I think that the slave auction was wrong. This is as once a slave is bought the owner is having power over them. A Person should be able to do whatever they want to. When at the slave auctions the slaves had to take off their clothes so the buyers can have a look at them and see if they are healthy and if they are worthy to be bought. This is wrong. Nobody would like having to take off their clothes in front of people and have them looking and touching you, to see if you are healthy.
Josiah Henson’s family had to suffer all of this as the Mc Pherson Estate went into liquidation. I strongly believe that nobody should have power over someone else. When slavery in America ended the black people had all the same rights as the white people. There was no slavery, no being arrested for the littlest things and no brutal violence.
In 1954, the United Supreme Courts in the case of Brown Vs the Board Of Education outlawed all segregation in schools. They further suggested that all school districts desegregate with deliberate speed. This met with moderate acceptance in the border stated and with great hostility in the Deep South. The first confrontation took place in 1957 in Little Rock Arkinsue, when nine black students tried to enter a previously all white school.
One of the students Elizabeth Eckford said that as she tried to pass through the long line of guards surrounding the school, she was threatened by one of the guards with his bayonet. She was forced to walk close to the angry mob of white parents. They also threatened her by shouting, “Lynch her, no nigger bitch is going to get out of here”. She then saw an old lady with a kind face, the lady spat in her face and the look of the national guardsmen told her that she will get no help from them. Elizabeth managed to run away. Whilst sitting at the bus stop she was approached by a white couple. The white man sat down next to her, put his hand around her and said, “Don’t let them see you cry”. The white women saw her safely on the bus home.
President Eisenhower finally sent united state marines to Little Rock to enforce the court ruling and ensure the right of the nine negro students.
I think that what happen outside the school was not acceptable. The guards were put outside for a purpose. They did not for fill their purpose. They let the angry mob through sometimes and didn’t let Elizabeth through when she wanted to.
Education is an important part of life, and not having the right education could result in someone’s life being ruined, as if you have no education you have no good job then you don’t have a lot of money. The white people interfered in other people’s lives. They stopped other children’s education. The white people would not like it if someone else was interfering in their children’s education.
I think the racist comment the old lady made was uncalled for. If another person said a racist comment to a white person they would be arrested and put in jail straight away.
When the white couple approached Elizabeth and talked to her, I think that was very kind of them and when they saw her on the bus home I thought that was even kinder.
President Eisenhower should have done a better job; he should have known what kind of people he had guarding the school, and what they were like.
Despite some changes in education there were aspects in other areas still not changed.
For a black man or women in the South registering to vote was an act of great courage. Fannie Lou Hamer tells us what happen to her. “I travelled 26 miles to the county court house to try to register to become a first class citizen. I was fired on the 31st August 1962 from a plantation were I had worked as a timekeeper and sheercropper for 18 years. My husband worked there for 30 years.
In 1963, I attended a voter registrated workshop, and was returning back when I was arrested at Winana Mississippi. I was placed in the South and then I began to hear the sounds of licks and people screaming, I was then carried into another cell, were there were two negro prisoners. The state highway patrolmen gave the first negro a long blackjack that was heavy. It was loaded with something; they then laid me down on a bunk with my face down. I was beaten by the first negro until I was exhausted. The state highway patrolmen ordered the other negro to beat me whilst the first negro sat on my feet. My dress would work up because I had a large skirt, but I was trying to keep it down and trying to shield the lick from my left side because I had paleo when I was a child.
I think that what happen to Fannie Lou Hamer was inappropriate. She was arrested for no apparent reason and was then tortured. She was fired from her work place after 18years. The plantation fired her from her job after 18 years for no reason as well. This is not equal rights. There was no need for the violent torture that she went through. The licks must have hurt, other people would not like being hit the way Fannie Lou Hamer was being hit.
A spirit of quiet was exhibited in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In December 1955, Mrs Rozaparks was arrested and taken to jail for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. She was later released on a $100 bond and then brought to trail on December 5th. From this date the negros of Montgomery decided not to use the buses for nearly a year because of this incident and ramifications. Thereafter the buses were finally desegregated. They got desegregated as the black people were mainly the ones using the buses, so the money the buses got after the black people stopped using the buses for very little.
I think what Rozaparks did, not give up her seat to a white man was right. Black people had their own places were they had to sit. This was said by the white people. If they had to sit in the places the black people were allocated they would not like it either. This is a perfect example of unequal rights, just like all the other examples above. I think it was good of the black people to stop using the buses for over a year; they finally got what they wanted. After the buses were desegregated, they were allowed were to seat and had no problems on the buses.
Overall, looking at all of the evidences I conclude that the statement was false. In the statement it says “all men are created equally” as in all of the evidences, it is seen that everybody is not created equally. The white people felt as if they had power over the black people. Also in the statement is says “pursuit of happiness”. The white people already had their happiness, and the black people didn’t as they were getting arrested for the littlest things and they had to have and do different things to the white people.