Essay On African American Family

Fear and love often go hand in hand creating some of the ugliest situations in life. It is human nature to fear the unknown; often that fear arises when something we love is jeopardized. As Hirman Hillburn watches the events pertaining to the brutal murder of the innocent African American boy Emmet Till, he discovers that the South he craved for from his past has more flaws to it than meets a child-like eye. Through the view of an outsider in a segregated society, along with a mix of unconditional family love and clashing beliefs, we see the moral struggle humanity faces when its identity is put into question. From the start of Mississippi Trial the family tension is extremely noticeable between the fathers and sons of the Harlan family due to different idea’s on segregation and African Americans. It was a given that the family had a very stubborn tendency to stick to their own beliefs as described by Grampa “ neither one of us is willing to make an effort to understand each other” (p. 113). Is it in that stubbornness that one can observe the fear of change. Grampa’s hesitancy from breaking from the comfort of his belief in segregation and Harlan’s change of ideas about the South disconnected the bond between father and son. Grampa’s racist mindset and Harlan's progressive thinking did not
Humanity is reluctant to give up our beliefs and ways, even if they are at the cost of others happiness and well-being. This illustrates the overall cowardly attitude towards change many of us have. Hiram Hillburn breaks that cowardliness by stepping head first into the most heated trial in the South to portray that all it takes is a change of perspective and bravery to create big changes. Nothing is more frightening than feeling excluded and exiled, but it is needed to create to bring justice and change in worlds stuck in their own