Extended Writing Project- Kiana Wymore
During life, we face turning points which could be difficult. Turning points all take place in Warriors Don’t Cry a memoir by Melba Patillo Beals, “ The Father of Chinese Aviation” by Rebecca Maksel, with the topic being about Feng Ru, and I Never Had It Made and autobiography by Jackie Robinson. Melba Pattillo Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru all experienced life-changing events that impacted their countries. Their life changing experiences were a big challenge to their goal, yet they still managed to pull together and complete their goal.
Melba Beals faced segregation in schools by going to an all white school, helping black students get a better education. She was a part of the Little Rock
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Nine, a group of black students that were going to integrate Central High, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Melba Beals faced many challenges in doing this as Beals states here, ”We stepped up the front door of Central High School and crossed that threshold into that place where angry segregationist mobs had forbidden us to go.” It was dangerous for Beals to go to this school, since there were “angry segregationist mobs” trying to do everything they could to keep her from going to this school, she was facing danger and threats from segregationists. Furthermore, she was going to an all white school with only a few of her fellow African American students coming with her. Going to a new school is scary for most people but, Beals was going to a new white school, where she was not welcome by the white students. Facing angry segregationist mobs and going to a new all white school were certainly challenging to Beals, and life changing events. Though she faced these challenges, she responded by remaining determined, and …show more content…
she went to the all white school. These events caused Beals to become brave in the face of danger, and caused her to become more determined. Beals was one of the first students to go to Central high, since ”Step by step we climbed upward- where none of my people had ever before walked as a student”(Beals). Since Beals was the first along with the other Little Rock Nine, other African American students could go to this school and get a better education. Melba Beals stayed determined to go to Central High, and despite the danger and challenges she did, helping future African American students. Jackie Robinson became the first black player in major league baseball, while facing prejudice from white people. Jackie Robinson faced dangers and challenges being the first black player in the major leagues. For example, he faced verbal and physical threats from white people who wanted him out of the game, and his teammates refused to accept him. He even says ”It hadn’t been that easy to fight the resentment expressed by players on other teams, by the team owners, or bigoted fans screaming” (Robinson). From this it is clear, he faced the challenges of fans screaming at him when he played, and you could also see players from other teams, and team owners did not accept him. From this evidence you could see how almost everyone didn’t like Robinson. Baseball is supposed to be enjoyable, but with all this going didn’t seem that fun anymore. Although, Jackie never said that. Instead of complaining, he responded by wanting to be the best player he could be, so people would see him as a good baseball player and look past his race. As a result, he learned to tune out the negativity and appreciate the people around him who supported him, such as Branch Rickey, his wife, young fans, and black fans. Jackie never gave up, therefore impacting our country. Robinson never gave up since he even said ”I was proud to be in the hurricane eye of a significant breakthrough and used to prove that a sport can’t be called national if blacks are barred from it.” Robinson said he was in a “significant breakthrough” and he was trying to show blacks should be in major league sports. This would change America if he succeeded. Jackie did prove blacks could be in major league sports, helping future black athletes play in major league baseball. Feng Ru built a working airplane in America, and though there were many obstacles, brought his airplane to China, changing the country.
Feng Ru immigrated from China to America, and became interested in aviation. Feng Ru wanted to create an aircraft factory and build airplanes of his design, but he was challenged. Feng Ru faced many challenges to his goal since,”San Francisco’s massive earthquake and resulting fire forced him to relocate to Oakland instead, were funded by local Chinese businessmen, Feng erected his workshop a- 10- by- eight foot shack.”(Maksel). The first challenge was that he had to work in a small space. He was building an airplane, and you need a lot of room to build an airplane, but Feng Ru did not have that much room in a small shack. Such a challenge made it difficult for Feng Ru to achieve his goal. Furthermore, another challenge is that he did not have enough money to fund himself. This was a challenge because that means Feng Ru had to be funded by other people, which means if he did not succeed at the aircraft factory he would go into debt. In addition to these challenges, when Feng Ru tested out one of his airplanes, it was most likely to crash, which could hurt him. Though these events tested him, Feng Ru remained determined and succeeded in creating an aircraft factory. All the challenges caused Feng Ru to become brave when he tested his airplanes, and always be determined. According to Maksel who quoted this from a report about Feng
Ru,“”[Feng] will leave here for his native land tomorrow, taking with him a biplane of the Curtiss type in which he intends to make exhibition flights. It is believed he will be the first aviator to rise from the ground in China.”” Feng Ru decided to introduce one of his working airplanes to China. Feng Ru would change his country from doing this, since he would be the first person to introduce airplanes to China, as you could see from the text. Feng Ru brought airplanes to China forever changing China, so he was truly the “Father of Chinese Aviation”(Maksel). Melba Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru all faced many challenges to their goal, but their actions showed they remained determined. Jackie Robinson helped blacks play in major league baseball, Feng Ru created the first Chinese airplane, and Melba Beals integrated an all white school. As a result of Melba Beals, Feng Ru’s, and Jackie Robinson’s actions to their challenges and obstacles, they impacted their country while facing life changing experiences. Determination to a goal can help overcome obstacles and complete a goal.
Melba Pattillo Beals book, Warriors Don’t Cry, is a memoir about her experience as one of the Little Rock Nine. From a very young age Melba sees the many problems with segregation. Throughout the book she recalls several memories involving the unfairness and struggles that her, her family, and other African Americans had to go through in the South during the time of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement.
Even though the obstacles might not be the same exact thing, everyone has at least dealt with obstacles once in their lifetime, or are currently trying to deal with it. Althea Gibson and Barbara Jordan both had a similar obstacle, and a different ones, the similar one was a huge part back then. Rights of black women back then were very slim, but even then, Gibson and Jordan had continued to go on and reach their dream. An example would be in the article Althea Gibson written by Frank Lafe, where Gibson was not allowed to go to certain parts of tennis since at the time the sport was dominated by white people and they had segregated the sport, but Gibson still went on to become a professional player. Similar to Gibson, Jordan had been able to attend segregated schools, but she had continued to go to high school, and then a black lawyer there had inspired her, and she went on to going to a segregated college, but even then she had joined a debate team and had tied with Harvard's team. She went on to Boston University's law school (Barbara Jordan Frank Lafe) and graduate, even when her education was limited, she had continued to be successful with her
The definition of a warrior is "one who is engaged in or experienced in battle, or in the military life; a soldier; a champion". Melba Beals proved to be a warrior throughout all of the events that surrounded the integration of Central High School. Although she eventually had to leave town, she and the other eight students showed true bravery and courage when they decided to scale the walls of segregation and end the oppression of the white people in Little Rock. Beals was truly woman who fought hard and kept her faith in route to becoming a "warrior" and eventually a "champion" in the fight for civil rights.
Feng Ru was the first Chinese Aviator to lift of the ground in china for more than a minute. He had to face many turning points like when he had to relocate oakland because of the earthquake. He changed hi country which was china by bring aviation there that is why he is called “The Father of Chinese Aviation.He had immigrated and quickly understood that America’s industrialization made America successful. So Feng Ru tried to learn about all about mechanics. He was the only one who did not face racism but death itself. He changed the way of transportation for his country. He faced
When people have turning points in their life There whole life can change and their society around them can be affected. This topic is in the stories I Never Had It Made is an Autobiography by the Author Jackie Robinson, Warriors Don't Cry which is a Memoir written by Melba Patillo Beals, and ‘’ Father of Chinese Aviation’’ which is a Article written by Rebecca Maksel. Then the Stories talk about Turning points in Jackie Robinson, Melba Beals, and Feng Ru lives. What these people have in common is they all faced obstacles Then they changed the world and their society. This Proves that Jackie Robinson, Feng Ru, and Melba Beals faced obstacles, and changes the way people think.
In May of 1954, the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case had declared the racial segregation of American public schools unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had called for the integration of schools, so that students of any race could attend any school without the concern of the “white-only” labels. The public school system of Little Rock, Arkansas agreed to comply with this new desegregated system, and by a year had a plan to integrate the students within all the public schools of Little Rock. By 1957, nine students had been selected by the Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), chosen according to their outstanding grades and excellent attendance, and had been enrolled in the now-integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. But, the Little Rock Nine, consisting of Jefferson Thomas, Thelma Mothershed, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Elizabeth Eckford, Minnijean Brown, Ernest Green, Melba Pattillo Beals, Gloria Ray Karlmark, and Terrence Roberts, faced the angered, white segregationist students and adults upon their enrollment at Central High School. Thus began the true test; that of bravery of the students and that of the ethics of the white community.
All of these children had to be integrated into that high school for the good of the future. It was a huge part in the movement of segregation and all of them should be proud of what they did. Melba also did this voluntarily, not even telling her parents that she had signed up for the integration fearing that they would say no. She wanted to be just as equal as the whites and if sacrificing herself for the sake of the greater good was the way the way to go then Melba wasn’t going to let anyone stop her. They all knew what they were going into and did it for the greater good anyway. Their parents supported them all the way through expressing to them that change was
Growing up as a teenager, Melba Pattillo Beals had to fight one of the most courageous wars in history. No, not a war that took place in the trenches of a battlefield, but a war that took place in the halls of an American high schoola war against color. Melba was one of nine black students who were involved in one of the most important civil rights movements in American history. These nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, were the first to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 4, 1957. This was a major turning point for blacks all across the United States and opened the way for other blacks to begin attending white schools.
The case started with a third-grader named Linda Brown. She was a black girl who lived just seen blocks away from an elementary school for white children. Despite living so close to that particular school, Linda had to walk more than a mile, and through a dangerous railroad switchyard, to get to the black elementary school in which she was enrolled. Oliver Brown, Linda's father tried to get Linda switched to the white school, but the principal of that school refuse to enroll her. After being told that his daughter could not attend the school that was closer to their home and that would be safer for Linda to get to and from, Mr. Brown went to the NAACP for help, and as it turned out, the NAACP had been looking for a case with strong enough merits that it could challenge the issue of segregation in pubic schools. The NAACP found other parents to join the suit and it then filed an injunction seeking to end segregation in the public schools in Kansas (Knappman, 1994, pg 466).
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
Mary Mebane used her own experience on the bus to show how segregation affected her life. Mary Mebane points out, white people “could sit anywhere they choose, even in the colored section. Only the black passengers had to obey segregation laws.” When Mebane was young, she saw a conflict on the bus. The driver asked a black person who sat in the ‘no-man’s-land’ to move back to colored section to give the seat for the white person who was standing on the bus because the bus was full. Segregation on the bus represented how white people unequally treat black people. When black people refused this driver to move, the driver try to send them to police. Black people were living in the shadow of racism and segregation at that time. However, that situation still affects school system and community now. Mebane asserts, “It was a world without option.” Black people have lower economic and social status because they are restricted to a small box because of segregation. “In Six Decades After Brown Ruling, in US Schools Still Segregated”, Dexter Mullins claims that in some schools like Valley West Elementary School in Houston, about 90% of people are not white people. These kinds of schools do not have enough funds to support adequate school resource to these students, and these students have lower opportunities to contact with cultural diversity. Both reasons negatively impact on the
On his path to become the first Chinese aviator, he had to face many challenges, such as racism expressed through anti-Chinese sentiment by Western Americans. In the paragraph four of the article, the text states, “‘He was staggered by America’s power and prosperity. He understood that industrialization made the country great, and felt that industrialization can do the same for China.’” this was a turning point because he was amazed and in complete disbelief of the idea of industrialization. This made Feng Ru want to do the same for China, his home country, to make it better through aviation and he was later extremely dedicated into doing so. In paragraph ten of the article, the author states “Feng was leaving just in time: anti-Chinese sentiment was on the rise in the American West, and the Oregonian reported of the pilot’s latest flight.” This quote explains that racism was spreading and that is was good that Feng Ru because he would have faced racial tension if he were to stay in America. This was good that he left also because he could have been distracted from the anti-Chinese sentiment and would not have been focused on his goal- to bring aviation to his home country, China, to make it better. This could have changed everything. Despite the racism he could have faced, he grew and developed from the inspiration from the Wright Brothers, the idea of aviation, and the pressure from his family. Nonetheless, Feng Ru was inspired to affect his home country, China, and Feng Ru did exactly that by facing multiple turning points is his
As president of the NAACP, she fought the school board in a legal battle to let African American children into the large, all-white high school, Central High (Daisy Bates). On multiple occasions, when arriving home, she would find “a rock [that had] shattered the picture window of [her house]” (Williams). White segregationists in Little Rock, Arkansas would frequently do this, aiming to threaten the lives of the people of the NAACP as well as the students that were integrating into Central High. Although her life was threatened, she did not stop fighting for integration and frequently comforted the nine students through the bullying they had to withstand (Daisy Bates). Through thick and thin, Daisy Bates never stopped fighting for what she believed in, even if it meant risking her life.
As more and more African American students were admitted into white Southern schools, segregationists continued to retaliate and defend their schools against them. No matter how difficult the situation turned out for some of them, and without much help from the government, African Americans did everything they possibly could to protect their educational rights for the sake of their future and success, and in the hope of promoting equality for all African American people in the United States. These students became the symbol of freedom and opened up the window of opportunity for all black people, for their ancestors, and for the future generations to come. Works Cited "Eyes on the Prize - 02 - Fighting Back, 1957-1962." YouTube.