Narrative Essay: Ross Peterson

When he had arrived in Buffalo, Lewis’s first reaction to when they had finally reached his Uncle Otis’s home. “When we reached my Uncle O.C’s home and Dink’s house, I couldn’t believe it, They had white people living next door to them...on BOTH sides.” (Lewis and Aydin March Book 1: 43) Segregation in the north wasn’t a big deal to people in the north than it was in the south and from that he experienced a lot during that visit in the north. Once he had returned back home, he knew what was different now, he understood what the problem and differences were while he was up in Buffalo and at home. It came to him when school time was coming back around in the fall. “ In the fall, I started right the bus to school ,which should’ve been fun. But it was just another sad reminder of how different our lives were from those of white children.” (Lewis and Aydin March Book 1: 47) Between the black and white community, Lewis saw how “degrading” it was when it had came to school. They didn’t have the nice playground, the nicest bus, roads, and the ugly, sad sight of the prison full of black men and only black men, but he had managed to get pass all of the gloominess with a positive outlook of reading. “ I realized how old it was when we finally climbed onto the paved highway, the main road running east from Troy, and passed the white children’s buses..We drove past prison work gangs almost every day the prisoner were always

In her memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school. She and her friends, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, elicited both support and criticism from their family members, friends, community members, military troops, in addition to the President of the United States. Melba’s experiences, while heartbreaking and sobering, highlight the strength to overcome that individuals can have over a system intent on keeping them down.

The scorching heat of the summer day in Stamps, Arkansas made the dusty roads and cross tracks have mirages. It was a slow moving town otherwise, in my opinion. I amongst many other blacks were segregated from the whites. The whites are richer than the blacks in my town, but through hard work and determination I do have a similar lifestyle to the whites. One thing that was important to me was helping one girl accepting herself in this disconsolate town that she can do anything she puts her mind too..

The air was thick with moisture as I made my way down the stairs of the small propeller plane. A young girl, no older than myself, with rich brown curls stood at my side when I reached the bottom, and even though we didn’t know each other, we knew we were headed to the same place. The Piney Woods School, located in Piney Woods, Mississippi. It is a large remote, all-black boarding school, surrounded by lush greenery that stretched for miles, and accompanied by one long highway cutting straight past the entrance. I vibrated with anticipation and curiosity as we made our way towards this new experience. An experience that would not only educate me, but also change my views on what it means to be ME and what it feels like to be Black, in a Black community.

A girl by the name of Linda Brown. Just as any school girl, loved being with her friends, and she loved her family. However, Linda’s black skin color restricted her from attending a school that was a few yards away, and forced her to walk miles to the nearest all black school. In outrage, the family fought for their daughter to attend a local white school. Why would she not be allowed to attend a school so close to home? The question became strong enough to begin a movement that would impact the nation.

Melba Pattillo Beals, the main character in the memoir “Warriors Don’t Cry”, never gave up and persevered when fighting for racial equality. When Melba was walking into school one day she thought to herself, “‘I squared my shoulders and tried to remember what grandma had said: God loves you child; no matter what he sees you as his precious idea’” (Beals 76). Melba along with her eight schoolmates made history when they decided to integrate Central High School. They wanted to show their friends that you always hold your head high, be determined, and never give up. While enduring, Melba taught her family and friends to also persevere. Fortifying her family in faith helped her to make it through the year. While standing her ground after many challenges Melba thought to herself, “‘I knew for certain something would have to change it I were going to stay in that school. Either the students would have to change the

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

In her memoir Warriors don’t cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school called central high school. The author describes how she survives a harrowing year helping to integrate central high school in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957. The three main ideas that I’m going to talk about are integration, racism, and courage.

Tariq Ali once said, “It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights.” In Melba Pattillo Beals’ narrative, “ Warriors Don’t Cry,” Melba defies all odds just by integrating to the all white Central High School in Little Rock. Through her novel, Melba is able to reminisce on the difficulties and struggles and the justice and inequality that occurs throughout Central High using figurative language. Though the author’s use of metaphors, similes and situational irony, the reader is able to pick up on Melba’s determination and obstacles she had to face in order to conquer and overcome integrating into Central High School.

The article “Life in Mississippi: East St Louis, Illinois” is one that is not taken lightly. The article shows one the injustice that African Americans face in the city of St. Louis. The article all together is shocking and heartbreaking. To know that in a country that is suppose to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, there still is so much injustice is not only eye opening but also upsetting. One of the 2 most heartbreaking parts for me was when Kozol describes the old men leaning on his cane listening to Jesse Jackson and crying. This is something so powerful to me because this is someone who has experience all of the hardships that east St. Louis has to offer and he has to live knowing that not much has change and maybe Jesse Jackson was the only one promising the change they deserve. The last scene was when one of the students goes up to Kozol after class and tell him that what Dr. King did was nothing because they are still living in such horrible situations. For a teenage kid to think and feel that way, they must have had to suffer through so much, which is exactly what the article is able to show us, the injustice that these kids face on a daily basis. Having read this is shocking to one because we live in a different area where we aren’t prone to see such things and because we have grown up and taught to believe that racism and poverty is almost non existing because this is American a country that doesn’t fail the people.

In the beginning chapters of the book, we get a glimpse of the typical home and community of an African American during segregation. Many Africans Americans were too adjusted to the way of living, that they felt

     Growing up in the north, and being white, we were taught in school what the conditions were in the south and all over America for blacks. I never really thought much of it, like many kids my age, because it never affected me. I’ve been told by teachers, speakers, and whoever else my school would bring in to tell us about what it was like for blacks back in the 1940’s and the 1950’s. After I read the book, Coming of Age in Mississippi, I realized what it was really like

It is often said that kids don’t usually understand race or racism, and that is true until Janie is met with kids who have faced oppression all their lives. Janie is a young girl who is raised by her grandmother in the deep South during the 1930’s. Janie lives among many white kids and doesn’t realize that she is not white until she sees a photo of the children and cannot identify herself in the picture. “Dat’s where Ah wuz s’posed to be, but Ah couldn’t recognize dat dark chile as me. So Ah ast, ‘where is me?’ Ah don’t see me’”(9). Janie didn’t know that she was a black girl because she had always been treated the same as the white kids, and they never treated her any differently than anyone else. The only kids that ever abused her with their words were the other black kids at school, they always teased her for living in

On the first day that Melba Patillo Beals went to school, she thought it was a nightmare. There was a huge mob outside Central High School, along with the Arkansas National Guard soldiers keeping them out. The image of Elizabeth Eckford really shows how it was. White people were surrounding them, cursing at them, of course saying the word “nigger”, and occasionally striking them (1994). It was so bad that Melba had to take the keys to their car from her mother and run away to escape. Imagine the sight of Melbas mother screaming at her “Melba, take the keys. Get to the car.

My mother was a young teen parent. She had my brother while she was sixteen and myself when she was eighteen. For obvious financial reasons, we lived at my grandparents’ house in that small country community. My mom worked long days at a minimum wage fast food job while my grandma took care of my brother and I. She missed out on various school events and little league softball games to provide and keep food on the table. She taught us to value the things we had in life and with hard work and determination you could accomplish anything you set your mind to. My grandparents played a large role in raising my brother and I. They helped provide us an environment filled with love, Jesus, laughter, and a little southern touch. “Old school” values were instilled in us- we were taught respect and discipline, something children are lacking today.