The portion of the week 8 readings I covered was chapter 3 and the RASE Report. The third chapter of Laura Warren Hill’s Strike the Hammer discusses the summer of the ‘64 uprising in Rochester that catapulted the city onto the nation’s civil rights radar. Followed by two nights of rioting, this very clearly expressed the discontent the black community felt in regards to economic suppression, police brutality, and housing discrimination faced in the greater Rochester area. This protest crossed generational and gender divides and demonstrated the depth of these grievances. It was the 24th of July, 1964. An association of mothers known as the Northeast Mothers Improvement Association held a black youth street dance in an effort to raise money …show more content…
[However] the other ones were trashed.” As goods looted from targeted establishments were redistributed, and in some cases destroyed, schools, churches, community organizations and favored businesses were exempt. “They knew exactly who to pick off” (54). Politicians and authorities tried to write off the events as opportunistic teenagers gone wild, but the widespread access to media kept the narrative straight. As a matter of fact,“many of the items taken from looted stores, particularly televisions and appliances, did not end up in private residences but instead were smashed in the streets” symbolically representing their refusal to engage with the systems hurting them (66). Footage of officers beating black women and spraying people with hoses was shown to Americans in their homes on the evening news, exposing the reality and gravity of the brutality Black Americans were facing. The “silent rage” of the people couldn’t be ignored. I also looked over the RASE report and the progress updates. The RASE report was generated in response to Governor Cuomo’s 2020 Executive Order 203 to “reinvent and modernize police strategies” in response to the murder of George
During the 1950s, African Americans struggled against racial segregation, trying to break down the race barrier. Fifteen year old Melba Patillo Beals was an ordinary girl, until she’s chosen with eight other students to integrate Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. They are named the Little Rock and fight through the school year, while students and segregationists are threatening and harassing them. Warriors Don’t Cry—a memoir of Beals’ personal experience—should be taught in schools because it teaches students to treat each other equally and to be brave, while it also shows the struggle of being an African-American in the 1950s. Another lesson taught in the retelling is that everyone can make a change.
The book, “My Soul Is Rested” by Howell Raines is a remarkable history of the civil rights movement. It details the story of sacrifice and audacity that led to the changes needed. The book described many immeasurable moments of the leaders that drove the civil rights movement. This book is a wonderful compilation of first-hand accounts of the struggles to desegregate the American South from 1955 through 1968. In the civil rights movement, there are the leaders and followers who became astonishing in the face of chaos and violence. The people who struggled for the movement are as follows: Hosea Williams, Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy, and others; both black and white people, who contributed in demonstrations for freedom rides, voter drives, and
In the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, the author describes what her reactions and feelings are to the racial hatred and discrimination she and eight other African-American teenagers received in Little Rock, Arkansas during the desegregation period in 1957. She tells the story of the nine students from the time she turned sixteen years old and began keeping a diary until her final days at Central High School in Little Rock. The story begins by Melba talking about the anger, hatred, and sadness that is brought up upon her first return to Central High for a reunion with her eight other classmates. As she walks through the halls and rooms of the old school, she recalls the horrible acts of violence that were committed by the white students against her and her friends.
In “ ‘It Was Like All of Us Had Been Raped’: Sexual Violence, Community Mobilization, and the African American Freedom Struggle” by Danielle L. McGuire, McGuire begins her piece with a haunting tale of the rape of Betty Jean Owens, that really illustrates the severity of racial brutality in the 1950s. She depicts a long history of african-american women who refuse to remain silent, even in the face of adversity, and even death, and who've left behind a testimony of the many wrong-doings that have been done to them. Their will to fight against the psychological and physical intimidation that expresses male domination and white supremacy is extremely admirable. The mobilization of the community, and the rightful conviction of the 4 white men most definitely challenged ideologies of racial inequality and sexual domination, and inspired a revolution in societal
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi and Eyes on the Prize characterize life for African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s as full of tension, fear, and violence. Eyes on the Prize is a documentary series that details major figures and events of the movement, while Anne Moody gives a deeply personal autobiographical account of her own experiences as an African American growing up in deeply segregated and racist Mississippi and as a civil rights activist during and after college. These two accounts are very different in their style yet contain countless connections in their events and reflect many ongoing struggles of the movement. These sources provide an excellent basis for discussion of nonviolence versus violence
McGuire, Danielle L. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York, New York: Vintage Books. 2011.
Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
In Living for the City, Donna Murch details the origins and the rise to prominence the Black Panther Party experienced during the 1960s and into the 1970s. The Civil Rights Movement and eventually the Black Panther Movement of Oakland, California emerged from the growing population of migrating Southern African Americans who carried with them the traditional strength and resolve of the church community and family values. Though the area was heavily driven by the massive movement of industrialization during World War II, the end of the war left a period of economic collapse and social chaos in its wake. The Black Panther Party was formed in this wake; driven by continuing violence against the African American youth by the local police forces, the Black Panther Party’s roots consisted mostly of educational meetings of local African American college students.
In the early 1990’s in Los Angeles, California, police brutally was considered a norm in African Americans neighborhoods. News coverage ignores the facts of how African ...
Harrison, Robert Pogue. “The Civil Rights Movement” . Chicago: U of Chicago, 2014. 98-111. Print.
Shaskolsky, Leon. “The Negro Protest Movement- Revolt or Reform?.” Phylon 29 (1963): 156-166. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004 .
Criticism of the essay “The Triumphs of the Black Civil Rights Movement: 1950–1980" Although "The Triumphs of the Black Civil Rights Movement: 1950–1980" provides a compelling overview of the movement's accomplishments, it overlooks several critical aspects, including the role of grassroots organizations, the impact of economic elements, and the ongoing challenges that black communities face. While the essay outlines significant milestones, it does not dig into the specifics of systematic racism and its long-term impact on oppressed populations. By missing these critical elements, the essay provides an incomplete view of the Civil Rights Movement. A more detailed examination of grassroots activities, economic inequality, and present problems
Schneider, M. (2002). We return fighting : the civil rights movement in the Jazz Age. Boston: Northeastern University Press
Ransby, Barbara. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: a Radical Democratic Vision. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2003. Print.