Mary Bickerdyke is a leader and a legacy. She shows her legacy because of her being a Union Army nurse during the Civil War. Her cleanliness she had helped less causes of diseases and infections. Since Mary Bickerdyke was more concerned about other people than herself, she has a statue of herself in Galesburg Illinois and two ships, a hospital boat and a liberty ship that were named after her. She showed her leadership by always working hard on trying to improve conditions for the wounded soldiers and caring the most about curing her injured soldiers. Mary Bickerdyke was known as a nurse that didn’t let anybody get in the way of what needed to be done as a nurse.…
Mary McLeod Bethune was born to enslaved parents, Mary valued education and hard work from an early age. Before she was able to attend school, she worked in the cotton fields with her family and watched her mother work for the whites. One day while Mary was with her mother, she encountered something that changed her life. Bethune picked up a book and looked through it, but was stopped by a child who took it away and told her that she couldn’t read because she was a Negro. Around the age of ten, she was able to formally enter school at the Trinity Presbyterian Mission School in Maysville, South Carolina. Before she was able to decide what to do with her life, she started with educating others, and ultimately her love for teaching would guide…
Like Mamie’s situation, children of immigrants from all countries suffered the same consequences, even despite being born in America. Caucasians still believed themselves a superior race and distanced themselves from any acts to reintegrate diverse peoples into society. And even despite the court’s ruling, we see that there were clearly no consequences admitted to the board for sending Mamie to a school specifically for “Mongolian” children. Mary’s letter gives us a better understanding of how caucasians used their authority to justify unconstitutional acts of discrimination. Within the letter, she mentions that it is not because of Mamie’s appearance that she cannot attend public school, but by knowing she is of Chinese decent it makes her inadequate. At the time, America may have appeared to be heading towards acceptance, but instances like this only prove white Americans were still unwillingly to accept people of color. Mary then briefly brings the religious doings of the board into play, reminding these men that we are all God’s creation. Even though the religious remarks are cut short I believe they make this letter all the more important. This is something the church still struggles with today, people who claim to be Christian attend church on Sundays and then proceed to live their lives in whatever way they choose the…
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was born into an elite free black community in the 19th century. Due to her economically privileged upbringing, she was able to occupy positions of power and became a teacher, abolitionist and activist to diminish poverty among black Canadians. She left the United States in 1851 to flee to Canada in order to contribute in freeing black slaves and better the lives of women. Shadd Cary made tremendous contributions to women’s rights and the abolition of black slavery; although, the challenges prevailed and risks that she encountered from individuals with privilege ultimately were secluded due to the binary of racism and sexism. Shadd Cary’s consistent efforts to create a better…
A couple of challenges that Martha Bernal faced as she was getting her education stretched from family to race and sex. She was told by her father that her job as a woman was to stay home and care for the children and husband, she was able to convince her father, though, that she was doing the right thing, he soon supported her, but it wasn't his ideal idea. She was never motivated at school to take complex classes which made her believe this was the reason women do not move on with their education, this only made Bernal work even harder for her education. As she entered college she noticed a few more challenges where professors did not ask the female student body to assist them on research papers and the few that were chosen where usually white giving her less of a chance to participate as Bernal is from Mexican descent. She believed that the female student body was used to this behavior because of the lack of girls standing up and taking charge.…
Mary Pleasant, also widely referred to as “Mammy Pleasant”, is the considered Mother of Civil Rights in California due to her work with the Civil Rights movement during the 1860s. She was an icon during the Gold Rush and Gilded Age San Francisco because of her political power, mainly due to her large fortune and as well as her influence, in the cause and in her fellow citizens. Her achievements as an abolitionist went unmatched until the late 1960s, during which other laws regarding slavery were passed; although her achievements were surpassed, it was her work that helped set off the chain reaction of events that led to the greater triumphs of the Civil Rights movement. Following the Civil War, Pleasant brought her battles to the courts in the 1860s, and claimed a handful of human rights victories. One of those victories, Pleasant vs. North Beach & Mission Railroad Company, was heavily cited and advocated in the 1980s, which is the main reason behind why Pleasant is known today as “The Mother of Human Rights in California”. Pleasant was a woman of half African descent. She helped shape early San Francisco and furthered the Civil Rights movements. Her ability to “love across boundaries of race and class without losing sight of her goal –the equality for herself and her people” is what makes Pleasant the person that she was, and is what makes of her what people see her for today, as The Mother of Human Rights in California. (Pleasant’s Story)…
In my quest to interview someone for this research, I decided to interview Barbara Lyons. Barbara's heritage is Jamaican.…
When Ruby was five years old she was tested to be put in an all-white children elementary school. When her family received news that she could be accepted to learn at the school, her mother wanted Ruby to be able to get a god education. On November 16th 1960, Ruby and her mother were escorted by federal Marshals to her school where white people protested, threw objects, and screamed at her. Ruby was courageous as she walked and attended school. Ruby quoted “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has”. Ruby had one of the largest impacts on the nation through…
It is difficult to chart the stages of this urban earthquake or distinguish its aftershocks. But the initial tremors began when the U.S. Supreme Court released its ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954). In Brown, Chief Justice Earl Warren claimed that segregation is psychologically harmful to black children and implied that all-black classrooms are inherently inferior. Warren’s ambiguous opinion allowed lower courts and lawmakers to infer that stopping segregation was not enough, but that social justice depended upon integrating the races in school, at whatever cost to neighborhoods and to children, black and white.…
Melba Pattillo later wrote, “After three full days inside Central, I know that integration is a much bigger and better word than I thought.” But they returned to school every single day to persist in obtaining an equal education.…
Some bad influences in Brown V. Board of Education's life were part of the Racist people who didn't appreciate or feel that American's and the other race's children should not be allowed to have an education. Segregation in schools between White's and Black's has a greater effect on colored children, parents, and grown women and men. This terms has a greater effect because the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. Today EDUCATION is one of the most important functions of the and Local…
schooling for black and white students. Blacks did not learn the same, got the old…
What was the difference in funding that went into white schools compared to black schools in 1956? In fact black schools only received sixty percent of funding the funding white schools received. This funding ratio led to black schools having less money for teacher’s salaries. With having fewer teachers in turn, meant a low attendance rate for black schools. This reoccurrence frequently happened until a group of black students took a chance to change the school system for the better.…
On November 14th, 1960, federal marshals drove Ruby Bridges and her mother the five blocks to William Frantz Public School in New Orleans. Federal Marshals had to take Ruby because the city and state police didn't agree with mixing the white and black children and they wouldn't protect her. As she entered the school showing no fear at all, the marshals beside her, and the screaming and shouting surrounding her, Ruby Bridges was the first black child to enter an all-white school in the history of the American South. Ruby was taking a small step for her family, but a giant leap for…
Segregationists affirmed their right to local and self-governance; a right enumerated in the Constitution. Yet they did not take into account the disparate impact felt by students of color because of those policies. These students could not access the best or even acceptable schools, materials, or instructors in part because of segregation laws and in part because of how education in the U.S. is funded. Cooperative federalism is integral to this discussion due to local school districts receive federal funds and must therefore comply with the wishes of the federal government – but not all funds come from the federal government, much of the total allocation comes from local school and state taxes. It can be understood, then, why parents wish for their kids to go to neighborhood schools. And this practice would be perfectly acceptable if the bounds of school districts were not inextricably tied to the unfair housing practices that shaped them. The act of busing sought to override the demonstrable impacts red-lining had had on families of color. Not only had they been kept from taking advantage of the best schools and social services, they were unable to accumulate wealth in their neighborhoods. What grew out of these policies was an observable achievement gap between white and students of color. The gap was most greatly reduced in the era of intense integration – a time in which a myriad of policies were employed to achieve not only a court’s mandate, but one to our fellow Americans (Parents). Achievement needs not be a sum-zero game in which white students and parents lose when students and families of color rise. What changed in that period of successful integration was more than an amelioration of the achievement gap, but a changing of American values. If coercing students to go to minority heavy schools, to be…