America's "New Era"

Our class's final assignment was to think of a name for the era that America is in right now. We have learned about our country's history and all of the past eras that America has been through, such as: the Civil Rights era, the Jim Crow era, the Reconstruction era, and many others as well. I believe it is hard to put just one title on the era we live in now because of the complexity of everything that has happened in the past few years, but I think I have decided on one: "The Divided Era". I thought this was very fitting due to the events in America in the past few years.     

Let's start off with 2019 and the beginning of 2020. The start of the COVID virus. This was the beginning of another big divide in our country. The whole country was on lockdown with people dying and getting severely sick. The country became divided because of people not wanting to stay inside, wear a mask, or stand six feet apart, and some people were very very strict about these rules. Then came the vaccines These corona virus vaccines became more of a political debate than a medical one. Liberals were more in favor of getting the vaccine to try to keep everyone safe, while Republicans were skeptical of the vaccine because of all the things our country did not yet know about the virus or the science of the vaccines. Whether or not you got the vaccine was a huge deal in America, and if you spoke to the wrong person, you might even get ridiculed for not getting it. 

Then next big divide recently was the BLM movement, or the Black Lives Matter movement. This started when civilian, George Floyd, got unjustly killed by white police officers while he was being arrested for apparently having a fake twenty dollar bill. The officer pressed this knew against George Floyd's neck and ended up killing him. This struck news everywhere and riots grew. People obviously saw this as a bad thing, and were determined to fight back. This began the BLM riots which led to many injured people and many deaths around America. It also started the Black Lives Matter organization which fights for the lives of African Americans who have been treated unfairly, specifically by the police and the government. Not everyone agreed with this movement and thought instead of "Black Lives Matter", it should be "All Lives Matter", and some people thought the BLM movement was too violent and ended up hurting more people than they helped. For the past two years, this has been a constant argument between everyone especially the police and BLM, and Liberals and Republicans.

 

I believe this nation is in it's "Divided Era" because of the countless arguments and differing political views that America has endured in the past few years. This is sad to see because we were once titled, "The United States of America" for a reason, and our country has destroyed it. 

 

Klansville USA Reaction

In class we watched a documentary about the start of the Klu Klux Klan and how it affected America at the time. This topic is intertwined with everything we have learned in this semester. It shows slavery and the mistreatment of people with color and how the south evolved.

They started off by introducing the leader of the first Klan: Bob Jones. He was known for his advertising of the Klan and his events he put on to try to persuade people to their side of the racial segregation issue in America. They put on events that resembled that of a county fair, with live music, pigs, games, anything you could imagine to make people like them. Jones had a "partner" named George Dorsett, who was actually a baptist minister who thought the ideas of the KKK were right; he also became the KKK's official Chaplin. Jones' wife also had a role in his Klan. She invited all the women to help save their children to not be around African American people and to fight against black props bring in their kid's class at school, and they followed her. 

At almost every Klan meeting they ended it with some old hymns and the burning of a huge, wooden cross covered with burlap, and soaked in gasoline. They all stood around it and sang. I think this sign of "intimidation", although it might have worked, it was very disrespectful to the Christian religion. The Klu Klux Klan formed many peaceful walks and riots, until they began to be violent. In 1965, a white woman named Viola Liuzzo was violently killed by a KKK shooting while she was marching with Martin Luther King Jr. for the rights of everyone. After this, President Johnson wanted to shut down the KKK and their violence towards African Americans and the people that supported their rights. He never fully succeeded with this because there are still KKK member now in 2022, but he limited their actions. 

Altogether, the Klu Klux Klan was/is a very racist organization that should have never been a thing. They hurt so many people and did nothing to prove their point other than violence and segregation. 

 

Shirley Chisholm

I was given the topic of Shirley Chisholm to teach the class about with my project group, and here's what I learned about this incredible lady. 

Shirley Chisholm was born on November 30th, 1924. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, but she spent several of her childhood years in Barbados on a farm with her grandparents. While being there, she received an education with more of a British influence. Her parents were very hard workers, especially with this time period being the time of the Great Depression. Her father was a factory worker and her mom was a seamstress. She eventually moved back to Brooklyn and joined her parents. In Brooklyn, she attended many public school and graduated with very high grades, she was very intelligent. She then went to Brooklyn College where she graduated with a Bachelors degree in sociology. She also taught at a daycare and became a director of another daycare center. In 1949, Shirley married an investigator by the name of Conrad Chisholm and they stayed together for many years. 

Eventually in 1964, Shirley Chisholm was elected to be a part of the New York Legislature as a democratic figure. This was a very big deal to her being an African American and being a woman. She became the second African American woman to ever serve in the New York Legislature in Albany. Throughout her years as a politician, many competitions formed between other political figures who were also African American like William C. Thompson and Thomas R. Jones, and she beat both of them. Later, in 1969, Shirley became the first black congresswoman and then served in congress for seven terms. She was on the education committee and she later moves to the rules committee. 

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm ran for president against our former president, Richard Nixon. Her motto for her campaign was, "unbought and unbossed". This motto was to stand against racists and misogynists in the that time period. Throughout her campaign she powerfully stressed the problems with racism between both races. In fact, one of her famous quotes relates to this: "...When you have black racists and white racists it is very difficult to build bridges between communities." I believe this quote can be found true through many decades of American history, because slavery paved a path for segregation in our "united" country. As we know, she did not win that election, but this did not stop her from keeping up her powerful political voice. Until later in 1983, she left congress completely. She then went to teaching at at a small college called Mt. Holyoke College. I thought a very fun fact about her was that the president at the time, Bill Clinton, nominated her to be his Ambassador of Jamaica, but she actually denied his nomination because of her old age and her health issues at the time. 

The legacy of Shirley Chisholm influenced many people. It impacted the lives of many African Americans and women who had been oppressed prior to this election. 

 

Bakke v. California Reaction

Half of our class presented a mock trial for the real life case: Bakke v. California. Two teams were assigned to either be Bakke's legal team or a legal team for the University of California. 

In 1973, a caucasian man by the name of Allan Bakke applied for the medical school at the University of California, but got denied. This confused Bakke very much cause he had very very high grades and amazing test scores. Apparently at the University of California they used to have a racial quota that said that 16 out of the 100 students that they could select were reserved for people of color, so Bakke did not get admitted to this school. He thought this went against his fourteenth amendment right. The fourteenth amendment states, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." Bakke believed that this violated his privileges as a citizen. Bakke sued the University of California for violating this amendment and violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited the discrimination of race. 

In the presentations, I think it was interesting that people on the University of California's legal team brought up how people of color were mistreated for years and this one time something like this happens to a white male is when they start to cause a fight over it. Many colored people a few years prior to this were not allowed an education at all and never had an equal chance as the white people. However, I do not feel that this quota is the way to fix this. They should everyone an equal, fighting chance whatever their race may be. How is it special to get into the University you want only knowing that they accepted you for your race and not your grades or abilities? 

The court eventually decided in favor of Bakke, which I agree with. This decision resulted in the University erasing the racial quota from their program completely, and gave everyone an equal chance to be admitted.

 

EOTO Reaction #2:

The other week, half the class was assigned to a trial, while the other class was assigned to teach us about something they had researched. I learned many things from their presentations, but here are some of my favorites. 

Even though what they did was awful, I still think it is interesting to learn about the Klu Klux Klan and how it affected America. The Klan originally started in 1865 by a group of people and was widely known by 1870. The ideas leading to the formation of this group were popular back then because of everything that had happened in America as far as segregation and racism. They started something called lynching which is murdering someone by a mob, which they did frequently. They did their lynching on African Americans. 

Another topic I thought was very interesting was Rosa Parks. I'm pretty sure everyone knows of her, but she truly is an icon for anti-segregation. Parks is widely known for her outstanding act against racism that took place on a bus. In 1955, blacks were free, but there were still segregation laws. On December 1st of 1955, Rosa Parks got on the bus and took a seat near the front of the bus. Back then this was not allowed, and all African Americans were required to sit at the back of the bus and let a white man take her seat, but she refused. She stood her ground after being told many times to move and eventually got arrested for her acts. I think it was a very brave thing to do back then especially being part of two minorities: being African American and being a woman. Her actions paved the way through all of history and inspired many people to take a stand against racism.

 

"In the Heat of the Night" Reflection 

In one of our class times, our teacher let us watch a movie by the name of "In the Heat of the Night". While I am not normally a fan of older movies, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. If you like a good murder mystery, or even just a mystery, then you will enjoy this movie. It also has a good actor from another movie we watched, his name is Sidney Poitier. He was also in the movie "Band of Angels" that we watched a few weeks ago which I also enjoyed a lot. 

In this movie one officer found a dead man on the road. A little while later he found Virgil, a black police officer who was sitting on a bench waiting for his train to arrive. The officer blamed Virgil for the murder of this man he had found, not knowing the Virgil himself was a respected police officer from up North. The officer ended up bringing Virgil to the police station as a suspect, where he was met by the harsh chief of police. 

At the police station, Virgil was thoroughly investigated by the racist chief, and he quickly realized he was talking to a fellow officer, one who specialized in murder investigations. The chief ended up letting him go. If it wasn't for the wife of the murder victim, Virgil would've been on his way back up North and would've never seen them again, but she stepped in and convinced them that they needed his help because he was a specialist. He ended up helping them all the way through the investigation.

One of the reasons I really like this movie is because you can clearly see how America has changed through the years with racism. Nowadays a black officer is a very normal thing and no one would think twice about it, but back then it was very different. African Americans were free, but there were still a plethora of racists people in America, especially in the South. 

 

Brown v. Board of Education

In class, my group got assigned another court case called "Brown v. Board of Education" to do a mock trial on. We had to do the assignment in the perspective of Brown's side of the case. The anti-slavery side. In this case we each had to do different aspects of it. My task was to write about the overview of what was happening at the time of the case involving slavery specifically antislavery. 

Brown v. Board of Education is a case about a young girl required to go to an all black school that was far away from her home, instead of going to a white school that was very close to her house. The family of this girl was not happy with this and them, and lots of other black families gathered together and filed a lawsuit against the school systems in that county. They ended up winning the case on the argument from "Plessy v. Ferguson," that things should be "separate but equal". The court ended in a unanimous decision favoring the Brown family with a vote of 9-0. 

Here is my overview:

At this time, our anti-slavery activists have grown and have become a stronger voice due to all the racist instances our country has provided for us. We have made many advances in the past years some going back hundreds of years. The influence has spread to all aspects of life including music, jobs, relationships,  and how we treat people in everyday life. Within these aspects, we had important people that we could look up to in history. One very famous one being Joseph H. Rainey. Joseph H. Rainey was the first ever African American to be appointed in the House of Representatives. This was a huge deal to the abolitionists of America. Another one of these people being Thurgood Marshall. Marshall became a legal defense and was eventually elected to the Supreme Court. We have made our voice known to many people, some even as important as the President himself. A few years ago in 1946, President Harry S. Truman executed an order  that said a person of any race can participate in the armed forces. This was a huge step for our people and it has shown how much of an impact we can have if we stand up for what we believe in. 

Jim Crow laws have been around for some time now. They have been separating and discriminating blacks and whites for years and they have not stopped now. Jim Crow laws by definition are laws that enforced racial segregation specifically in the south. This was mainly for the Reconstruction era during the 1870s, but it was wrongly kept for many more years, and we are still dealing with the repercussions.

And now, in this court, I believe we can make a difference. I believe we can change the way society looks at races, so that we will not have to be separate, but yet see everyone as a person and all the same.