Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that aimed for the desegregation of the bus systems in Montgomery, Alabama.[i] The organization revolved around the emerging civil rights leader and pastor Martin Luther King Jr. Three years later, King’s method of non-violent protests would inspire four students to begin the Greensboro sit-ins in North Carolina, which is regarded as one of the most significant demonstrations at the time.[ii] Many of the discriminatory practices during this time period stems from whiteness, which is a belief about entitlement and ownership for whites based solely on their skin color. The media utilizes rhetorical devices, such as analogy, polarizing …show more content…
To stifle the spread of the ‘contagion,’ the article, “Four Students Spark Spreading Drive,”sites how the “good performance of the Southern police” is what “prevented chaos.” [v] By using a favorable term to describe the white institutions, the article works to label police as an admirable unit who selflessly suppressed anarchy. This is contrasted with the ‘chaos’ utilized to describe the sit-in protestors. In making this comment, the article implies that the protests harm society rather than help it. Moreover, words like “contagion” and “chaos” are also utilized to condemn the black’s entitlement to protests; once again, the media plays on white fears that whites might stand to lose their sense of entitlements if they allow minorities to have the same rights as they do. The diction used by the Chicago Defender’s article parallels the word choice of Harold L. Keith’s article, “Are White Supremacists Killing Labor?”, which is about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks, the NAACP organized the Boycott to change segregation laws regarding bus seats and driver courtesy toward people of color. Emerging Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was primarily responsible for coordinating the Bus boycott movement.[vii]. Keith’s article …show more content…
The 1955 AFRO--American newspaper article “Boycott Still On; Bus Co. Loses $3,000 Daily,” takes a liberal stance in describing the black leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Bus Company. The article states how bus drivers told black passengers, “N…. r get up out of your seat.”[viii] The n-word is a derogatory term used to refer to African Americans—particularly slaves--before and after the Civil War, and its use in the article illustrates that the bus drivers do not even think of blacks as human beings but rather property, authorizing the bus drivers to address black passengers in an uncivilized and insulting manner. Explicit racial language allows the media to point out how racial segregation between white bus drivers and black passengers remains a predominant aspect in the relationship between the two racial groups. Ironically, the AFRO newspaper claims that the Montgomery Bus company “insisted that the drivers were ‘always courteous.’”[ix] However, the ‘N…r’ proclamation from the driver directly opposes the bus company’s statement, and invalidates the company’s message. This dissonance can be explained by George Lipsitz’s article, “The which argues how systemic whiteness has created institutions that stress the incompatibility of racially
On the date May 26, 1956, two female students from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, had taken a seat down in the whites only section of a segregated bus in the city of Tallahassee, Florida. When these women refused to move to the colored section at the very back of the bus, the driver had decided to pull over into a service station and call the police on them. Tallahassee police arrested them and charged them with the accusation of them placing themselves in a position to incite a riot. In the days after that immediately followed these arrests, students at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University organized a huge campus-wide boycott of all of the city buses. Their inspiring stand against segregation set an example and an intriguing idea that had spread to tons of Tallahassee citizens who were thinking the same things and brought a change of these segregating ways into action. Soon, news of the this boycott spread throughout the whole entire community rapidly. Reverend C.K. Steele composed the formation of an organization known as the Inter-Civic Council (ICC) to manage the logic and other events happening behind the boycott. C.K. Steele and the other leaders created the ICC because of the unfounded negative publicity surrounding the National Associat...
In today’s world, social justice, otherwise known as equality and egalitarianism between the races, genders, and religions, is highly sought after. In addition to modern struggles, many movements throughout the course of history that date from even before the 1930s until just recently have been started to demand equal rights for certain ethnic groups. Coretta Scott King’s memoir, Montgomery Boycott gives the reader an inside view of Martin Luther King’s personal life during the Montgomery City Bus Line boycott for impartiality in public transportation after Rosa Parks’ famous arrest. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she discusses how the Southern population in the 1930s allowed racism and the Jim Crow Laws to become socially
A Look Into the Chicago Race Riots The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights.
Blair L. M. Kelley’s Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy V. Ferguson tells stories of different desegregation movements on trains and streetcars at the turn of the twentieth century. Her book is the first account that connects the roots of segregation and dissent in the antebellum North, the legal efforts against segregated rails in New Orleans, and the streetcar boycotts in several southern cities. She not only describes the events but also deals with the questions of culture, gender, and leadership and their significant roles in black protests against segregation.
Success was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement. Starting with the year 1954, there were some major victories in favor of African Americans. In 1954, the landmark trial Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ruled that segregation in public education was unfair. This unanimous Supreme Court decision overturned the prior Plessy vs. Ferguson case during which the “separate but equal” doctrine was created and abused. One year later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. launched a bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama after Ms. Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat in the “colored section”. This boycott, which lasted more than a year, led to the desegregation of buses in 1956. Group efforts greatly contributed to the success of the movement. This is not only shown by the successful nature of the bus boycott, but it is shown through the success of Martin Luther King’s SCLC or Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The conference was notable for peacefully protesting, nonviolence, and civil disobedience. Thanks to the SCLC, sit-ins and boycotts became popular during this time, adding to the movement’s accomplishments. The effective nature of the sit-in was shown during 1960 when a group of four black college students sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in hopes of being served. While they were not served the first time they commenced their sit-in, they were not forced to leave the establishment; their lack of response to the heckling...
Political protesting within today’s society is often relegated to mass marches, social media usage, and other large acts. Unfortunately, small and simple everyday acts of protest are often overlooked or deemed useless in the long run. Sadly, this diminishes most of the protests that take place within America. However, this is not a new trend, but one that can be seen throughout American history, specifically within Jim Crow laws and segregation Deep South during World War II. Within Robin Kelley’s “Congested Terrain,” the way lower and middle-class black citizens fought for their rights to the public spaces within Birmingham Alabama are explored. Because the space in buses was much less defined that other public, segregated spaces, black
The Montgomery bus boycott, a huge event in the Civil Rights Movement, was a protest against the radical policy of segregation on the transportation system in Montgomery. Featured above is an illustration of African Americans walking down a main street in protest of the bus system in Montgomery. In 1955, African Americans were required to sit in the back of the buses and give up their seats to white people if the front seats were already filled. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, rode the bus home from her job at a local department store. She sat in the front row of the colored section. When the white section filled, the driver asked Parks and three others to vacate their seats. The other African-American readily complied, knowing the consequences of refusing, but Parks refused (Thornton 2). She was arrested and fined $10, which was a lot of money back then, plus $4 in court fees. As news of the boycott spread, African-American leaders across Montgomery began giving their support.
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
As the “Official Response to the Detroit Riot,” the Harlem race riots certainly exceeded the physical and emotional destruction the Detroit riot caused. With “six persons [dead], several hundreds injured, and approximately two million dollars’ worth of property [was] damaged,” the riots proved to be an explosion of frustration violence and contradiction (Capeci xi). With an unclear beginning, this event proved to be a culmination of small situations that spawned from hot tempers, gossip, and neighboring race riots.
Since the time of slavery, racial tension has existed between whites and blacks. This tension has only increased with the passing of time. This conflict culminated in the 1940s in the form of mob violence. While there have been previous riots because of race relations, none of them were of the magnitude of the 1943 Detroit riot. Much like any other event involving racism in the 1940s, the Detroit riot has little coverage, most of which is skewed, in articles in the nation?s leading news sources such as ?Deep Trouble? in Time, ?Riotous Race Hate? in Newsweek, and ?The Truth About the Detroit Riot? in Harper?s. Thus, one must compare articles from these sources to ascertain accurate information. Even when comparing these accounts, the reader finds discrepancies in the causation and destruction of the Detroit riot. By analyzing these descriptions, one can also notice the similarities between the Detroit riot and other mob violence during that time period. For example, James Baldwin?s retelling of the Harlem riot in ?Notes of a Native Son? bears great similarities in causation and destruction with the Detroit riot.
Through their life, Negroes have been suffering from all means of discrimination but they didn’t complain nor stand against it. According to an article published in America’s Library called Rosa Parks Was Arrested for Civil Disobedience, Rosa’s incident in 1955 was like the sparkle that lit the fire. It has encouraged them to defend their looted rights. Rosa Parks is a black activist lady who refused to give her seat to a white passenger. By doing that, she was disobeying an Alabama law which stated that African Americans have to give their seats to white people even if Negroes were there first. The bus driver called the police for Rosa and she was sentenced to j...
...ivil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown vs. Board of Educa2tion of Topeka decision of 1954.” The Montgomery bus boycott happened on “December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks... who refused to give up her sear to a white passenger on a bus” she was arrested. Later, the Supreme Court ruled “segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956.”
The following report gives a critical analysis of Dr. Cornel West’s book, “Race Matters.” In his book, Dr. West, a scholar, theologian, and activist, presents key issues of the day (1990s) primarily relating to race. He wrote “Race Matters” following the Los Angeles riot of 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers involved in the tragic beating of Rodney King. The book was originally published in April 1993 by New York: Vintage Books. This book is comprised of eight separate essays focusing primarily on racial issues relative to current events, the political climate, and market forces. Dr. West’s basic argument is that race matters in all aspects of American culture as well as abroad. He attempts to raise the awareness of his readers (and audiences) about the importance of race as an integral part of American society.
However, by the end of the 20th Century, women, blacks, and other minorities could be found in the highest echelons of American Society. From the corporate offices of IBM, to the U.S. Supreme Court bench, an obvious ideological revolution bringing integration and acceptance of a variety of human beings had taken place, but only at the expense of great amounts of sweat and blood.... ... middle of paper ... ... Blacks walked miles to work, organized carpools, and despite efforts from the police to discourage this new spark of independence, the boycotts continued for more than a year until in November 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that the Montgomery bus company must desegregate its busses.
Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson, and David J. Garrow. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: the Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1987. Print.