Cecil Gaines Fight For Equality

     This film surprised me. I never knew that that happened to children in those days. Slavery wasn't just the Negroes and Indians. It made me think how lucky I am to live in the day in age that I do, even though there are still children treated like this. I just was lucky and grew up in a good

The setting of the novel is a rural plantation in Louisiana in the Deep South. Most of the story takes place on Henri Pichot’s plantation. He is a wealthy influential man in Bayonne who can influence many decisions. Being set in the 1940’s before civil rights, the whites reigned supreme, and the blacks were still seen as inferior. Gaines uses characters such as Sheriff Guidry, Henri Pichot, and Mr. Joseph Morgan to demonstrate the white mentality towards African Americans (Poston A1). The white mentality causes many negative feelings. Folks says, “Part of Grant’s bitterness stems from his negative feelings about the black population in his hometown” (Folks B1). Grant is always mad and discouraged by the vicious cycle the blacks are put through. “The reader is able to gain insight into Grant’s thoughts and frustrations through his conversations with Vivian, his girlfriend. He feels trapped in his present situation” (Poston A1).

“ 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

To start off I felt this was a good movie overall. One scene I felt that had stood out was when the black man was showed the pattern on the cloth showing that there was a house he can escape to with his daughter. This scene kind of gave us a hint that many people probably knew about the house but was too scared to escape in fear of being caught. I felt that the black man was very determined to get his daughter away safely no matter what so much that he went in to unknown water just to hide from the slave masters. I was a little confused at the begging because I thought slave work consisted of picking cotton or some other hardship. There was a scene that stood out to me on a personal note. The scene were the black man was hanged and his daughter was watching as this occurred.

There are man people that think this book is amazing and there are people that think this book is just not educational they say it brings back the past of things that don't happen any more. I think this book is a good book and explains the things that matter. The book basically show how blacks were treated back in the bay. It gives great examples of how life was back then and on how many people view black not just one opinion.

In A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest Gaines addresses racism within a mid-twentieth century Louisiana town through a story about the murder of Beau Boutan, a white man, by Charlie Biggs, a black man.  To protect Charlie, most of the elderly men of the black community gather and protest the sheriff taking him to almost certain capital punishment without examining the case.  When Luke Will, an old friend of the Boutan family, learns of Beau’s death, he immediately declares that “the trouble already been started… when n-----s start shooting down white men in broad daylight, the trouble was started then.  Somebody got to (settle it) ‘fore it gets out of hand.” (149)  Will, like the old men, wants to retaliate against injustice, but rather than a logical protest, he relies on threats and mindless violence.  Bringing a group with guns to the scene, Will brings the tension of the novel to a boiling point and sets up for a final conflict.

1) After viewing the 13th documentary, I felt helpless, inspired, and stirred to action. Throughout the film, it shows the crucial way white people mistreated black people and how blacks had little to no freedom in America.The message of the film is hopeful and inspiring because it shows that if you want change, you have to fight for it and stand up for yourself. The blacks started to fight for themselves and their rights.

I thought the movie was fantastic! The characters were perfect and so well played. It really showed all the great aspects of Jackie Robinson and his family. It also portrayed all of the hardships he had to go through and live with everyday. The message the movie was sending is that racial barriers have been broken, and many other barriers can be broken as well as long as you persevere. I learned all about Jackie Robinson, his family and how he became involved in Major League Baseball. I would most definitely recommend using the movie in class to support a content area. We could probably spend an entire week on the movie and race ideologies. This movie was a perfect example of the ideology, and it teaches you about it too. Overall it was a great film, and I am so glad it came out in time for this

As said before, the film was advanced for its time because of its racial representation. The film premiered at the end of the civil rights movement. It featured a black man as the main protagonist. He was the hero of the story instead of the villain. This was a huge step towards more diversity in films. This, unfortunately, is still a problem in movies.

The accuracy of the film was spot on. It depicted all the horrors and history of slavery very well. In fact “Dr. Emily West, an associate professor of history at the University of Reading” supports my statement when she states “I have never seen a film represent slavery so accurately.” It portrayed the difference of the masters by showing how one was kind to Northup and how the other was a “Nigger Breaker.” Also just as History says, slave owners justified their actions with the bible, and their “Christian Duties.” However, it did over emphasize Northup’s social

This movie did an excellent job portraying the time era in which the Civil War was taken place and depicts the emotions and pressures of war. The movie helped me to visual that time period in a better sense and to see the perspective of African American soldiers fighting in the Civil War. The movie showed a lot more in depth and personal feelings of the black soldiers during that time period. The movie portrayed what the black soldiers had to deal with as soldiers of the Union and it helped me to visual what I learned about the black regiments during the civil war. The film even showed the soldiers having to do manual labor and lute the southern towns and cities. It also showed how even though the black soldiers were on the same side as the white soldiers of the Union, the black soldiers were still treated as unequal and faced prejudice daily by the other white soldiers. It also showed the strong belief of many of the white Union soldiers that they fought for emancipation and the freedom of the

The depictions in this movie showed only a small fraction of troubles African Americans had to deal with during the time of segregation. According to the dates in this movie, the Brown vs. Board case had already been decided on by the Supreme Court, which was supposed to put an end to racial

In the light of, the director makes good points through the whole movie about what they went through. I like this movie because it gives me more information of the people who were involved or who were there during that time. Like, Ann Lee Coper (Oprah Winfrey), Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), and the rest of the people who help fight for African Americans to be able to vote. The movie also shows the difficult and the happy time they went through. Even the problems with their family. No matter what’s going on, they were still focus and full invested in having freedom. What I learned from this movie was that they did not let all the obstacles of what they went through mess up their main goal because of that I am able to take those lesson for my

The history of the struggle for the advancement and progression of African Americans is a larger-than-life story. It reveals their endeavors for the initiation of change in political, financial, educational, and societal conditions. They did everything to shape their future and that of their country i.e. the United States of America. This struggle for the attainment of equal rights has helped them to determine the path and the pace of their improvement and development (Taylor & Mungazi, 2001, p. 1).

    The narrator describes a vision he had while he was listening to Louis Armstrong, exploring back into the history of slavery. He his introduced in an intangible voice , someone who has lost his specification through the society . The narrator casts back on an earlier period of the 20th century, encouraging that a newly educated black class felt guilty of a past that was no flaw of its own. The narrator's  granddad emerged  to be in this line hoping to forget the history of slavery, but on his deathbed reveals that the struggle against white oppression is still continuing .