Kaylynn Foulk
AMST 301
Professor Linkletter
September 14, 2016
My Project: Analysis of the film The Watsons Go to Birmingham
1. I will use the following course reading in my analysis: Wallace Thurman, “The Blacker the Berry”.
2. I will use the following lecture material in my analysis: lectures from section on race to be determined and the lecture on racial identity.
3. I will analyze my subject (The Watsons Go to Birmingham) from the perspective of: race.
4. I will need to do dependent research on the following subjects: history of the Civil Rights Movement emphasis on race, North vs. South in America during 1963, and the impact of the Birmingham Church Bombing.
5. My working thesis is currently as follows: The movie, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, portrays how society treated African Americans during the 1960s. Kenny Watson, the lead character, shows the viewers how he sees the world through his eyes as a child while facing with racism and violence in Birmingham, Alabama during the summer of 1963.
I. Introduction: The movie, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, portrays how society treated African Americans during the 1960s. Kenny Watson, the lead character, shows the viewers how he sees the world through his eyes as a child while facing with racism and violence in Birmingham, Alabama during the summer of 1963.
II. The Watsons Go to Birmingham reflect American attitudes about race by using pieces of history and symbolism in the film.
A. Context of The Watsons Go to Birmingham in
“ Some of these early productions have racial themes which reorganize the world in such a way that black heritage is rewarded over white paternity; they are schematic renunciations of the prevailing order of things in white American society where, historically, the discovery of black blood meant sudden reversal of fortune, social exclusion, or banishment.” (Gaines, P.3) Within the movie the amount of mistruths about African Americans was sad. Within the movie you notice that the blacks were always or seem to be yelling, acting uncivilized and doing
This movie based off of a southern family living in Memphis, Tennessee will show you a true taste of southern hospitality. In every film you have your list of characters along with their personalities and most importantly their motives. Along with the certain qualities of every character comes the ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos which stands for the goodness of a film and/or ethics goes hand in hand with the sender of a film, Pathos which is the passion and emotions of a film which goes hand in hand with the receiver, and lastly the logos which is the logic/information that sends a message. Each rhetoric sends a message and surely puts a movie together.
The historical fiction novel,The Watsons go to Birmingham 1963, by Christopher Curtis is a story about the racism in the world and about a family who slowly gets exposed to it. The Watsons is similar to America during the 1960 because they both change. This can be seen throughout the novel when Kenny and Byron are faced with difficult events. Many families were not aware of racism in other parts of America.
Have you ever been treated unfairly? Well, in the book The Watsons go to Birmingham in 1963 they were in the middle of the civil rights movements, they were fighting to be treated equally. The main theme is stopping segregation here are three examples ,the Watson family couldn't go to the same school as whites, they couldn't use the same restrooms, they couldn't go to the same church in peace.
People often believe that once you see someone from how they look on the inside they will not change. This is seen in Christopher Paul Curtis’s historical fiction novel, The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963, when a family of five travel to Birmingham, Alabama. The dynamic characters in the novel, Kenny, and Byron, transform after their arriving.
For this assignment, I will be analyzing the 2004, blockbuster film White Chicks with specific reference to dimensions of social stratification such as gender, class, and race. White Chicks follows the story of two African American FBI agent brothers, Kevin and Marcus Copeland who accidently foil an assiduously executed undercover operation intended to capture a group of notorious Dominican drug smugglers. As a final opportunity to redeem their tarnished reputations, the two agents take on an assignment far below their customary standards when they agree to escort billionaire heiresses Brittany and Tiffany Wilson to the Hamptons in order
The research I did was exactly the same as the events in the movie. The movie has the same events like the bombing of the 16th street Baptist church in Birmingham which was a big one, the Jim Crow Laws, and the discrimination and hatred that was going on in the United States and specially in Alabama. The 1960’s was a big historic year for the United States because that's when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the big speech of Martin Luther King Jr. was said. Segregation ended after the 1960’s after all the people fought for what was
For my research topic I chose “Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws.” I chose this topic because I have heard about Jim Crow Laws many times through television, books, and history classes but never in depth. I wanted to know more about the topic, along with black codes, which I have never heard about and didn’t know existed. Choosing this topic allowed me to gain more knowledge on both of these topics. Before this paper, my knowledge of Jim Crows laws was that they were laws that White Southerners were using to keep former slaves as insubordinates to them. I learned that this is the basic idea and purpose of the Jim Crow laws, but they were also used to prevent complaints and issues, with the separate but equal laws, that said that black were to receive equal, but separate public facilities and buildings. What I wanted to know is how black codes differed from Jim Crow laws. To answer this question I found out the history behind them, the differences and the similarities, and in that, was able to grow as a researcher.
My research topic is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and I chose this topic because I always found it amusing that it took so long for African Americans to legally be allowed to vote. I also thought this topic was appropriate since we now have an African American president, and the African Americans citizens need to know that voting I important because we didn’t always have that right.
this story that causes controversy because of his skin color. Is the story’s relevance based on Mr. Robinson and his skin color? In my opinion yes, the book revolves all around his skin color and racism of the time. Tom Robinson is treated unfairly because he was black not because of what he supposedly did. The controversial subject matter in this book is immense in numbers, but out of all them, racism stands out the most. A question that has come to mind after reading this book is, today is racism still a hostile problem and as big as it was in the 1930s? Throughout this research paper I will gather information about racism from the 30s, and also today.
Ways in which the film is useful to pupils studying Civil Rights in the USA 1954-1965 “Mississippi Burning” provides visual contextualisation of the events and lifestyle at the time of Freedom Summer in rural Mississippi, 1964. The use of visuals creates a stronger image of the way of life at the time. For example, the film creates an authentic atmosphere of a Southern small town in the 1960s through the use of appropriate housing, setting, and fashion. The film shows the viewer the reality of poverty in a small town, and the obvious contrast in living between blacks and whites. Additionally, the movie gives insight into the inner workings and operations of the Ku Klux Klan.
The topic that I chose for my research paper is the Jim Crow laws. I chose this topic because during this time period the Jim Crow laws were a huge obstacle that our country had to overcome in order to grow. The Jim Crow laws were created to separate whites and blacks in their everyday lives, allowing for no interaction between races. The Jim Crow Laws were enforced in the southern, United States. The laws existed between 1877 and the 1950’s, around the time the reconstruction period was ending and the civil rights movement was beginning.
Although slavery and segregation laws are obsolete, racial inequality remains visible within our society. Throughout the course readings, one thing is for sure: the slave trade is the primary cause of racial inequality from 1500 to the present. Those sold into slavery become the property and a product of violence. Moreover, throughout the 15th to mid-18th centuries, slavery caused people to despise those who looked different from them, based on skin color. Slavery has caused numerous gaps among the privileged white community and minorities who have a history of slavery. This created a divided society based on skin color, with effects that continue to be a small part of our contemporary world.
These events where extremely traumatic and shocking to the Watson family because they never had those difficulties when they where not living in the south. Being African American is tremendously important to the story because the Watsons would have been treated different if they where a different race. This demonstrates how severe the racism was in the south during the civil rights movement. This is not the only difficult situation Kenny and the rest of the Watson family face.
Shakespeare’s popular themes and emotions, like love (Romeo and Juliet), revenge (Hamlet) and racism (Othello). Some of the recent blockbusters like 12 Years a Slave, racism is used by Steve McQueen, director and writer, to display what the oppression of black people is. Love, revenge and racism is used by blockbusters because they are a great depiction of common plots in entertainment.