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.