Voices of Civil Rights
This week we will be watching two films from the History Channel Voices of Civil Rights: about Martin Luther King Jr. and the other about Justice Thurgood Marshall.
After watchng the first part of the documentary Voices of Civil Rights “Martin Luther King, The Man and The Dream” Tell what you learned from the Documentary that you did not know about Martin’s life and the Civil Rights movement. Focus on how events in his life made him who he was. What was his childhood like? How did going to Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, a town that did not have racist segregation laws affect him? How did he get involved with the Civil Rights movement? How did the student’s movement and Freedom riders affect him and the civil rights movement?
By Steven This is what I learned about Martin’s Childhood fromt he film.
MLKings father was raised poor and worked his way up to being a rich minister.
Martins father did not know how to read. As a grown man he went back to school to learn how to read they sent him back to the 5th grade. He learned and he got his high school diploma. He get to marry the ministers daughter who is very educated and rich. Daddy King become the miinister in that church. He was very strict with martin sometimes he beat him and in someways this made him a better man.
When Martin went away to school he saw a world that was not rascist like it was in the south. In the college some of the black students had white maids. He had a white girlfriend who he wanted to marry him. Martin coulld not marry her because she was white. If they married they might have gotten killed .
He later married a black woman named corretta. He got involved with the bus boycott in Montgomery when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat ,
They won the boycott and now they could sit where ever they want. But they still had a big problem with racisim.
I think it is important about what MLK did. If he did not do what he did to end racism the world would not be the way it is today. He made whites and blacks get along. I think he was a great person he risked he live for use.
He first starts with the Bus boycott when Rosa Parks would not give up her sit on the bus the bus driver told Rosa Parks to get up she said No.
She got arrested. E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks went to see MLK when Rosa Parks got out of jail. They wanted MLK to run the Bus boycott. At first he was not sure if he wanted to lead the boycott. He said he was very young only 26 years old but he said he would lead.
The boycott was only supposed to last one day. But it lasted 11 months. It was very successful no one rode the bus. Martin gave speeches, and they met in the church. The community worked hard together they shared rides, walked to town and took cabs. Cab drivers only charged a dime the price of the bus. They did this for a whole year. Finally they won. The Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, makes it against the law to segregate buses. Now black people could sit wherever they wanted. After the boycott Dr. King continued to work to change all the laws that were racist. He worked with the president to make the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Which made all segregation and discrimination against the law.
This law helped make things better but it was slow to change.
This is where the student’ movement came. The students in the north saw what doctor king did and they wanted to help. They traveled by buses, black and white college students. They wanted to change the laws and they did this by breaking the rules. The students went to segregated lunch counters and sat with black students and asked to eat. They got arrested and beat up. Dr. King saw this and joined them. After the bus boycott King did know what to do next, but he followed the students and began protesting and breaking racist laws.
The police would beat up the protestors for no reason, and put them in jail, and probably killed some of them. They sprayed with powerful hoses that gave them bruises. I think police still do this some times. I see where they shoot people who don’t have like Amadou Dialo and they don’t go to jail. I think this may still be racist. I think we have to change the laws for when police kill or hurt innocent people.
There are still problems with racism but I will be friends with anyone I am comfortable with blacks, whites, Italians. I think things are better but there is more work. Martin Luther King started this work, it is work we still need to do.
I learned that when Martin Luther King was young black people were mistreated. They could’nt go to the same store they were very mistreatd. If that were me I would do the same thing martin did. Maritn protested and testified they should change the law.
rosa parks was badly mistreated too. She live in Montgomery Alabama where the buses and many things were separated by color. I think that was wrong. I would’nt given up my seat eithrer back in the days. Now I would be glad to offer my seat to an elderly person.
Still today people are prejudiced. i would’nt like it because it’s not fair they don’t want nobody to do it to them but martin was smart althouh he fix the promblem they still not fixed people didn’t like martin i think that was wrong he died for something good his family life will never be the same witch is sad very sad i got mad when i first heard that kind of stuff fromback in the days really upset i got emotional so did another student that mad me about to cry so sad when martin went up south he saw blacks and white getting along so then he stayed up south and he died then later on his wife was depress and died so now it’s only his kids left so thats the end