...understand what the lyrics meaning, the music’s melody and singer’s tone start to make me feeling heavy and depressed. The type of this song is early Jazz - Blues. Musical melody starts with trumpet and then piano follows. The rhyme of trumpet and piano are both negative and singer’s sound is sadness, and sometimes the voice is lowering. The music includes many depressed melodies and blues that make the music listener feeling the singer is singing about a tragedy. At this time I learned that why the music is a universal language for communication without boundary. The second time I listen to the music, I can understand what the lyrics saying. This song is singing about the lynching movement at the southern America. By reading and studying, I start to know this song is a typical representation of Anti-lynching movement. The original title of this song was "Bitter Fruit," and the song started as a poem wrote by Abel Meeropl. The singer of this song is Billie Holiday. [1] In the David Margolick’s book, has said: "Strange Fruit" marked a watershed, praised by some, lamented by others, in Holiday's evolution from exuberant jazz singer to chanteuse of lovelorn pain and loneliness. Once she began to sing it, some of the [*93] song’s sadness seemed to cling to her. In its own small...
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...The history of racial violence in the United States of America is extensive and complex, woven through centuries of dehumanization and bigotry. From the days of chattel slavery to the Jim Crow era to the modern day Black Lives Matter movement, racism towards African Americans throughout American history is displayed in a variety of ways. One such example of the social terror that African Americans experienced was that of the race riots of the late 19th and 20th centuries. This essay will explore one of the most prominent examples of race riots: the Tulsa Race Massacre, its details, and the social and historical context that led to the tragedy. The Tulsa Race Massacre took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma between May 31 and June 1, 1921, with the violence centred in Tulsa’s Greenwood district. The Greenwood district was...
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...years. Hate groups have appeared in America at times of social liberation time and time again. After the emancipation of the slaves in America, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed. This hate group committed heinous murders and other acts of defiance against the equality with African Americans that threatened their social and economic standings. KKK membership has fluctuated since they were formed, but; they reached two main membership peaks: in the 1920s with the red scare after World War I and in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. Both of these were times when minority groups fought for recognition. The civil rights movement also brought hate groups of African Americans. Groups like the Black Panther Party and Black Nationalists opposed the oppression they faced and fought it violently. Today, there is a modern civil rights movement happening and there has been a recent rise in hate group activity. Movements such as anti-racism and gay-rights have raised attention and faced opposition. In modern times, hate groups are less tangible. While there may not be groups with national committees holding meetings to oppose these civil rights, there are groups that have these common hatreds: religious groups, political parties, and certain demographic areas are just a few. Hate groups have left huge impacts on society during periods of social liberation, whether for or against the cause. During the reconstruction period in the United States of America, former slaves were granted citizenship...
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...the reader with such a controversial topic but shows the prevalence of racism in that era. The novel’s fictionalization of the south makes it more enriching as it brings a sense of realism to the novel. This novel is a beneficial teaching tool for students learning about racism in America so banning it would impair students’ learning of the south in this era. Many historical concepts of race are displayed throughout the novel, giving it more historical context than just slavery. The underlying reason for the push for the ban is because many parents are concerned about their child well-being while reading....
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...Hate Crimes in American Society in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries Sample Student Research Paper Project of Sociology Table of Contents I. Thesis Statement…………………………………………….………….....Page 4 II. Introduction and Summary………………………………….………….....Page 4 III. Literature Review………………………………………………………....Page 6 IV. Methods………………………………………………………….......….. Page 16 V. Socio-Historical Analysis………………………………………………. .Page 18 A. 20th Century 1. Lynching 2. Ku Klux Klan 3. Rodney King and the Los Angeles Riots 4. Matthew Shepard B. 21st Century 1. Post 9/11 2. Jena Six VI. Cause and Effect Analysis…………………………………………… ....Page 24 A. Causes 1. Prejudice a. Stereotypes b. Scapegoats c. Presence of Hate in American Culture d. Need for Status and Power 2. Reasons for Crime a. Sending a Message b. Thrill Seeking c. Defensive B. Effects 1. Psychological Trauma 2. Undo Social Progress 3. Community Unrest 4. Threat of Retaliation VII. Descriptive Analysis……………………………………………….........Page 30 A. Description of Victims 1. Bias against a Particular Race 2. Bias against a Particular Religion 3. Bias against a Particular Sexual Orientation 4. Bias against a Particular Ethnicity/National Origin 5. Bias against a Disability B. Description of Offenses and Offenders This must be your new section? VIII. Comparative Analysis…………………………………………………. Page 36 A. United States Justice Department Definition of Hate Crime B. International Justice...
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...The debate concerning the death penalty has been ongoing for decades. The central question is whether capital punishment should be retained or abolished worldwide. While the death penalty continues to be used today, most countries have eliminated it in their criminal justice systems. One substantial country that continues to use the death penalty is America. Capital punishment is significant because it permits individuals to be killed lawfully. The death penalty carries enormous power around the legal system in addition to the persons that are accused of serious crimes. The purpose of this paper is to find out the diverse arguments surrounding capital punishment that has led some countries against it and others for it? This will be done by...
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...Throughout history there have been many great migrations to the “new world”, from the Irish wave to the Jews of Eastern Europe, the Americas have been historically viewed as the land of opportunity. No other migration story is more mythologized or popularized than that of the Italian-American immigrant experience. Following Italian Unification in 1870, a range of political, economic and social challenges befell many everyday Italians forcing them to reassess their socio-economic position in Italy and whether Italy could provide for their families. Although Italian Unification established the modern-day Italian nation-state, millions of Italians immigrated to the Americas in the latter part of the Nineteenth century because of the desperate...
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...art that translated “politics into cultural terms.”2 The FAP looked for a “new sense of authentic American culture – one that championed national values and traditions by celebrating regional and racial diversity.”3 As a result, many artists worked to place African Americans in the historical narrative of the United States while combating long held stereotypes. None were less important than Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Dox Trash, and the creators of the Harlem Hospital murals. Throughout the decade, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) continued its struggles to gain social and political equality for African Americans. The NAACP employed many avenues to achieve its goals. An Art Commentary on Lynching and the Marian Anderson concert were two such...
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...Mid-Term Paper April 18, 2014 When it comes to race in the United States, America has always thought of itself as a racial and ethnic melting pot. This “melting pot” message has always been known throughout the world as a key aspect of America’s national identity, built on the promise that all people of various colors, races and ethnic backgrounds are afforded basic civil freedoms and opportunities to pursue their dreams within a democratic society. In fact, in school classrooms throughout the United States, where most of us received our initial understanding of American history, we often witness a romanticized narrative of Americans striving forward towards progress with limited or partial understanding of race, the complex story of Native Americans and their removal from conquered lands, and the enslavement of African-Americans. The purpose of this essay is to rethink prior understandings of American history and what race means, as well as how it has determined and limited citizenship and opportunity for some Americans, by exploring the voices in author Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove’s book Voices of a People’s History of the United States and other literary sources, and what American citizenship means to those not designated white, rich or male. The definition and concept of race, a human classification system used to group human beings into large and distinct categories, is a relatively recent modern concept, with roots in the breeding of animal stock that only became...
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...HISTORY 1500 WINTER 2014 RESEARCH ESSAY TOPICS 1. Select a crusade and discuss the extent to which it accomplished its objectives. Why did it succeed or fail? Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History; Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives; Christopher Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of the Crusades 2. How did anti-Semitism manifest itself in medieval Europe? Kenneth R. Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe; Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages; Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the Thirteenth Century 3. What was the position of prostitutes in medieval society? Ruth Mazo Karras, Common Women; Leah Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society; Margaret Wade Labarge, A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life 4. Why did the French choose to follow Joan of Arc during the the Hundred Years War? Kelly DeVries, Joan of Arc: A Military Leader; Bonnie Wheeler, ed., Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc; Margaret Wade Labarge, A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life 5. Discuss the significance of siege warfare during the crusades. You may narrow this question down to a single crusade if you wish. Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Siege; Randall Rogers, Latin Siege Warfare in the Twelfth Century; John France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade 6. Why did the persecution...
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...realizing that their race was a problem is comparable to blacks in America today. Their feeling of disdain for the white people on the opposite side of the veil reveals another point about the concept of the veil. DuBois’ veil concept not only refers to the whites’ view of African-Americans as obstructed by the veil. The opacity works two ways. Just like the little white could not clearly see DuBois for who he was beyond the color of his skin due to her veil, Dubois could not properly see the entire white race because of this one encounter with this little white girl that he then projected onto all white people. The same is true in the case of Cain who sued the Pullman Company for his...
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...How far were the actions of the African Americans the main reason for the advancement of the Civil Rights in the period 1865-1980? “Power concedes nothing without demand, it never has and it never will”[1]. Said by Fredrick Douglass in 1857, an escaped slave who had bearded the brunt of the slave years. He had come to the realisation that African Americans had a fountain of “power”; however that power that they possessed would never establish anything without a “demand”. Fredrick Douglass awoke the conscious of African Americans to make them realise that wanting to be free and wanting to achieve full civil rights was not enough, neither was enduring a life under white supremacy waiting for life after death to see a new dawn .Believing and hoping was not enough. “Power concedes nothing without demand” the solution is to be willing to work hard to establish it yourself by demanding what belongs to them. However using power in order to concede civil rights was a struggle which was acknowledged by Fredrick Douglass “Without struggle there is no success”. To achieve advancement in African American Civil Rights, African Americans had to undergo a process of struggle. A rainbow is not made without rain; you can not want rain without thunder and lightening being accompanied by it. To achieve full civil rights African Americans had to pay the price along the way which was persecution, de-humanisation and scrutiny. Martin Luther King being inspired by Fredrick Douglass said “Freedom...
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...a dream that many still dream today. Even though we are closer now than at any point in history, we have yet to experience the freedom of which Dr. King dreamed. Racism is not a problem only in America, most every nation deals with racial issues on some level. Though none of us could ever forget the tragedy of the Holocaust, we tend to forget that it was racially motivated. Hitler’s goal was to exterminate the Jewish people. “Anne Frank was murdered by the Nazis in Bergen-Belsen [concentration camp] for being a Jew, just one of over one million Jewish children to be killed in the Holocaust” (Melchior). The Holocaust, while the most prominent, is not the only example of ethnic cleansing that the world offers. Darfur, the Sudan, Croatia, and Kosovo, just to name a few, have all dealt with this racial horror. South Africa, as well, deals with racism. As the political power shifts toward black South Africans, white South Africans face continual racial violence (Russell). By taking a broad look, it would appear that even though America is a relatively young nation, we have greatly overcome racism when compared to the majority of the world. Though it has been nearly 150 years since President Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, a black man is still not free in America. Certainly, no longer bound with the chains of slavery, but he is...
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...time, it is not only African- Americans who were victims of racism. Jewish-Americans also suffered their own form of discrimination that saw some of them getting killed. Several laws were enacted during the civil rights movement’s activities, most of which helped stem the tide of racism. Since the 1960s, the period during which the civil rights movement carried out its activities, tremendous progress has been achieved. The achievements can be misconstrued by some to mean absolute elimination of racism and anti-Semitism. But the reality of the matter is that racism and anti-Semitism are still part of the American society, and evidence from research will be discussed to support this claim. The first evidence of the continuity of racism in America is the placement of a limit on the number of Asians who can be admitted to Ivy League colleges in the United States (Lubin, 2012). Racism is also shown to be part of the American society as shown by anti-black sentiments as well as anti-Hispanic sentiments in the United States as of 2012, more than four decades since the civil rights movement staged protests (Associated Press, 2012). Additionally, the Anti-Defamation League reports that hate crimes that are related to religion were predominantly directed to Jews who suffered 77% of these crimes (ADL, 2012), a scenario that serves as evidence of the continued presence of anti-Semitism in the United States. Racism is manifested by the decision by some colleges and universities to limit...
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...history man has always fear what differs from itself. Whether it be skin color, sexual orientation or religious beliefs; we’ve hunted that which is different from us. In today’s day we’d like to think we have grown pass these urges, but unfortunately we almost certainly do the same thing we did during the Salem witch trials in the 1600’s just minus the hangings (sometimes), and that’s what I’ll be discussing today by comparing events from the past 150 years to the crucible. But before we start here’s a quick over view of the crucible. The crucible is a play about a group of women who were practicing witch craft which is punishable by hanging because it is a sin. The got caught and to cover their tracks they lie on towns people they dislike claiming they are witches. The only way for the town’s people to avoid death is to lie which is also a sin, so they basically get charged with a sin and gave to sin for their life which challenges their beliefs. So to truly start this paper I would like to talk about the trials of the African American people. The African American people have been hunted since we gained are freedom in the 1860’s. As soon as we got are freedom the Caucasian people refused us basic living rights because we were different. If you were black and caught by the racist they lynched you, Lynching is when a person is hung from an object and for an alleged event, kind of like in the crucible they were different so they hung. Caucasian’s where so afraid of blending with...
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