Running for Freedom

A brief summary about A Stride Toward Freedom: It gives a timeline of events ranging from Dr. King’s arrival to Montgomery, a journey that covers the bus boycotts through December 1, 1955 – December 21, 1956 of the South and then concludes with asking the important question located in the last chapter, “Where Do We Go From Here?” It focuses on MLK’s perspective of the people, events, and bus boycott procedures. A Stride Toward Freedom touches on not only a huge part of African American/Negro history but also American history with one of the first applications of nonviolent successful protest

Freedom forms the essential basis for prosperity. Freedom allows us to innovate, develop, and expand into horizons previously believed to be impossible. A free society is the crucial foundation on which America has been able to flourish, and the foundations underlying this society are vital to its continued success. The economic, political, and moral elements of a free society are all equal in importance, and, together, they form the basis on which we, as the American people, are able to thrive.

“I am self-propelled; fueled from within. I appreciate people’s opinions, but I am not attached to them. I learned a long time ago that if I give them the power to feed me, I also give them the power to starve me.” -Dr. Steve Maraboli. When I read this quote I thought he was describing that no one can hold him back and he is going to be free. My question is what does it mean to be free? Does it mean not caring what others think about you? Or is it being free to accomplish your dreams with no regrets and nothing holding you back? Being free means different things to different people. In the poem “Caged Bird,” by Maya Angelou, she talks about two types of people one being caged and one being free. In his poem “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes talks about there will bumps in the road of life, but you have to forge your path to be free. In the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost discusses the two roads a person can take, either you can be free and not care about other's opinions, or you can be trapped by everyone’s thoughts about you. You can be free by not caring about others opinion’s on you, but by making your own path. So will you choose to be free or will you choose to be dragged down by other’s opinions about you?

In For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, Chana Kai Lee resurrects the compelling narrative of one of the most dynamic black women leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Lee provided the reader with an extended list of primary and secondary sources, providing intimate details that ultimately revealed Hamer as an exemplary individual who was chosen as a symbol of hope for Black Americans subject to constant injustices. Lee equally exposed Hamer’s pains along with her strengths and providing that balance gave the reader the opportunity to understand Hamer as the historic icon and the sharecropper’s daughter; “In any case, it is important to probe behind the fearless public figure to reach her private thoughts and feelings” (Lee, pg. 60).

“Hey, what are you doing.” Chloe said as she walked over to Kara on the track behind the school after school was over.

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Will there be a better day for it tomorrow or next year? Will it be less dangerous then? Will someone else’s children have to risk their lives instead of us risking ours?”

In the early nineteenth century, the African American went from slavery to the struggle for freedom. They had to do several activities in order to survive. Even though food affected the lifestyle during slavery, with religion, soul food like greens, and hamburger meat was prepared and grown to help families survive. There were several kinds of slaves during the nineteenth century. The African Americans were the most popular among all the slaves and had the hardest time for survival. They reported in mid-2003 that today: "Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to

Everyone has their own version of what the definition of freedom is here in the United States but the basic definition it is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Under the circumstances of following the laws. As time has gone on it has helped freedom come along way with all the different eras and the ups and the downs that occurred that has shaped us to that “American Dream” of freedom we have today. There are many events that helped shape Americans freedom today and these are just some of the events that really helped push the rights we have today, woman starting to get jobs, slaves getting freed, Native Americans sharing land, segregation, equal rights to all and passing the law for gay marriage.

Freedom isn’t given, it’s most definitely taken. There are far more factors playing against freedom than there are supporting freedom such as the greed for power, the countless secrets of multiple governments, and segregation. It may seem easy to some, but freedom is a blood, guts, and glory kind of deal. No country has ever received freedom before battling in a gruesome war or developing an uproar.

When martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed to the world that he had a dream, people stopped and realized it didn’t have to be just a dream. People didn’t just listen to what this leader had to say, they actually heard him, and they understood him. Society today reflects the hundreds of peaceful, or sometimes not so peaceful, protests held by leaders of our past and present that were heard and understood. Without peaceful protest to laws, segregation may still be in America. Same sex marriage may not be legal. Women may not have as many rights as they do now. Freedom today in America, for example, is different than freedom fifty years ago. Freedom today includes all peoples instead of a select few. Resistance to laws brought this free society farther

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world” (Charters, 2014, Inspiring Quotes, pg. 1). America was founded on the backs of people who had the ability to stand up and fight for freedom and a new found government. There were many aspects that brought the development of American freedom as it exists today. However, American freedom is not what it used to be. “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves,”

about the fears, hardships, and sufferings still to come, but now hoped the end was in

I look back sometimes, at that fateful morning. I wish I could warn myself what was coming, and how I’d never in my wildest dreams see what was coming next. How my life could never, would never be the

The right of American freedom is most treasured because of past historical events which were highly significant leading up to America’s independence. The Boston Tea Party is considered to be one of the most significant events which led to the Revolutionary War. Some say if the Boston Tea Party had not happened, the Americans may not have made noteworthy historical data. Initially, the event of the Boston Tea Party only seemed inconsequential and rather rebellious, but it was actually the Americans first step towards having their own freedom. It all started with a group of determined colonist not wanting to pay taxes on goods and took action on three British tea ships. This act of defiance, and several key players, inadvertently lead to arguably the most significant act of America’s fight for freedom.

One fundamental form of freedom is the capability for an individual to be independent enough to understand, and witness what is really happening around them, so that they are able to have ideas and become the person that they want to become. In the novel “A Brave New World”, John the Savage had the opportunity of experiencing both the World State and the Savage Reservation which were made up of two completely different societies that helped to shape John into who he was. Both societies have something in common in the fact that they both have their own ideas up until a certain extent and also in the way that neither are truly free. They only know what they have grown up with and do not truly understand what is happening in the world beyond the