Jim Crow Essay by XiMuoi

By one life, live it


Jessica Hoang
3/27/2015
4A
Jim Crow Essay
            Did you know there are currently more slaves today than at any time in history? Well there are and what do you think about when you hear the word slavery? I think of African Americans. I’ve been hearing things about how they were enslaved, how badly they’ve been treated, and how they were discriminated about since elementary school. Discrimination is a treatment of making a distinction in favor or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category and Jim Crow is the act of discrimination. African Americans did many things like sit-ins, demonstrations, and protests to influence people to stop discriminating and many were killed but many succeeded. It was individuals, groups and public opinion that ultimately led to federal legislation that outlawed discrimination because an excerpt from “He Had a Dream” by Coretta King, the “Segregation At All Cause” video, and MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail proves to us that it took a lot more than just individuals, groups, or public opinion to outlaw discrimination.

            According to an excerpt from “He Had a Dream” by Coretta Scott King, an individual, a SCLC member, led a group of adults from the New Pilgrim Baptist Church to the police barricade. They knelt in the street and prayed. African Americans have been making efforts of trying to gain the rights that they deserve for a long time and this is just an example of that and then they walked forward and were hosed down, beat and bit by Billups’s people and dogs “His people shouted, ““Turn on the water! Loose the dogs! We ain’t going back. Forgive them, Oh Lord””. As a result, of the struggles in Birmingham, President Kennedy reassessed the position of his administration and decided to propose a civil rights bill in 1963. Coretta Scott King stated that Dr.King’s strategy in going to Birmingham was to focus national attention on the struggles that African American go through.

                In the “Segregation At All Cause” video, there were pictures and videos of African Americans getting beat and hosed down by white men and bit by dogs.  Basically a more visual version of what Coretta was describing. The media had a huge role in the process of outlawing discrimination. They deliver “the message” that the individuals and the groups are trying to send out to the public. Videos like these inform them about the difficulties that African Americans go through to gain something as simple as getting to drink from the same water fountain and as serious as voting. After seeing actions like these, more individuals will join groups to change things.
                Some say nobody has a part in any of the killing of Jim Crow. People say that over time, people’s minds change and the people themselves change but that’s completely wrong. From the excerpt of the Alabama Clergymen’s letter, they told the African Americans to do things peacefully and wait for the results. MLK responds with A Letter from Birmingham Jail saying that “Justice delayed is justice denied”, meaning that there is no waiting, and it’s either now or never. With that said, there was no “over time, people’s minds change”, the mistreated citizens actually took matter into their own hands and did what they had to do. Individuals led groups, groups as a whole got the national attention/ public opinion that outlawed discrimination.
                Individuals, groups, and public opinion ultimate led to federal legislation that outlawed discrimination. The description written by Coretta and videos of Billups’s horrifying actions and also MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail proves that it didn’t take one person or one group or one’s opinion to kill Jim Crow, it took all of them combine. Coretta wrote about Billups’s action to show the people what horrible things are happening to the individuals and groups, the videos shows us visually what Coretta is trying to describe and MLK tells us that it’s time and we, individuals and groups, will take matter into our own hands and show the public what we want and are willing to do to get what we deserve.

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