The And Lady Of The Thompson 's House

The setting is a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The event happened in1955. The characters are Mr. Joe Singleton,, Rev. Scott, Miss Louise Bennett, Jacob & Junie ( fraternal twins, fourteen) and Mrs. Rosa Parks, a seamstress, a symbol of knitting the difficult with the beautiful; intertwining a private experience with a history of racism and injustice. As a seamstress, she is represented by these words: “fabric, thread, collars, hems, buttonholes; bias, pins, cut; pieced & sewn; stitch, pants, shirts, socks and shirts, darned; well-made, well-sewn clothes; pressed sleeve; a thimble ( a symbol if protection), hem, … pins, parted lips, stitch, clenched teeth”. The bus and the door are symbolic; both are referential to the segregation practices exercised everywhere. The driver “drives off”, “pulls off” and “puts off. The door is “open” to the white and colored riders; however, colored people, who are paid-in-full-customers, are denied equal access to the bus. Verbs such as: “get off”, “walk”, “reboard”, “push” and “repeat”

“My Soul is Rested” by Howell Raines was definitely an interesting book to read because Howell Raines obtained different points of views on the reality of society from the years 1956 to 1968. Howell Raines shed light on those who endured such turmoil and violence in this epic battle towards justice. With such courage and faith many great leaders and groups pushed to obtain justice which took years as this book brings to light important events that helped push for equality. The book outlines a chronology of the civil right movement in the deep south between the years 1955-1986 from the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1957), the student sit-ins (February 1960-October 1960), the freedom rides (1961-1962), the Birmingham demonstrations (April 1963- September 1963), freedom summer (June 1964- December 1964), and finally the Selma March (1965-1968). The book began with the Rosa L. Parks arrest in Montgomery, Alabama which is what encouraged the issues of constitutional racism to fully take off with social movements amongst various organizations in the deep south. The Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956 was the first of many that the book emphasis on as well as the death of one of the greatest civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was the last event. The impact of the lesser known leaders and followers both black and white fought by participating in many events like sit-ins, freedom rides, voter drives and campaigns as the book “My Soul is Rested” mentions. Each person telling their story about the events that happened from the eyes of a black as well as a white man through the eyes of a black women and white the stories are told with such power in every word. A few names that helped change the course of the United States laws where E.D. Nixon who started the movement by starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott unfolding the events that began to take speed causing more leaders to step up as the law began to pay attention. The civil right movement beginning with Rosa L. Parks and ending with the death of Martin Luther King Jr. forever marking history with the help of a many great leader that arose from being afraid to speaking up and fighting the social and political norm.

Segregation had had many effects on the black nation, to the point that it started building up ones character, “See the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness towards white people”, King shows readers that segregation is even affecting little children, that it is starting to build up a young girls character and is contributing to the child developing hatred “bitterness” towards the white Americans. King makes readers imagine a black cloud settling in a young girls brain mentally, when instead she should have an image of a colorful blue sky with a rainbow, isn’t that suppose to be part of a 6 year-old’s imagination? King gives readers an image of destruction civil disobedience had created in the black community, especially in the young innocent little children.

Lynda Blackmon’s main decision was fighting for what she believed in and marching for freedom, along with the other activists. This affected the main character’s life because even though the adults gave the marchers tips on

The film reminds us that “slavery and its aftermath involved the emasculation-physical as well as psychological - of black men, the drive for black power was usually taken to mean a call for black male power, despite the needs of (and often with the complicity of) black women. That continues to result in the devaluing of black female contributions to the liberation struggle and in the subordination of black women in general.”4

In one way it is symbolic of the African Americans' struggle for equality throughout our nation's history. The various hardships that the narrator must endure, in his quest to deliver his speech, are representative of the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality.

Within the first few minutes, the film summarized the church bombing that killed four innocent young girls and explained how it affected the Civil Rights Movement all through a historic song. The first scene of the movie, each victim’s family described their daughters’ childhood and how segregation affect their family. One interesting fact was the father of Denise McClair, one of victims, actually went to school in Tuskegee. The second victim, Carole Roberston, was confused why whites and blacks could not share the same water fountain, restaurant and bathroom. She did

Concerning this theory, Parillo endeavors to clarify the affinity behind individuals' threatening vibe towards sadness and disappointment. Ellis talks about how civil rights movement was beginning to peak and the blacks were starting to protest all the stores downtown. Ellis would always see the same lady, Ann Atwater, leading the boycotts. He claims to have hated her with a "purple passion" and also talks about how they had got into a few arguments. When the blacks were moving into their schools, Ellis wanted to say "We don't want you to purchase mobile units to set in our schoolyards. We don't want niggers in our schools." (Terkel, 57) This shows how the whites felt like the blacks were taking everything away from them and they did not want to share what was theirs with the blacks. The whites wanted to keep everything segregated from the blacks. Ellis felt that everything that was supposed to be for whites was being offered to the

The black characters in the novel are all victims of this “separate but equal” mentality; the younger characters yearn for real equality and the older characters have settled in to their lives by accepting their “fate.” The existing structures of society in Bayonne, Louisiana prevent black characters such as Grant Wiggins and Vivian from ever breaking out of their social class; both are forced to remain in their lives as teachers of young black children who will also grow up to live limited lives. Wiggins says of his classroom, “I’m the teacher... and I

Elijah’s daughter, Luvenia, struggles to get a job and into college in Chicago while her brother Richard travels back to South Carolina. Abby’s grandson, Tommy works with civil rights and protests, and tries to get into college for basketball. The story ends with Malcolm, Richard’s grandson, getting his his cousin Shep, who is struggling with drugs, to the family reunion. In reading this story one could wonder how the transition from slavery to segregation in the United States really occurred. The timeline can be split into three distinct sections, Emancipation, forming segregation, and life post-Civil War, pre-civil rights.

In one way it is symbolic of the African Americans’ struggle for equality throughout our nation’s history. The various hardships that the narrator must endure, in his quest to deliver his speech, are representative of the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality.

He explains how it’s easy for people who have never seen or felt segregation to say wait but they have never got to see their vicious mob kill their mom or your brothers. They’ve never had police hit them or people drown your sister at a whim. When you must see your twenty million brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty amid an affluent society who constantly degrades them just based on the color of their skin. These explicit and emotional experiences offer an insight to people who don’t understand the pain of segregation to see what black people must deal with in their life on the

African American individuals still faced inhumane discrimination and were often not looked at as people, let alone cared for or acknowledged. To anyone else, their opinions did not matter and their lives were not valued. The 1930?s was also a time in which America was being rebuilt after the detrimental effects of the Great Depression. Furthermore, there was a greater presence of African Americans in northern states, which brought about racial tension from powerful white figures who did not want African Americans in what they believed to be ?their cities?. The struggle to find jobs was present all over, and African Americans found it even more difficult to support themselves. The narrator faced all these obstacles throughout the course of this novel.

African Americans became free from slavery and the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People become a huge controversy. Jean Louise follows her father, Atticus, and her childhood sweetheart, Henry, to a council meeting, where Atticus introduces a man who spoke a very racist speech. Jean Louise doesn’t react very well to this and runs home, knowing this will change her view of Atticus and Henry.

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