The March on Washington Reflection

The documentaries and episodes on the historic 1963 March on Washington for jobs and freedom were truly inspiring for many, thus changing the way Americans look at equality and freedom. Martin Luther King Jr was one of the most confident and ballsy famous minsters and civil rights activists known to mankind. He stood up for what he believed in and delivered the, “I have a dream” speech that would change this nation forever. Everything Martin Luther King Jr said was true. I could tell in numerous speeches on his part that he simply didnt care about if you were black or white or even if he was going to receive backlash amongst white supremacists. He had full faith in God, no matter what the outcome would happen after he spoke. 

Jr was later killed for his acts of empowerment of the nation and belief inequality due to white supremacists not liking him which was a tragedy because Jr did not commit any crime. A fact that I found to be crazy is Martin Luther King Jr had a $50,000 reward for being killed by a distinguished mafia group at the time which was a huge amount of money back then. It made me realize how unequal our nation was at the time and how outside the box and confident Martin Luther King Jr was for standing up on belief and values of making the US become an equal nation.

Inequality and racism has definitely gotten better but still goes on in our society today in different ways than in the 1960s. One of the biggest events in recent years was the death of George Floyd. I live 15 min away from the incident and it was crazy to me how much publicity and coverage happened for just one sad incident. The protest spread like a wildfire throughout the nation. Peaceful protests can raise awareness for any issues and it can be worth it to participate in them. 

However the aftermath of George Floyd many peaceful, but others were not at all. I will never forget the moments when my city had curfews multiple days where everyone had to stay home at a certain hour because there were dangerous riots going on close to our city. The streets were completely vacant because people didn't know what dangerous things were going to happen. When rioters block highways, burn buildings, break into local businesses, and set things on fire it is simply unethical and immoral. My dad is a chairman at a family-run bank that has a location in Minneapolis. They had to board up the outside of the bank because rioters were coming close to the street that the bank was on. My dad and other high executives at the bank were uneasy and a bit terrified that the rioters were going to come down the street and break into the bank. Luckily by the grace of God, they stopped one street away and the bank was safe. However, I do feel for all of the other local businesses that did get destroyed that summer when doing nothing. That’s just a little story about how peaceful protest can raise awareness, but sometimes it can go way too far when absolutely not needing to!

https://www.pbs.org/video/new-york-now-march-washington-50-years-later/

https://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-march.html

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/march-washington-jobs-and-freedom

Brown v Board of Education Reflection

The Brown v Board of Education Mock Trial brought forth by my fellow students was very well put together with many factual and ethical points that opened my eyes to how the two sides in this argument tried to prove their points during the trial in 1954. To give a little bit of background that I learned, the case was known as a landmark decision with the two sides debating the segregation of black and white schools. The brown side argued that segregation by law implied that African Americans were inherently inferior to whites. The Board of Education argued that the separate schools for blacks were equal in every way, and were in complete compliance with the Plessy standard. The trial was run from the consolidation of 4 similar cases together, 4 public government-run school systems. These cases established the separate, but equal doctrine. They were brought under the 14th Amendment, also the equal protection clause.

The group that won me over in this mock trial was the Brown side due to the fact that they had more factual evidence and examples from the Bill of Rights, Bible, Constitution, and an individual’s morals. There were many good points that I found to be intriguing including… 

• The Constitution is color blind, doesn’t make a distinction between men and women, class, and most importantly race.

• There are a set of laws that discriminate against black people, but no laws that discriminate against white, something is wrong with that!

• African American children are still young. This is happening to a child by no fault to his/her own decision-making. (The way you were born). It creates an unfair advantage for white students. 

• “The golden rule” in the 14th Amendment doesn’t lift any exception like African Americans.

• We can look at passages of the Declaration of Independence and the bible of how “all men are created equal.” 

• President Truman (nonjudicial precedent action) integrated the military. Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play baseball. These were events that were happening within the era, but still segregation in schools!? 

• If there is a mutual decision to become equal it will help benefit the economy.

Although the Brown team had some very strong points with the Constitution and individual morals, the board of education made some strong points as well, however not as many as the Brown side in my opinion. Here are some of the points that I found to be quite solid… 

• “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” notion. We don’t know what would happen. It could lead to a riot. 

• History repeats itself. They should remain separate, but equal to keep communities safe.

• Black children were already at a disadvantage in learning the skills of white people in school because of their ancestor’s IQ.

• They’re gonna take our jobs if they come to our schools! 

• Ruin the student-teacher ratio.

Emmett Till Murder EOTO Debate

A young African American boy brutally murdered at age 14!? How did it really happen and was it right to do so? Emmett Till grew up in South Chicago in a working-class neighborhood. Emmett had attended a segregated elementary school, however, he was not ready for the segregation that was about to happen when he moved to Mississippi. His mother had warned Till to not pull little pranks because of his race, but TIll fed into being a prankster. Every time someone would dare Emmett to pull a prank on an individual he would do so because he himself and his peers thought it was funny.

On August 24 a little prank would change Emmett Till’s life forever. He was at a country store in Mississippi with his African American friends. The friends roamed around the store looking at the things to purchase. One of Emmett’s friends dared him to ask a white woman sitting behind the store counter for a date simply because the friends disbelieved the fact that Emmett’s girlfriend back home was white.

So Emmett did so, he went up to the cashier to buy some candy. After buying the candy he left the store saying “bye baby” to the white cashier after allegedly flirting with Carolyn Bryant, the white cashier for a minute before. Roy Bryant, the woman’s husband, returned from a business trip a few days later and heard how Emmett had allegedly spoken to his wife. Enraged, he went to the home of Till’s great uncle, Mr. Wright, with his friend Millam in the car in the morning of August 28.

He demanded to see Emmett Till. Despite the pleas and cries from the great uncle of Till, he was forced into Roy Bryant’s car. It would have been a whole different story today with technology and simply calling 911 after the incident. After apparently driving around in the night, and perhaps beating Till in a toolhouse they drove him down to the Tallahatchie River. Emmett was not seen for 3 full days later until his dead corpse was recovered by Till’s great uncle Mr. Wright in the Tallahatchie River. Mr. Wright could only recognize Emmet simply because of his initialed ring on one of his fingers. That just shows how brutally murdered Till was for simply not committing any crime of violence, just a funny prank on a white cashier at a county store.

At only age 14 Emmet was brutally murdered. The family of Till soon later had an opened casket during Emmett’s funeral to show the public the brutality of the murder and to show the world what the racist murders did to her only son. The acts of violence were truly horrendous in the murder including beating, eye-gouging, shooting Emmett in the head, and throwing him down the river on top of a cotton gin from the evidence brought forth during the trial that was about to happen.

Later after TIll’s body was buried Bryant and Milam went on trial in a segregated courthouse in Mississippi. The trial went on for only about an hour through deliberation and numerous points of evidence on Till’s side, however, the all-white jury issued a verdict of “not guilty.” They explained that they believed the state had failed to prove the identity of the body. Numerous were furious and outraged at the decision because it was clear that Roy Bryant was the killer. They were also outraged by the state’s decision not to indict Bryant and Milliam on the separate charge of kidnapping.

This act prompted outrage and activism amongst African Americans and numerous others from the terror Emmett experienced from not even committing a single crime. The shocking brutality of Till’s murder served to galvanize civil rights workers in Mississippi and beyond. The African Americans that would stand up for change amongst African American lynchings would be risking their own lives on it happening to themselves due to segregation and the Klu Klux Klan in full swing during Till’s murder. The Emmett Till murder trial brought light to the brutality of Jim Crow Segregation in the South and was an early momentum boost for the civil rights movement.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/murder-of-emmett-till/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emmett-Till 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-emmett-till 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjr6XLcCXgU