3/7 blog post

In chapter 5 of A Girl Stands at the Door what intrigued me the most was when it started off by talking about the fact that African American children were not offered a way to school, and often times had to walk up to 3 miles. In some cases, the children would have no choice but to move in with extended family whom lived closer to the school since buses were not offered as a mode of transportation to African American children. I was really shocked when reading what took place in the school system and when the book discusses how African American children didn't receive the same education when at school as well. In once case in particular, it discussed a child going through a whole year of school and basically only learning how to draw. When analyzing the different education between Whites and African Americans, the African American children were far behind on the curriculum and struggled when moving on to higher grades. What also struck me was the fact that as soon as I started to think that they were making progress, it was people like McFarland and Caldwell that took multiple steps backwards. After Caldwell, who is an African American himself; took a position within the school it seemed like some progress had been lost. He stood for segregation and was definitely an outlier. He was known as a "negro traitor to his group" (153). I did not expect him to come in and stand for the segregation of hallways, prom, tables at lunch etc. Following this, I felt as though the students also began to think that segregation was right which was hard to read. The idea of "self-segregation" came into focus when students started to voluntarily segregate themselves from the others. What happened within the school was very problematic especially because it states that still to this day "the second floor of Topeka Highschool is called the black floor to this day" (155).  That statement just proves how problematic and serious this all was during this time period, and just how much resinated following the incident.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Freedom Riders 3/26

As I watched the “Freedom Riders” documentary, the more disgusted I become at that racial injustices in American history. At the beginning of the documentary, there is a small montage of bigots giving poor excuses as to why the South should remain segregated. However, there was one quote that stuck out that stated, “You can not change a way of life overnight. The more they try to force us into doing something, the worse the reaction is going to be.” Racism should not be a way of life anyone wants to live through or put onto someone else. The Freedom Riders and many nonviolent protesters weren’t physically imposing on others, so why was the reaction of segregationists to worsening as “they try to force” them into a realistic way of life? Watching the documentary and listening to how the Riders were willing to be martyrs for the Movement as they were physically attacked, their property was destroyed via molotov and mentally drained daily makes me appreciate activism a great deal more, ...
Read more
After reading the rest of Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton's Black Power and then reflecting about what we talked about in class on Tuesday, I still cannot put my finger on an exact definition of "black power." I do believe, though, that "black power" cannot be achieved without a change in the political structure of America. When reading the fourth chapter of this book, the idea that people in power control the law is brought up. I, almost, one hundred percent agree with this. The quote from the book that stood out to me was "Law is the agent of those in political power; it is the product of those powerful enough to define right and wrong and to have that definition legitimized by "law." This is not to say that "might makes right," but it is to say that Might makes Law." This quote shows how political leaders shape the law. Those in power get to make the laws, whether they are just or not. I still believe this today. I believe...
Read more

What It's Like to Be Black on Campus Now

In Melissa Harris-Perry’s article, “What It’s Like to Be Black on Campus Now”, she discusses the issues behind race in education and institutions through ten black student journalists who tell their personal experiences. She gives an example from the University of Missouri, explaining how one student decided to stop eating in protest of inaction and ineffective administrative responses to racial incidents on campus. 30 Missouri football players joined this one student in protest and University of Missouri’s president resigned soon after. This example is powerful because it shows other institutions that when you unite together, change can come. Harris- Perry continues to talk about how important education is to black families and how hard it is to send their children to a place that can be so full of hatred towards their race. She wrote, “Viewing higher education as a pathway to equity, African American families and communities have made enormous sacrifices to send black kids to college...
Read more