Who would put their son’s desecrated body on display for all public to see? Mamie Till would. Her son, fourteen year-old Emmett Till, was visiting his relatives in Mississippi where he was kidnapped, murdered, and ditched in the Tallahatchie River by two white men for wolf-whistling at a white woman. These men were tried and found not guilty. Till’s mother, Mamie, fought back with one intention; to bring justice on her son’s death which would later be etched in the American Civil Rights History.…
32 “Well its actually happening ma’, I’m goin’ back to school.”Rufus said. “I want you to know, I truly am proud of you Rufus.” His mother replied. Curtis and Janet went to a different school then Rufus but he still walked them to school then walked himself to school. On his way to school a car followed him very slowly but Rufus kept walking. When he got to school it looked the same on the outside that it always had. Rufus pushed open the doors at Searingtown School and yelled “I’m back!” All of his friends ran over to hug him. He went down to the office to get a tour he thought he didn’t need because he remembered every single solitary thing about this place. While the tour was going on everything going on was a blur. He looked left, right and left again, admiring the changes the school had made. “Wow” he sighed. “Is there a problem Rufus?” the tour guide asked. Rufus answered, “When I was here the wall paint was all chipped, there were broken windows and holes in the walls.” “Oh ok, well that concludes our tour and this door on your right is your first period class.” The tour guide replied. Rufus walked in and sat at an available seat at the back of the class room. He opened his notebook and took notes even though he didn’t understand anything that was going on. By the time 5th period came around it was time for lunch he was starving. All of his friends called him over and asked him to sit with him. Momma didn’t make him a big lunch because they didn’t have that much food in the house and then needed to split it 3 different ways. Allison who used to have a big crush on Rufus sat right next to him. Mitchell and Charlie sat across from him and Christina, Alisha and Sammy sat around them. When the bell rang he went to his locker and when he got to class he looked out the window and saw the same car that followed him to school. The only person he thought of was Simon. But he didn’t have a car? Rufus ran to the office to explain the…
What makes a true hero? Joseph Campbell created the cycle of the “hero’s journey” and many popular books and movies today fit the requirements of this cycle closely. The video states that this cycle is like a clock, starting and ending with status quo, however, the ending status quo is changed from the beginning as a result of the hero’s actions (What Makes A Hero?). Following the cycle of the “hero’s journey”, Creighton Brown can rightly be named as a true hero as he is taken to an unfamiliar land, receives guidance from an older, wiser mentor, and throughout the story undergoes changes and develops into a new person.…
I suddenly realized that no one could ever find out. Rushing to my car I flung the door open and got inside. Racing home I felt the nerves stream through my body. Inside the house I gradually walked to my bedroom and stepped inside. Creeping over to the loose floorboard I felt the sweat drip from my palm. Kneeling down I moved the old board aside and picked up the substantial object. The leather brown sides felt rough as I gently ran my fingers over it. Gathering my thoughts I brought myself to open the ominous object. The bold black letters appeared to be more frightening than I thought. Jaxson Eugene Brown emerged from the thick yellow page and sent a shiver down my back. As I continued to read the frightening book the last sentence almost stopped me in my tracks. May 1st, 2016 Jaxson Eugene Brown will be pronounced dead.…
Phil Robinson is a Philadelphia naïve, at a young age he was introduced to fashion by his father. His father was very strict on presenting yourself in a classy stylish way. He was about his boys looking neat, being clean and well groomed as we grew from boys to men. I took that guidance and as I got older I decided it was something I wanted to share with just not my son, but with many others also. Style is in my blood, I've been doing it for years for family, friends, etc. Helping kids is my passion and always has been. So here is just my small avenue where I can combine both of the things that I enjoy most to create a positive…
It was a casual August afternoon in Minneapolis, people walking the down the sidewalk, strangers passing by. We were visiting my old hometown. I was walking with Beth, and we were messing around. I used to have an inside joke with one of my friends from fifth grade, “Girl you need to chill.” It stuck once I moved. Anyway, Beth had just told me to chill, so, I walked into the nearest cold building. Which of course, ended up being a meat locker… 15 minutes later I was coming out and saw an all too familiar pair of square glasses. Before I could see her face, she turned away. Her bleached tip hair swung across her shoulders. The dark skin, the hair and glasses, it had to be Miracle Brown. This is the girl who was one of my best friends in sixth grade. She started heading down the street, so I told Beth to meet me back at our hotel.…
In the first day of school, Michael had scored zero for the quiz that given by his class teacher because he did not study those knowledge before. In school, Michael had no White friends except for Sean Junior Tuohy because of his body colour;…
When I was a child, my favorite movie was The Wizard of Oz. Out of all of Dorothy’s friends, the Cowardly Lion was probably my least favorite. He had gone to ask the Wizard for courage and I didn’t understand why. Others wanted tangible items such as a brain or a heart and yet he wanted courage. I had thought of courage as something that you just dug down and found within yourself when you needed it not something not just a material thing that was necessary to live like a brain or a heart. Courage is something I always felt I had within, but it was confirmed within myself when my school hit major news over racial issues.…
Here i am sitting in the kitchen cutting me up some potatoes for dinner my daughters in the back room, She says “MOM!! COME!! HERE!!”. So i'm listening and it says “ A black african american woman has been arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery city Bus” As i'm sitting there thinking it pops up in my head that she works with me, I work at an Montgomery ward as a semingtris. We use to call her Miss Rosa. On the radio they said that they took her to jail. I would have bailed miss Rosa out if I had the money but I didn't miss Rosa was a Beautiful african american woman and she was very nice. A day after her arrest i heard on the radio that a Black man named Edgar Nixon had bailed Miss Rosa out of jail a…
I lived in Hollywood, FL for nine years to long. It was circumstantial how I wound up there. It was not a pleasant experience. I went to Florida niave. I thought that the blacks from different parts of the world got along. I was in for a rude awakening. My family goes back to be an American every since colonization. I felt like an outsider in America an I’m a veteran. I experienced prejudice and stereo typing from both the men an the women. I t would pain me to see how other black Americans were treated. Most of the black americans families migrated from Mississippi, Alabama and the Carolins. The majority of the Islanders lived in their own commities like Mirramor, Little Hatti and…
There has been many cases in which I have helped an outsider feel welcome. One time in particular is when I played tag with this little boy at church since he was new and no one else played with him. Originally, I was outside eating candy and talking to my friends at church. I noticed that this little boy was standing all alone watching all the other little kids play without him. I thought that maybe he was upset so I went over to him and asked if he wanted the rest of my gummy worms. He seemed nervous at first, but eventually he started talking to me. I learned that he was five years old and he was visiting his grandparents for the weekend. His older brother was outside playing basketball with some of the other older boys at the church, and…
Allow me to introduce myself; I am the eldest offspring of two children born to the late Harold and Louise Glenn on September 26, 1957, in Philadelphia, PA. I was born Stephanie Marie Glenn, so named at the discretion of my father as a tribute to a very close colleague of his, named Stephen, and my paternal grandmother, Marie Culver.…
I grew up in Freedom, North Dakota as Marissa Frank. It was a dull November day, when my life would change forever. I was in the middle of a test in science class when a large man came into the classroom. He whispered something to the teacher and then asked me to go into he hallway with him. He told me that I would need to bring all my stuff with me down to the police station and that they had a few questions to ask me.…
Today was the day. Packed to the point of bursting open with new notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, and textbooks, he readied me for school. Instead of bouncing around as rambunctious young boys do, he trudged slowly in a peculiar meter of half-steps toward the doorway. He was living a new life in a new school that was filled with people who might as well have been aliens to him.…
It was August 28, 1963. Mom was yelling and holding up her “Martin Luther King, a liar, a troublemaker” sign. Next to her were my brother and my dad, they just mumbled and cursed. While everyone cheered and jumped for joy when Dr. King uttered the words, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood”, it was like my whole family rolled their eyes simultaneously. All but me, I was the only one who thought that every man should have equal rights regardless of their race, beliefs, gender (etc…). I sided with the rest of the people at the Lincoln Memorial who believed in equal rights.…