"The only penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain questions" (page 23 narrative) what this quote means to me is that no matter what racial segregation will always continue. He was punished for answering truthfully to questions thinking that he might have gotten away easy. Unfortunately it didn't happen. The second important quote is "The whisper that my master was my father" in this quote he is expressing how he feels like he has been working as a slave for an unconsidering long time and has now believed that the whisper of his master is his…
Since Mr. Curry is an African American male, he can personally identify with the main audience. In doing such, he appeals to nomos. Mr. Curry employs emotionally charged language to bring focus to the maleficent actions continuously occurring across the nation. However, Mr. Curry is also an editor, so he is cognizant on the ways to emotionally motivate people and/or call them to action. The writer uses his background to his advantage by citing multiple occasions where the lynching has taken place and the style in which he organizes his writing. The writer begins by defining lynching and introducing some background information on who it affects and how long it has taken place. He then moves into a more emotional state by citing the terrible things the African Americans are forced to endure on a daily basis. The author once again accentuates his point by providing a plethora of dates with examples of lynching. However, the author also applies these dates and intense diction to call attention to the evil that racist people are condoning and even playing a part in the lynching. Mr. Curry strategically crafts this essay to display the monstrosity that is the racist population, and to hopefully bring about an end to this terrorism. Not only is this a call to action, this is a call to end evil…
At the Hands of Persons Unknown, a novel by Philip Dray, is a decisive explanation to the past multiple acts of lynching in America. In the past, Caucasians were seen as superior to African Americans. Lynching was one of the many acts that gave whites this superiority. The gruesome act of lynching was overlooked by the nation as a whole. People didn’t think anything of it and some seen it as entertainment. At the Hands of Persons Unknown could be seen as a tool to open up the eyes of people and show how serious lynching was in its time.…
"But I also hated Negroes. I hated them for not standing up and doing something about the murders. In fact, I think I had a stronger resentment toward Negroes for letting the whites kill them than toward whites. Anyways it was at this stage in my life that I began to look upon Negro men as cowards" (pg 136)…
Lewis Allen was a Jewish man, a school teacher and also a member of the American communist party which was risky and unusual in its self at the time of the 1930’s. Allen was inspired to right by a photograph of a lynching he saw that shocked him. The subject matter of the poem is about the lynching of African Americans in Americas south. Allen saw the harsh injustices of racism and how it was generational “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.” He protested against racism in order to create a desire in society for social…
Lynching was a common practice in the south during the late 19th century. At first it was used as a way to serve justice for crimes. But it quickly evolved; whites used lynching as a way to control the African-American population with the fear of being killed. These events were not isolated what so ever. The events occurring following the Robert Charles manhunt in New Orleans are a prime example of how lynching was not isolated to the perpetrator at all. Charles was being wrongfully arrested and retaliated. After injuring one of the officers and escaping, the…
As an African American, growing up during The Reconstruction of the late 1800s, many white Americans looked down upon blacks due to the sole fact that they were perceived by man as, untame,simple-witted beasts. In addition to this, as a child growing up, he learned to associate blackness with negativity and subsequently strove to emulate those who were of the Anglo-Saxon race. Johnson does a marvelous job of illustrating this phenomenon in the scene in which the narrator had been the target of racial slurs by his Caucasian classmates. At this moment, the narrator is distraught and goes and confesses all that had happened to him to his mother. “Tell me, mother, am I a nigger? There were tears in her eyes, and I could tell she was suffering for me.....(she responds) No my darling, you are not a nigger. She went on to say that “ You are as good as anybody; if anyone calls you a nigger don't notice them. The more she talked the less I was reassured...Well, mother, am I white, are you white? She answered Tremblingly “ No I am not white but-you-your father is one of the greatest men in the country- the best blood of the South is in you.” (pg 12) This exchange shows, that the mother is sheltering her son from the fact that he is black and indirectly informing him that white is good and to associate blackness…
The events leading up to the shooting of Michael Brown on August 9th, 2014 occurred as such.…
This essay will discuss the connection between the protest movement in Selma, Alabama and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In addition, it will cover the roles in which the Alabama law officials, the national media attention, and the demonstrators from out of state played in the passage of the Voting Rights Act.…
Prejudice and discrimination are found across the entire world. For example, my dad once showed me the song, “Strange fruit”, it sounds like a silly name but actually leads up to gruesome metaphor about lynching in the South. The song lyrics describe the dead bodies so well that they almost make me sick. They describe the look of the hanging corpses with“The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth”. The song ends in silence after the singer refers back to the fruit metaphor with “Here is a strange and bitter fruit”. The ending haunts the listener and brings them back to think about the violence that resulted from prejudice. The subjects in to kill To Kill A Mockingbird perfectly describe the violence resulting from prejudice. In To Kill a Mockingbird,…
In his letter, Martin Luther King Jr. appeals to the reader’s emotions by describing the harsh realities that many African American individuals faced. In this instance, Martin Luther King Jr. vividly illustrates the ruthless violence inflicted onto innocent individuals just because of their different skin color. He states various atrocious occurrences that…
Imagine, if you will, a gathering of one thousand people, or more, in Mississippi in the year 1904. An event that would look much like a 4th of July picnic in Any Small Town U.S.A. Men, women, and children all gathered together, snacking on deviled eggs drinking lemonade or whiskey. This was the scene in Doddsville Mississippi on February 7th, 1904. A passerby could have easily mistaken the unusually large group gathered around the tree on that day for a happy celebration. And while there were smiles on faces and laughter there was nothing joyous about the occasion, at least not for Luther Holbert or his wife. Although they were the stars of the gathering and the main attraction they were in no way the guests of honor, because on February 7th, 1904 they were lynched.…
It's been 24 years since the Rodney King riots of 1992. The same riot that claimed many cars, houses, buildings and stores that people hold dear to them that were turned into ash and ruble. All caused by one police beating of Rodney G. King that was caught on camera that sparked racial injustices throughout the African American community that increases their anger and resentment more. However, on April 29, 1992 when the two cops that were responsible for the beating were placed as not guilty for what they did, it sparked chaos two hour later. The first violent act that was made at Florence and Normandie when people were throwing beer cans and bottles at moving cars out of anger, but they backed off. Although they backed off, a few hour after…
This scenario was all too common for African Americans all throughout the United States in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. More specifically, 4,743 innocent African Americans were killed during this time period (“Lynching Statistics”). This atrocity only furthered African American resentment towards their white oppressors, which made their rebellion a very violent affair.…
Gibson, R. A. (2012). The Holocaust:Lynching and Race in the United States, 1880-1950. Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html…