Mary McLeod Bethune was an African American educator, activist, and advisor. She believed that education provided the key to racial advancement. She became an educator and did much to contribute to American society. Mary Bethune also became very involved in government service. She started her own civil rights organization working on critical issues for African Americans and also helped many presidents in certain affairs. Mary McLeod Bethune gave the speech “What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?” November 23. 1939. The speech was given on America’s Town Meeting of the Air, which was a radio show in New York that discussed American Politics. The speech remains significant today. This speech is about Mary’s personal meaning of democracy. She speaks on the relation between democracy and African Americans. She reminded listeners that African Americans have always been willing to do whatever it takes for democracy and what it stands for. Today many African American contribute to the democracy, making this speech relatable to them.
Who? During this time period, Mary McLeod Bethune was a well respect civil rights activists and democratic advisor. By lending her expertise to several presidents, she became popular in American government. She became a leader in the effort to build coalition among African American women fighting for equal rights, better education, jobs, and political power. She led many local and national women’s clubs. She founded the National Council of Negro Women, which opened the doors to her relationship with President Roosevelt. President Franklin D. Roosevelt named her direct of the Office of Minority Affairs in the National Youth Administration.
When? This speech was given during the New Deal Era. On November ...
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...ons fundamental change.
To whom? The radio show the speech was given on attracted up to 3,000,000 listeners each week. When giving her speech she was giving it to over a million Americans of all races. Her speech was to those who agreed and disagreed with African American progress and equality. For those who disagreed she spoke to them to possible change their hearts. To those who agreed, she spoke to them giving them inspiration.
How? We do not know what she was physically doing because the speech was through a radio station. While giving the speech, Mary Bethune’s voice was powerful. Her words were spoken very clearly and she spoke loudly. This is significant because African Americans in the past were illiterate and could not read or write and their speech would not be clear. She spoke very literate and her vocabulary was unlike most African Americans at the time.
The history of The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States is a fascinating account of a group of human beings, forcibly taken from their homeland, brought to a strange new continent, and forced to endure countless inhuman atrocities. Forced into a life of involuntary servitude to white slave owners, African Americans were to face an uphill battle for many years to come. Who would face that battle? To say the fight for black civil rights "was a grassroots movement of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things" would be an understatement. Countless people made it their life's work to see the progression of civil rights in America. People like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, A Phillip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many others contributed to the fight although it would take ordinary people as well to lead the way in the fight for civil rights. This paper will focus on two people whose intelligence and bravery influenced future generations of civil rights organizers and crusaders. Ida B.Wells and Mary Mcleod Bethune were two African American women whose tenacity and influence would define the term "ordinary to extraordinary".
The Civil War lasted for four years, three weeks, and six days. The Civil War caused a numerous amount of good and bad things. Along with the union coming out victorious, slavery was abolished, territorial integrity was gained, the reconstruction era began, and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Although, many people were involved in the process leading up to the civil war. Abolitionists played a huge role in the progression in civil rights. They fought for the freedom of slaves and the ceasing of slave trade from Africa. There were many activists involved in this movement, including Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. These two women abolitionists are two of the most dynamic woman and well known abolitionists. Although Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth have many similarities, they have certain aspects that allow them to differ from each other. Despite their slight differences, Tubman and Truth were seemingly the most efficient and effective in their duties as abolitionists.
One of the leading black female activists of the 20th century, during her life, Mary Church Terrell worked as a writer, lecturer and educator. She is remembered best for her contribution to the struggle for the rights of women of African descent. Mary Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee at the close of the Civil War. Her parents, former slaves who later became millionaires, tried to shelter her from the harsh reality of racism. However, as her awareness of the problem developed, she became an ardent supporter of civil rights. Her life was one of privilege but the wealth of her family did not prevent her from experiencing segregation and the humiliation of Jim Crow laws. While traveling on a train her family was sent to the Jim Crow car. This experience, along with others led her to realize that racial injustice was evil. She saw that racial injustice and all other forms of injustice must be fought.
...n our country. She’s saying that the advancement of women is getting stuck between a rock and a hard place. This was such a strong point in her speech because it shed light into the logical thinking, and made a historical connection to slavery. By making this connection, she was able to help many see that women were convicted slaves to the current state of the union.
...nspired to make a change that she knew that nothing could stop her, not even her family. In a way, she seemed to want to prove that she could rise above the rest. She refused to let fear eat at her and inflict in her the weakness that poisoned her family. As a child she was a witness to too much violence and pain and much too often she could feel the hopelessness that many African Americans felt. She was set in her beliefs to make choices freely and help others like herself do so as well.
There are rare cases, when society has to make the tough decision to overlook a person's basic rights for the good of the general public, Mary Mallon is one of these exceedingly rare cases. Mary Mallon was a carrier of Typhoid fever, because of this she was denied her way of life and her passion. Typhoid left an abysmal impression on Mary’s life, but she did not let let sickness define who she was. Mary left a lasting mark in her own subtle way, her life was more paramount than meets the eye, she opened the eyes of scientists all over the world and taught the world a near impossible lesson about never giving in.
Despite the law she began to travel and lecture across the nation for the women's right to vote. She also campaigned for the abolition of slavery, the right for women to own their own property and retain their earnings, and she advocated for women's labor organizations.
Women, who made things possible for the African American after the Civil War, were Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. They both were born into slavery. Harriet Tubman was also called Moses, because of her good deeds. She helped free hundreds of slaves using the underground railroads, and she helped them join the Union Army. She helped nurse the wounded soldiers during the war, as well as worked as a spy. She was the first African American to win a court case and one of the first to end segregation. Tubman was famous for her bravery. Sojourner Truth is known for her famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman”. She spoke out about the rights women should be allowed to have, and that no matter the race or gender, everybody was equal. Those women made things possible for the black people during that time. They were the reason many slaves were set free when the Civil War ended.
Susan B. anthony wasn’t as big as Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln but she nothing short of inspiring. One of her greatest speeches was Women's Rights to Suffrage in 1873. She was an agent for the Anti-Slavery Society and collected petitions when she was only 17. She was also president of the Congressional Union for Women’s Suffrage Organization (CUWO). She also helped with Fredrick Douglas and his situation.
"The two races have lived here together. The Negro has been here in America since 1619, a total of 344 years. He is not going anywhere else; this country is his home. He wants to do his part to help make his city, state, and nation a better place for everyone, regardless of color and race. Let me appeal to the consciences of many silent, responsible citizens of the white community who know that a victory for democracy in Jackson will be a victory for democracy everywhere” (Medgar Evers in Jackson Mississippi, 2013). This excerpt is taken from a 17 minute speech by Medgar Evers on May 20, 1963, in response to the vocal criticisms of Mayor Allen Thompson’s view of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as being ‘outside agitators’.
...s speech made an immense impact on the injustices of segregation and discrimination against people.
But she found the poor being put down instead of helped and racism everywhere she went. She knew the outrage of all black people over the fact that the prisons and the jails of this country are filled with black men and women while the college campuses and offices are filled with white men and they did not like it.
In her opinion, white preachers had no idea of how to preach about such trials. Truth was one of America’s first black women to tackle intersectionality before the proper term was even coined more that 100 years later. She challenged, not only white supremacy and slavery as a whole but she also challenged all male abolitionists, white or black. Awareness of the plight of the Black woman was necessary and through Truth’s love for Jesus Christ and her on-fire preaching, she was also able to sprinkle in her intolerance for slavery. Not only did Sojourner Truth forge her way through the abolitionist movement but she also impacted the feminist movement as well. She claimed that the feminist movements in America marginalized Black women and at a women’s suffrage convention, she asked, “Aren’t I a
She started out as a guest lecturer speaking out against slavery. Stone was a known as a major abolitionist in the pre-civil war period. At this time, the other Women’s rights leaders wondered if her abolition speaking would take away from their cause.
Both women were extremely strong in their belief that they needed to be the change for African-Americans. Whether this change was in the South, or across the entire United States, these women both wanted things to be different. They used their backgrounds and experiences to be the change, and spread the word about making a difference in society. Their leadership roles might have been different in the African-American spectrum, but both women were greatly respected during their time at the top. They grew from their experiences, and used them to their advantage when being the change they wanted to see.