A movement occurred and two men gained power and influence the African American community. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X two men having experienced different things in their lives held different beliefs and morals and influenced people based upon those things. Martin Luther King Jr., came from a Baptist home with a fairly easy childhood, he was educated when he was younger and attended Morehouse College, an all black college, where he had several role models that shaped his beliefs. Malcolm X, on the other hand, experienced a hard childhood and used drugs and committed other crimes in his early adult years. While in prison he found a father figure in Elijah Muhammad and joined the Nation of Islam. There are many differences between Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X in the way they acted and influenced the African American community. This paper will look to describe their differing views and analyze their actions and their lives. In most cases a person’s childhood has a lasting affect on the rest of a person’s life. In comparing Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X this seems to be the case. Martin Luther King Jr., was born January 19, 1929 and was raised by a strong supportive family. He had a somewhat privileged life and “never experienced the feeling of not having the basic necessities of life.”[1] His father “was a community leader in Atlanta...
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...& Malcolm & America In this paper, there will be a primary focus on two of the most prominent leaders during the civil rights era. These two leaders are Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The paper will discuss how these extraordinary men made their phenomenal contributions to America by offering to bring about their own political, racial, and social views that were affecting the people of color. Their ability to voice their strong opinions about the injustices that were taking place among African Americans and the oppositions that were before them gave them the durability to prolong the fight for freedom and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were both men of purpose, dignity, and pride. The ongoing effort they gave for the people and to the people helped them to earn the respect that has followed them for decades. For that reason, this paper will reflect the ways in which both men contributed to the African American culture and the shaping of America in an effort to bring about a change that was needed to move forward. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X had different political philosophies; however, they both went about using different methods to campaign for civil rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a champion of non-violent protests and peace marches. His speeches entranced both blacks and whites into action for the civil rights movement. MLK knew that if the blacks worked for peace, peacefully, then equality was inevitable. “What they needed was...
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...Rosa Parks Rosa Parks, was born in 1913, and died in 2005. An African American civil rights activist whom is best known for her role in a 1955 boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama bus system. Her action helped bring about the civil rights movement in the United States. Rosa Parks was arrested for violating a city law that required the whites and blacks to sit in separate rows on buses. She refused to give up her seat in the middle of the bus when a white man desired to sit in her row. The front rows were for whites only. The law required blacks to leave their seats in the next rows when all seats in the front rows were taken and other whites still wanted seats. Even before Rosa Parks’ arrest, Montgomery’s black leaders had been discussing a protest against racial segregation on the city’s buses. Rosa Parks allowed the leaders to use her arrest to trigger a boycott of the bus system. The leaders formed an organization to run the boycott. Martin Luther King Jr.-then a Baptist minister in Montgomery-was chosen as president. For 382 days, from December 5, 1995 to December 20, 1956 thousands of blacks refused to ride Montgomery’s buses. Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama and she attended the Alabama State Teacher’s College and in 1943, she was one of the first women to join the NAACP, she was the secretary from 1943 to 1956, then she lost her job as a seamstress. Before she went to jail in 1957, she moved to Detroit and got married to a barber named Raymond just a few...
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...Maya Angelou •Born: 4 April 1928 •Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri •Best Known As: Author of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Name at birth: Marguerite Johnson Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, was nominated for a National Book Award and made her a symbol of pluck and pride for African-American women. In the 1950s Angelou had been a dancer and stage actress, and she was active in the civil rights movement (she became a coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, thanks to a request from Martin Luther King, Jr.). During the 1960s she spent five years in Africa, working as a journalist and a teacher. Angelou returned to the United States and in 1969 published I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. In 1972 she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her collection of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie. Since then, Angelou has continued teaching, writing, acting, producing, recording (she won Grammy Awards for the spoken word for the years 1993, 1995 and 2002) and collecting honorary degrees from across the United States. Since 1981 she has been the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. At Bill Clinton's request, Angelou wrote a poem -- On the Pulse of Morning -- for his 1993 inauguration as U.S. president. I chose one of Maya Angelou (Phenomenal Woman) for two reasons. One I feel that Maya is still one of the best poets in the world whose poems are studied...
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...His/145 | Civil Rights Movement | Malcolm X and Martin Luther King | Rose Carr 3/7/2010 | Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were very important to our country’s history. They are revolutionary men. They fought battles against a bigoted nation. They fought for what they believed was right. The two gentlemen however fought very different battles although they seem to be fighting the same prejudice. If you ask anyone today, that remembers the movement, ‘Who was Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr?’: the opinions you will hear will be quite contrary to each other. The two men were very influential in American culture. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were able to use the media to allow their voices to be heard. I will be explaining the reasons why these two gentlemen fought such extreme battles fueled by passion and hate. The media have always been a presence during the movement of the 60’s. During the time of the movement the nation was glued to the media. Martin Luther King, Jr., is known for his non violent manner for leading a protest. As Martin Luther King led his followers, he taught them protest with respect and dignity. Martin Luther King once said, in regard to his non violent approach, “Violence, as a way of achieving racial justice, is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win...
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...gospel of American Freedom to suck Third World allies as Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Ghana. The White Citizens Council of Alabama opposed this policy because they were racists and thought of Jazz as part of the “negro” community. Martin Luther King Jr, “Knock at Midnight” (1967) 2. During the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56), 70,000 African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, boycotted city busses for a year to protest segregation. Martin Luther King Jr was just 26 years old when he led that boycott. Eleven years later, in this speech, he looked back. What kinds of fears and threats did King face and how did he overcome those fears? Threating telephone calls, threating their life their families and their children’s. At midnight he came home got into bed and the telephone started ringing who said “nigga we are tired of you and your mess and if you are not out of town in three days we are going to blow your brains”. He overcame those fears with logical reason following what Martin Luther king had said to fight for justice and with the guidance of Jesus. 3. The images in the video are all photos are African Americans engaged in non-violent direct action—challenging the law of segregation and being arrested for it. What do these images have to do with the speech? There is an African American guy preaching his testimony to the community about the experience he had with the threating calls he had being receiving to his home. The images of the African Americans challenging...
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...How Childhood Can Impact Adult Viewpoints Dawn Bradshaw ENG/220 September 7, 2015 Instructor Tracy Banis How Childhood Can Impact Adult Viewpoints Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were great civil rights icons. They both worked diligently for the equality of blacks, but on different platforms. When people think of Dr. King, they think of nonviolence, preaching love thy neighbor, and the integration of blacks and whites. On the other hand, Malcolm X brings thoughts of militant force, the infamous phrase, “by any means necessary” (Carson, 2005), violence, and segregation. While Martin and Malcolm’s common goal was fighting for the justice and equality of civil rights for blacks, their approach and viewpoints differed on the matter, and this is perhaps due to their early childhood and young adulthood experiences in racial relations. Both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s fathers were politically active Baptist preachers, but growing up in the 1920s was an entirely different experience for them, respectively. While Martin as an adolescent lived a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle, Malcolm suffered great tragedies. As the family slept, the home interrupted the pitch black night with blazes of fire set by two white men (Hatch 2001). Luckily, no one was hurt. Then, Malcolm’s father was brutally and savagely ripped away from him and his family by the hands, he believes, of the Ku Klux Klan (Hatch 2001). Subsequently, after losing the head of the...
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...Civil Rights Leaders Krystal Pride-Lang ENG/250 March 6, 2015 Daniel Noia Civil Rights Leaders Many African American men and women stood on the front lines for civil rights. These leaders fought for the right to vote and have the voices of the African American community heard. These leaders just didn’t consist on people only protesting for their equal rights, however. Some were famed authors, poets, play writes and inventors. Two influential civil rights activists that come to mind are Maya Angelo and Jesse Jackson. These two helped in the fight for equal rights, but they also were much more than that. They lived completely different lifestyles and accomplished many different tasks within their lives. Jesse Burns, also known as Jesse Jackson, was born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina (Dyson, 2006). His father always noted him as being a gifted child. Jesse’s father recalls Jesse saying that one day he would be a preacher and lead his congregation through the water. Once Jesse Jackson graduated high school in 1959, he attended college. He was enrolled at North Carolina A&T where he excelled in his football career. This was also the time in his life where he decided to begin his activist career (Dyson, 2006). He was a part of a sit-in movement to help integrate Greensboro’s pubic facilities (Dyson, 2006). By 1964, Jesse had received his Bachelor of Science degree in sociology. Throughout his life, Jesse Jackson had a very influential role in regards...
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...African Americans in Southern states still inhabited a starkly unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans’ plight. In the turbulent decade and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring about change, and the federal government made legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others. They risked—and sometimes lost—their lives in the name of freedom and equality. Advertisement Freedom MarchPlay video Freedom March Bet You Didn't Know: Rosa ParksPlay video Bet You Didn't Know: Rosa Parks Condoleezza Rice: Memories of Dr. KingPlay video Condoleezza Rice: Memories of Dr. King BACKGROUND Because large segments of the populace–particularly African-Americans, women, and men without property–have not always been accorded full citizenship rights in...
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...History is the accumulation of daily actions. People write history each day positively and negatively. Martin Luther King Jr, a preacher and civil rights activist, exercised peaceful boycott and protest. Using his best tools, leadership and public speaking, King fought gallantly against the segregation faced by African Americans. Another average Joe is Gandhi, a spiritual leader from India, who established and spread the idea of satyagraha or non-violence and ahimsa or the pursuit and proclamation of truth. His followers were encouraged to take peaceful approaches to any situation, such as the Dandi Salt March. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are examples that prove the significance of individuals’ actions on the course of history. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who changed society’s view on racism. He introduced the world to his dream of a united and equal society where every race is welcome. During his great march to Washington DC in 1963, King made his famous I have a dream speech where he addressed the economic and civil rights for African Americans. Thousands were overcome with hope that the future will be bright for everyone. As a response to the arrest of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. organized the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. African Americans refused to ride on buses, which financially hurt the local transit system. His methods for fighting injustice wasn’t fighting fire with fire but with peace and patience. Gandhi was a man who approached the world with...
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