Sidnie

__ Women and Blacks: __
** **This year’s topic is Conflict and Compromise. For our topic, we decided to use women and blacks’ fight for equal rights because we have not studied those issues much, and we wanted to learn more about it. Women and blacks’ fight for equal rights was a pretty large topic, so narrowing it down was complicated. We finally decided to focus on the men and women who affected the civil rights movement and women's right to vote.**
 * The Division Over the Fight for Equal Rights

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When I began researching, I first started with many primary source documents and books. Toward the end, I used a few Internet sites. The books were very helpful because they included quotes from famous and lesser-known activists. The Internet provided me with information as well as pictures. At first, our whole group read a book together. Then two of us focused mainly on civil rights and blacks' rights, while the other two focused on women’s rights. ======

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Our topic relates to the National History Day theme because slavery, civil rights, and inequality in the lives of women and blacks played a key role in the history of our country. National History Day is a day to recognize events in history. Slavery was a major event in history because human beings were enslaved because of the color of their skin. It played a major role in history because the achievements of African Americans has become so great over many years of effort and determination. Civil rights pertains to women and blacks. Were either of them allowed to vote one hundred years ago? No! Were women allowed to own land? No. Were blacks allowed to go to restaurants, schools, restrooms, movie theaters, or use the same water fountains as whites? No. ======

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Inequality relates to the National History Day theme as well. What if equality hadn't been reached? Who knows, but what matters is educating our generation about the past so nothing like it can ever happen again. ======

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The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery everywhere in the United States. However, it still happened in some places. The Fourteenth Amendment promised all citizens equal protection under the law, but much of the time that didn't happen. The Fifteenth Amendment gave African American men the right to vote. However, the government would issue tests to the blacks before they were allowed to vote. These tests were nearly impossible to pass. The Black Codes were a series of laws the south passed after these amendments, just to make sure the blacks would not be able to have the same rights as whites. Sometimes blacks would have to pay a poll tax, a fee so they'd be able to vote. Another law the south passed was depriving blacks of their happiness. They could be arrested for showing any signs of pride, ambition, or self-respect. When blacks fled from the south, the only place they could go was north. When they entered the north, the people thought the blacks were going to take their jobs so they used discrimination against them, just as the south had done. ======

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The first book I read was __There Comes a Time__, by Milton Meltzer. In this book I learned about the beginning of the fight for equal rights, a non-violent revolution. I learned about the Greensboro Four, four black students who protested in lunch counter sit-ins. They would ask their servers, “Why do you serve me at one counter, but not another?” Which of course was not true, they had not been served at another counter. They merely wanted to see if the servers would assist them. They didn’t, but that’s why the Greensboro Four learned that only perseverance would end the unfair treatment of African Americans. This book also featured information about the // Brown vs. Board of Education // court case. Linda Brown, a student from an all-black elementary school, had to walk several miles to school each day. Her father wanted to enroll her in an all-white school because it was much closer. The school, on the other hand, did not care how much closer their school was to Linda’s home, they would not allow a black student to attend their school. They claimed the white students’ parent would not allow it either. They did not want their child to be influenced by a black child’s behavior, for they found it much less appropriate. This court case continued for over a year. Finally the court decided that segregation laws COULD NOT apply to schools, for it was not only wrong, it was unfair. They decided that no child should be looked down upon because of the color of their skin, and definitely should not be deprived of a good education. ======

**The next book I read was called __Oh, Freedom!__ by Casey King and Linda Barret. Rosa Parks wrote the foreword in this book, explaining that this was a fantastic book because she thinks kids need to know about this, and she believes this book is just the thing to show them the light. Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. This all occured in** **Montgomery, Alabama, where Rosa Parks became a part of history. She said the African Americans were tired of giving into segregation, tired of eating outside while whites ate inside at lunch counters. She said they were tired of separate but unequal schools, tired of not being able to vote, tired of not being able to openly speak their minds. She said they were absolutely tired of it all, mostly tired of living in fear.**


 * Though this book contained interviews with many people, I've chosen three of them to talk about, Charles Epps, Jacqueline Wilson, and Lawrence Still. I'll start with Charles Epps. Mr. Epps grew up in Windsor, North Carolina. He remembers segregation taking place where he lived, even though it's a small town. He said the schools as well as the restrooms and the courthouse were segregated. He said the movie theatres were even segregated. The black children had to sit toward the top in the theatres, while the white children could sit down front. Mr. Epps began speaking about a small restaurant that had the best hot dogs he'd ever eaten. He said the white people could walk right in and sit down. But if you were black, you had to walk around back. There was a little hole that you would put your money through and they'd pass you your hot dog. He said it didn't feel very good to see the white people sitting inside eating together with their families, when he had to have his pushed through a little opening in the back. He called it "very dehumanizing," meaning, it made you feel like less than a human because you weren't treated like a decent person. He said it definitely made you question your worth as a human being. He said what made him feel a little bit better was what Martin Luther King Jr. always said, "Who you are should be determined not by how you look, but by what you stand for." That concludes my section on Mr. Charles Epps.

Jacqueline Wilson focused mostly on segregation in schools. She talked about how the white children and black children were not allowed to attend the same schools. She said, as a child she didn't understand why black children couldn't go to school with white children, or play on their playgrounds. Some of the black kids' playgrounds wouldn't even have sand on them, they'd be covered in ashes. So when the kids would go home from playing at the playground, they'd be unimaginably dirty. Mrs. Wilson said her mother told her it was because it was the law. She said when they would look at the white children's playground, they would definitely wonder what else was in the white schools that they didn't have in their schools. She said there wasn't really a way to know. But they had an idea. She said all the books in her school had other schools' names in them - white schools names. She said there'd be a long list of kids' names inside them, indicating that they had been used many times before. Mrs. Wilson said the sports equipment and art supplies were not as good - almost always used. She said it always made you feel like you weren't good enough to have new things, like you always came second. This concludes my section about Mrs. Jacqueline Wilson.

Now I'll talk about Mr. Lawrence Still. Mr. Still was one of many that attended the March on Washington in 1963.He called it a wonderful surprise. What he meant was, nobody knew what would become of it, for these protests were new to many. He said while he was there, not knowing what to expect, there was this concern, this fear, that they might not be able to pull it off. He said they didn't know how many people would show up, if any showed up at all. But they did. Mr. Still said there was tons of people, just pouring over the bridges into Washington. He said they came in buses, trains, and cars with license plates from all over the country. He said this was seen even before they were within the city! Mr. Still said there were people all over the streets, on the sidewalks, standing in every doorway. He said there were people from all over the world coming to march for justice. He remembered hearing Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech." He said something quite surprising actually, he said most of what Dr. King said, was not written in his speech! Mr. Still called it "speaking from the heart." Mr. Still said he didn't think Dr. King ever expected he'd achieve his dreams in his lifetime, but he knew he was well on the way.**


 * Also from this book I learned many interesting facts about segregation in the United States. When in churches, blacks were to sit in the back rows, so the whites could sit up front. I also learned more about segregated city buses. When there were not enough seats in the white section on the buses for the whites to sit down, a sign would be moved back into the blacks' section. This sign said "Whites Only." If more white people would board the bus, the sign would be moved back even further. This sign limited the blacks' space. But the whites didn't care. Sometimes, so many whites would board the bus at a time, the bus driver would make some of the blacks stand up, so the whites could sit down.

From this book, I also learned that the period of time after the Civil War was known as Reconstruction, where blacks were allowed to own land, vote, and hold office. But before the Civil War, blacks knew nothing of this sort. The southern states had even deprived blacks of their rights guaranteed by the 6th Amendment, especially their right to have a lawyer to represent them in a court of law.

When many blacks were arrested, they weren't even read their rights. Many of those who were not read their "Miranda Rights," knew they should have been, but they would not speak up, in fear of their punishment or death. And when someone would speak out against the states for being segregated, the states claimed they were separate, but they were equal. Sure, they were separate, but definitely not equal. In this book, I learned a lot about the NAACP's role in getting rid of segregation. NAACP stands for the National Advancement of Colored People. They supported many blacks in court cases.

Rosa Parks was spoken about in this book too. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was sitting on a crowed bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The bus driver noticed that a white man was standing. He quickly ordered Mrs. Parks and three other African Americans to stand at the back. The other three did as they were told but Mrs. Parks would not move. When the bus driver angrily asked her if she was going to move, she politely replied, "No, I'm not." When the bus driver threatened to call the police, Mrs. Parks calmly said, "You may do that." That night Mrs. Rosa Parks, a member of the NAACP, was behind bars. But Mrs. Parks wasn't the first to be arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus. And the time had finally come. They were tired of this kind of treatment. They decided to arrange a boycott. They decided that no African American in the city of Montgomery, Alabama should take the city buses, so the bus company would lose money. The boycott was held December 5, the day of Rosa parks trial, where she was found guilty of breaking the segregation laws. Soon after, empty buses roamed the streets of Montgomery. That night thousands of African Americans piled into a Montgomery church. A young minister, who had only had a few minutes to prepare his speech and was worried he wouldn't know what to say, took the podium. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. started by saying, " We are tired...of being segregated and humiliated. For many years we have shown amazing patience...But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice." Dr. King was a strong believer in non-violent protest. He was also inspired by the traditions of the black church, which had retained its independence from white control and had promoted freedom and justice. He convinced the people that night to continue the boycott just as it was, non-violent, because a peaceful boycott was the right way to achieve what they wanted. For over a year, nearly every black person in Montgomery, Alabama walked, carpooled, or rode in church vans. The bus company lost money, just as expected, but they would not give in. In 1956, a Supreme Court ruling said that buses could no longer be segregated or have separate seating for blacks. This prompted Dr. King and other ministers that supported the boycott, to form an organization called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. Together they carried on the protests that would start in Montgomery.

After the Supreme Court ruled that all schools must be desegregated, the southern states passed more than 450 new laws to make sure black children would not attend their schools. I also learned about the Little Rock Nine. In 1957, nine African American students entered an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The governor, Orval Faubus, called in the Arkansas National guard to prevent the students from going to the school. For many days white mobs gathered in front of the school. Faubus made no effort to stop this racist violence. Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called in federal soldiers to protect the students from the mobs and to escort them to their classes. The next year, Faubus decided to close all Arkansas schools instead of allowing black children to attend them. They remained closed for almost a year, until the Supreme Court ruling forced them to reopen. The southern states kept resisting but those who were really dedicated to achieving civil rights, worked on.

I learned about the Greensboro Four from North Carolina, as well. On February 1, 1959, four male college students sat down in a local lunch counter called Woolworth's. They sat down in the "whites only" section. At first, they thought they'd be beaten or arrested, but the waitress just stood there looking at them. She didn't know what to think. It was the first time she had ever seen blacks sit in the "whites only" section. They were not served, and they did not leave. They sat there until the restaurant closed, and then they left. two days later, nearly eighty students were "sitting-in" at Woolworth's. And within weeks, sit-ins had occured over and over again, all over the south. The response to the protesters varied. Sometimes the whites would just watch them. Sometimes people would shout insults at them. Sometimes the'd have food dumped over their heads, or they'd be beaten or arrested. Some of the protesters nearly died. The Executive Director of SCLC, Ella Baker, was inspired by the kids' courage. She helped them form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick") to lead and organize more student protests.

Sit-ins led to "wade-ins" at all-white swimming pools, and "kneel-ins" in all-white churches. Some of the protesters would sing songs such as, "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind On Freedom" or "We Shall Overcome" during demonstrations. They'd also bravely chant, "Freedom Now!" These protests were all non-violent, just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had advised.

The next book I read was called, __Heroes for Civil Rights__. I learned about a variety of people that had spoken about experiencing their involvements in the Civil Rights Movement, like Ralph Abernathy. He helped organize the Mongomery Bus Boycott. He believed blacks' strategies were love and non-violence. He was a very determined activist. I also learned about Medgar Evers. Blacks in Mississippi weren't allowed to go to town on election days, since they weren't allowed to vote anyway. Mr. Evers and some other men went to town anyway. When they arrived, white men were waiting for them with knives and guns. Another was Franklin McCain. He help start the nonviolent protests of sit-ins. He was one of the Greensboro Four.** **I learned about Thurgood Marshall. He was the first African Amrican to be appointed as a justice on the Supreme Court. He was a member of the NAACP. He argued in the //Brown vs. Board of Education.// One of his quotes mentioned in this book said, "Equal...is getting the same thing, at the same time, in the same place," explaining that blacks were not given these opportunities. I also learned about Martin Luther King Jr. some of his quotes included in this book were, "We must use the weapon of love." and "We must have compassion and understanding for those who hate us." Dr. King led non-violent protests against white-only places and things, such as water fountains, lunch counters, waiting rooms, and restrooms. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated on the balcony of his motel room while leading a protest.

I'm very satisfied with what my group and I have learned. We've discovered so many things that are very important. I'm very glad we decided to participate in National History Day.**