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Influence of African American literature and importance
Essay on African American literature
African american literature
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1941, a year full of turmoil as the United States was in the midst of WWII, social tensions were rising with the start of the American civil rights movement, and many American families earned less than 32 cents an hour. However, 1941 was also the year that Betty James was born. Betty, my courageous grandmother, was the daughter of two poor African American sharecroppers in Marshall, Texas and would grow up to be the most hardworking and determined woman you could have ever met. However, because of the time, and environment she was born into the odds were not in her favor, statistically it was said that she would not attend college, become a sharecropper like her parents, and bear a child by the age of 16. My grandmother understood the odds …show more content…
stacked up against her, and instead of using them as an excuse to give up and give in, she broke the cycle and became her family’s first graduate from El Centro College in Dallas with a degree in nursing.In her early years, she began to give back through her gift of nursing by training new nurses, and working with special needs children. She has a passion for comforting the sick, and showed other people how to let their same light shine in the medical field. However, she did not want her services to stop once she clocked out of work; so she began to offer her nursing services to member of the Carver Heights Baptist Church. She serves Carver Heights in numerous way by setting us health fairs, conducting blood pressure screenings, and by educating them on strokes, heart attacks and diabetes.
My admiration for her however, does not come from the fact that she is simply a nurse,but instead from the fact that she has struggled throughout her life but used the adversity for her benefit. While in the midst of adverse situations my grandmother never gave up but instead she persevered through, and encourages everyone around her to do the same. I appreciate my grandmother because of the spirit of determination she evokes within me and everyone around her.Throughout my educational journey she has always been there to remind me that my goals are achievable, and when I feel as if i'm on the path of failure she reminds me that life’s greatest lessons are learned through the hardships we face. She gives motivation, wisdom, and advice to all the individuals she comes in contact with, especially adolescents, in order to teach them that their dreams are only around the corner and require a little extra elbow grease to be achieved. My grandmother has lived her life dedicated to being an asset to others, and overcoming the obstacles that face african american
women. Betty James was born on January 3, 1941 and that day, the world was changed.
This source is written by the inspirational Shirley Chisholm who was the first woman to be nominated for presidential and was elected to the congress. She illustrates that women cannot just complain about their inequality, but act upon it. This source is appropriate to use in this essay because it illustrates that women work just as hard as men especially during the time of World War II. She does admire that the men fought for this country but would also like to see women be acknowledge for their hard work to maintain a family.
I’m glad we have Maurice, my mother’s younger brother here today. Ella, her older sister, unfortunately couldn’t make it, but I know the news of my mothers death hit her hard. And I know that she prayed with all her will, for my mother.
Ida B. Wells had a rough childhood. Her parents were enslaved before the Civil War, but still made ends meet as her mother worked as a cook and her father worked as a skilled carpenter. Ida was the eldest of eight children. When a yellow fever epidemic swept through Holly Springs taking the lives of Ida’s mother, father and baby brother Stanley, but fortunately for Ida her parents gave her very good leadership skills which she used to keep and manage the rest of her six younger siblings after her parent’s death. She obtained a job as a schoolteacher where the local African – Americans attended. With this job she was able to put food on the table working for $25.00 a month. She then moved to Memphis Tennessee for a higher paying job while being taken care of by her Aunt Fannie and friends and other family took care of her younger siblings.
This week in class we discussed the topic of the Black Freedom struggle and the theme was “Black Women’s ‘Double V’ Campaign” and we talked about Mary McLeod Bethune and her essays, one being “Closed Doors and author Megan Taylor Shockley and her essay “Working for Democracy: Working-Class African-American Women, Citizenship, and Civil Rights in Detroit, 1940-1954”. Both women talk about the struggles that Black women dealt with at the beginning of World War II and how they fought back against the Jim Crow laws. During 1939, World War II has just started and black people are not only fighting overseas to defend the United States from the likes of Hitler but before African Americans fight Germany, they have to still fight at home to gain the equality that they deserve, with black women still being on the front line. Mary McLeod Bethune shows her white audience the struggle that all black people go through on a daily basis.
Fannie Lou Hamer, born in 1917, came from a family of sharecroppers, which was similar to the slavery that had been abolished some fifty-years earlier. Her father was practiced as a Baptist preacher, but held a sideshow as a bootlegger for his community. Her early background was enough cause for her to join into any Civil Rights Movement that would arise years later. Sharecropping was a way for whites in the South to keep their foot firmly on the necks of African-Americans, so they could not be a major part of actual society. With her family surviving on as little as “$300 a year,” Fannie Lou Hamer described her life as “worse than hard.” Hamer started working at a young age, and she later realized that she was tricked into working for a conniving plantation owner. She soon learned the hard way that hard work for a white plantat...
Where do I start? How do I begin a farewell when I still can't believe you're gone? How do I say goodbye to a part of my soul?
I didn't get "holidayitis" as my brothers well know this term. I wasn't stressed out and I kept saying, "there are 12 days of Christmas."
I would like to thank you all for coming to Arlyn's funeral. I am truly touched that you care enough to show your support for us and your respect for Arlyn this way.
My mother was a complex, multi-faceted person. Many of you here today knew my mother personally, and many of you knew my mother indirectly through one of her family members. You may have known her as a coworker, a friend, or a support person. Of course, all of my mother’s family here today each knew a part of her, a “facet” of her--as a mother, a sister, an aunt, a grandmother, a cousin.
When my sister and I were little, he taught us how to paint with oils on smooth pieces of wood, instructing us on how to blend colors or make certain brush strokes, telling us that "there are no straight lines in nature," to help us paint better trees.
She is a multi-talented women with determination and believes if you set your mind your goal there isn't anything that you can't achieve. My grandma wasn't able to be somebody that gave a lot of influence and didn't meet some of her goals, I am proud of her intelligence and how much she was able to do independently. Even as a grandma she loves to learn and presently is learning English. She is almost eighty years old and she looks like she is only sixty. Even now as a grandma, she is active and passionate about education. She encourages me to get a
Before I begin I would like to thank all of you here on behalf of my mother, my brother and myself, for your efforts large and small to be here today, to help us mark my fathers passing.
Oh Bryce oh Bryce. The things we’ve been through. The pictures of you holding me as a baby, from wearing costumes 24/7, to taking a picture every first day of school for mom, to living in two different homes, then having another little brother, then moving 6 more times before Mom and Tony found a real place the can call home, to jamming out in your car, to me sitting here writing this letter for you because you’re graduating. We’ve definitely had our down times, like when I threw your DS at you cause I was mad, or when you slapped me across the face cause I gave you an attitude and I ran into the woods crying. But we’ve had the ability to grow a lot closer than we were 3 years ago. We’ve matured enough to realize our differences and
In my eyes heroes don’t have to be rich or famous, they can be everyday people like your Mom! No, she can’t fly or have a cape, but my mom makes sure I’m safe, and works so we can have a roof over our heads. My mom is giving, loving, caring, and all of the above! So let's think who takes you to school every morning, takes you to games, and makes sure you are where you need to be, well my mom does,she is amazing I wouldn't trade her for anything!
My grandmother has always been my biggest supporter throughout my life. My Grandmother is my back bone; she is the reason why I am the person that I am today. Most people hear the word grandmother and expect to see older lady with possible white hair, standing in the kitchen cooking and baking, evening sewing. My grandmother is the exact opposite of those things, she is still employed full time, enjoys making jewelry and furniture. Although she is only five two she is very witted and outspoken she never bites her tongue and will always give her opinion even if you don’t ask for it. There is a softer side to her, she will give you her last and be a listening ear day or night. Like the saying goes “to know me is to love me” and believe me