Comparison Of Coming Of Age In Mississippi And The Freedom Riders

Everyone is different. Two of the top runners in the country can be black and white. One identical twin can be a star athlete while the other is a band geek. Two gang members can be gay and straight. One wealthy person can end up in prison while someone from Detroit’s slums becomes a millionaire. Despite the racism and degradation in the past United States, the country has overcome battles regarding racism and equality. Within the book Coming of Age in Mississippi and the Freedom Riders documentary, resources show how the Civil Rights Movement changed America for a better future to come. Race shows a person’s culture. It allows one to dive into someone’s past, but, unfortunately, it develops assumptions. With one look, one can assume a whole
Throughout the documentary, it points out different ways these people sacrificed their own lives for the bigger picture of the Civil Rights Movement. The middle of the documentary delivers this message to the audience with personal testimonies on quitting college for the Movement even after they fought so hard to get in (Freedom Riders, 49:30). Change comes with sacrifice and both the Freedom Riders and Anne Moody knew this. Even at the beginning of Anne’s life, she was sacrificing her earned money and self worth for her family. Though working for the racist Mrs. Burke sounded like the most awful thing at the time, Anne knew it was needed to keep her family surviving (Moody, 121). As mentioned before, Anne later involved herself in the Movement to fight against people like Mrs. Burke. Her sacrifice in her early life allowed her to recognize the problem and work toward a greater reward for many affected African
Though it is still a huge factor in many lives today, the country has become more aware of the issue, to say the least. For eight years, the United States had an African American man presiding over the country. While being a country with a race movement only forty years prior, this shows the lengths America has come in such a short amount of time. Of course, Barack Obama did not simply win the presidency because he was black as he is a great speaker with excellent ideas, but the very simple fact that his skin was a different color than anyone who had presided before him shows how far this country has come, especially politically (Foner, 1134). That said, Give Me Liberty! An American History points out how much power the president has. He or she can order surveillance on innocent citizens, declare war when threatened, and withhold Americans of a different race (Foner, 1116). With the two previous statements, it is essential to note how a man of a race other than Caucasian had the extreme power of the country in his dark