Jackie’s Effect On Race Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis has been placed among saints in Stanley Crouch’s eyes. He associates her with some of the most influential people the world has known. He places her among the ranks of Mahalia Jackson, Bessie Smith, and the Virgin Mary, whom have all had significant effects on race relations. Stanley Crouch grew up in the slum area of Los Angeles, California (Lamb 2). Despite the fact that he is an African American, Stanley fought his way out of poverty to become one of the most famed black jazz critics and foremost authors of many influential speeches and papers. He tells in "Blues for Jackie," how Jackie Kennedy has influenced race relations and the connection she had with the domestics with whom he grew up. It is, in part, because of Jackie and the other individuals with which she is compared, that there are stronger ties between blacks and whites. Without the Jackie Kennedys and Bessie Smiths, the world's pool of racial suppression would be full of sewage. Growing up on the Mississippi River among six siblings, Mahalia Jackson knew what it was like to be racially secluded. She was reared by her father who was a minister and was singing in his choir at the age of five. In her early teen years she worked as a launderer and also as a housekeeper, but she dreamed of one day becoming a nurse ("New" 1). Mahalia began traveling throughout the Midwest to sing at different Baptist Churches. Her popularity began to soar, and she signed a record deal to become "the only Negro whom Negroes have made famous," as the African American press described her ("New" 2). She was inspired by Bessie Smith. When she worked as a servant, she said "when the old people weren’t home and I’d be scrubbin’ the floor, I’d turn on a Bessie Smith record to make the work go faster" ("New" 1). Mahalia would not stop at just being a famous gospel singer. She had her own radio program and television show that aired on CBS. She went on to manage several businesses and become involved in real estate. She preceded Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement before he gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.
She first started writing, when she came back home after the death of her father. She wrote about the Jackson social scene for the Memphis, Tennessee newspaper. She also was a publicity agent for the Works Progress Administration in rural Mississ...
Melba began her story with her childhood in Little Rock, Arkansas. She lived with her mother, grandma, and brother in a strict and religious household. Her family had come to accept the fact that they would always be mistreated because of their color. In the South this mistreatment of blacks was seen as perfectly normal, but Melba saw things a little differently. As a young girl, she experienced first hand how awful it was to be segregated against and be constantly ridiculed simply because of her color. Unlike most people, though, she wanted to do something about it and prayed for an opportunity that would allow her to fight back and hopefully make a difference.
Martin Luther King Jr was a activist that was known for his famous speech “I had a dream”, he changed the lives for many people and helped changed the future. The world renowned Baptist minister and social activist had a massive impact on the American civil rights movement from the mid 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. Martin Luther King Jr was born on the 15th of January, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, known as Michael Luther King Jr and was than assassinated on the 4th of April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States and has still left a footprint on many people
In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States. During his campaign he had promised to lead the country down the right path with the civil rights movement. This campaign promise had brought hope to many African-Americans throughout the nation. Ever since Lincoln, African-Americans have tended to side with the democrats and this election was no different. The Kennedy administration had noticed that the key to the presidency was partially the civil rights issue. While many citizens were on Kennedy’s side, he had his share of opposition. Malcolm X differed on the view of the President and observed that the civil rights movement wasn’t happening at the speed Kennedy had pledged. Malcolm X possessed other reasons for his dislike of John F. Kennedy and his brothers, especially Robert. The Kennedy government stood for racial liberalism and Malcolm X argued their true intentions for the civil rights movement weren’t in the best interest of the black population. This tension streamed both ways. John Kennedy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation felt that Malcolm X had become a threat to national security. James Baldwin has written essays that have included the repeated attacks on the white liberal and supports Malcolm in many of his theories and actions.
Jackie Robinson: athlete, social activist, hero. These are just some of the words people use to describe Jackie. Robinson was the first person to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, at the time officially designated a white man’s sport. The blacks and whites played in separate leagues but Branch Rickey, vice president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, wanted to integrate Major League Baseball. At this time in the 1940s the Unites States was still segregated and the Jim Crow Laws still reigned heavily in the south. Integration didn’t start until 1948 when Truman signed Executive Order 9981 which integrated the military. This didn’t occur until after Robinson took the field as the first African-American to play in the major leagues. Once Robinson started playing, whites saw that he could do anything as well as they could, which started a social revolution within the United States. If it hadn’t been for Branch Rickey trying to integrate the major leagues, who knows how long it would have been before the U.S. and the major leagues started to integrate.
Riley B. King better known as B.B. King was born on September 16th 1925 to a family of sharecropping farmers near a small town named Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta. King's parents Albert and Nora Ella King separated when he was five years old and shortly after his mother moved to Kilmicheal Mississippi where Riley spent most of his time living with is grandmother. By age seven King was now working the field like a grown man. A couple of years later at the age of nine his mother died. King continued to live with his grandmother after his mother had past away. His grandmother was very religious and he attended church services with her. It was in the church where King begins to take an interest in music. He had dreams of becoming a gospel singer and learned how to play basic notes on the guitar from his preacher. In 1940 King's grandmother died and he had trouble making ends meet and eventually went to live with his father. (The King of Blues)
Jackie Robinson took advantage of his fame and followers to join the political government and become a civil rights activist to help out African Americans with the problem of inequality and slavery. African Americans were not treated right. 9. “As a child he fought with rocks against taunting neighbors; as an adolescent he went to jail for a traffic altercation involving a white motorist; and as a college star in four sports, he took no guff from race-baiting competitors.” Jackie Robinson had to face a lot of racism even when he was young and little people would still discriminate against him, making him believe he had no chance of success, but he still fought and never gave up.
Dr. King decided to get married to her, and so they did on June of the year 1953. They had 4 little children with the names of Yolanda, Bernice, Martin Luther King III, and Dexter Scott. King was happy with his life, but when racism had struck the city, he had a wonderful dream about his children being free. This had inspired Dr. King to write his, “ I Have A Dream,” speech which he had recited at the Lincoln Memorial. I thought this speech was a beautiful inspiration to me
Chisholm was born Shirley Anita St. Hill on November 30, 1924, in the impoverished Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Her father, an emigrant from Guyana, worked as an unskilled laborer, and her mother, a native of Barbados, was a seamstress and a domestic worker. Extraordinary circumstances separated Chisholm from her parents for much of her early childhood. Struggling to save money for a house and for their children's education, the St. Hills sent their four daughters to live on the farm of a grandmother in Barbados. From the age of three to the age of eleven, Chisholm received a British elementary school education and acquired a West Indian rhythm of speech. An important influence on her early life, her grandmother instilled in her the values of pride, courage, and faith. Her parents took her back to Brooklyn at the age of eleven.
... only sports. His controversial first game was a major barrier for black people that he had just broken. At first no white person, except those sympathetic towards blacks, liked the idea of him in baseball and many were willing to do whatever it took to force him out of the league. Jackie was steadfast in not budging and giving to the pressure of fighting back to defend himself. With the help of Branch he could overcome this desire to fight against the people that hated him and wanted him dead and gone. However, after many months of struggling to restrain himself, people began to take his side and root for him. Jackie’s story has inspired many to overcome great obstacles and will continue to do so in the future.
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 to Susan and George Coleman who had a large family in Texas. At the time of Bessie’s birth, her parents had already been married for seventeen years and already had nine children, Bessie was the tenth, and she would later have twelve brothers and sisters. Even when she was small, Bessie had to deal with issues about race. Her father was of African American and Cherokee Indian decent, and her mother was black which made it difficult from the start for her to be accepted. Her parents were sharecroppers and her life was filled with renter farms and continuous labor. Then, when Bessie was two, her father decided to move himself and his family to Waxahacie, Texas. He thought that it would offer more opportunities for work, if he were to live in a cotton town.
One of the greatest speakers for the black civil rights movement was Martin Luther King, Jr. Two of his pieces that stand out the most, were the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream”. The Letter From Birmingham Jail is exactly that, it’s a letter that King wrote while he was in jail, to a group of clergy members who disapproved of his actions in Birmingham City. I Have a Dream was a speech delivered in Washington, DC at Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. This speech was written to inspire people to look beyond themselves and also demanded the country unity focusing on equality for all without focusing on the color of their skin; King also wanted the people to take a stand in a nonviolent manner.
Shirley Chisholm was a crucial figure in Black politics, and the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She defeated civil rights leader James Farmer on November 5, 1968, and served 7 terms in the House of Representatives till 1982. Also, she was the first woman and person of color to run for President. Chisholm is a model of independence and honesty and has championed several issues including civil rights, aid for the poor, and women 's rights.
Oprah was born in a small, rural town in Mississippi to an unwed teenage mother. Even though her birth was not miraculous like that of other heros, she made up for it in her early years of life with an abundance of charisma and personality. She was so poor at one point she had to wear potato sacks as clothes and was made fun of by her classmates. Oprah faced other hardships early on, including sexual assault by close family members and a pregnancy at the age of fourteen, of which her son died shortly after birth. She was forced to move towns often, living with her mother, grandmother and father at different times throughout her childhood. This did not affect her obviously natural social abilities. She was nicknamed “The Preacher” for her ability to recite bible verses and was often found interviewing her dolls for fun. At the age of seventeen, Oprah won an oratory contest that granted her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University where she majored in communication. She experienced an early recognition of her talents much like many other heros. This was the start of a booming career for her.
Coretta Scott King was born 12 miles away from Marion, Alabama, on April 27, 1927. Her father, Obadiah Scott, was a hardworking farmer. He also used his own truck to haul logs for a sawmill, which made the whites in the area angry and jealous that he actually owned a truck and was fairly successful. They threatened him and the entire family feared that one day he wouldn’t come back from work. This was just one problem. Coretta and her siblings also had to walk 3 miles to school every morning. The black children had to be served ice cream last. And they were constantly taunted and threatened. These are just some examples of the racism and discrimination Coretta faced while growing up.