Preview

Richard Gunn: A Servant Heart

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1596 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Richard Gunn: A Servant Heart
English 102

9/23/13
Richard Gunn: A Servant Heart

Richard Gunn was a man that grew up in Kansas City, Kansas but after passing the BAR exam moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1948 to practice law as an attorney, there he became well ingrained in the Cleveland community and saw the Negros around the area go up and down with the jobs and positions that were being held by these people. It was a trying time for these people as they were trying to get their civil rights more established in American society and not just words on a paper. Gunn wanted to help these people that could not fend for themselves and through that he became involved in the educational change in the Cleveland school district trying to get Negro teachers to be allowed to teach at private schools, get young negro students into private schools, that quality education not just be given to the white people, and then getting into the business world of Negros starting their own companies. Richard Gunn was a driven man that fostered changes in how the school system works in Cleveland and along with helping Negro business owners succeed; he did this through his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Congress of Racial Equality.
With that being said, Dunn gave up his job as an attorney to help the civil right movement in Cleveland. He had a passion for education and was set on making all education equal for everyone and not just the privileged. The way that he helped do this was by helping several different movements in particular the United Freedom Movement. This was an organization that’s goal was to “examine the areas of education, housing, employment, health and welfare, and voting and political participation, as they related to blacks in Cleveland.” (Encyclopedia of Cleveland History) This group was key in the Freedom March on 14 July 1963 and its success. That march drew of 20,000 people to Cleveland Stadium. Not everything was so peaceful during these

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    to involve himself in civil rights affairs. This decision made him lose many of his white…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chapter 6 discusses The Triumph of Racism. In this chapter there is an essay entitled, The Birth Of “Seperate but Equal” . This article describes the struggles that were continually encountered in the endeavor to gain racial equality. In particular the struggles of a man named Plessy and the advances that he helped to make are discussed and described. Homer Plessy was born free in March of 1862, in New Orleans. Although there were still definite segregations laws, New Orleans had fewer social restrictions about intermingling between whites and blacks, compared to other Southern states. In the years shortly following Plessy’s birth, the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment were ratified, all dealing with the rights of all United States born citizens in regards to liberty, property, and the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    had a lot of past experience with white supremacy, along with having a religious father. His past experiences with discrimination against himself and his family, Combined with his Father’s religious ideals of equality, are most likely what influenced him to fight for racial equality, and this influence was likely further influenced by his time spent in college becoming a pastor.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In post-reconstruction America, many Black writers, ministers, teachers and others eloquently argued on behalf of freedom and justice for Black Americans, advocating various strategies for achieving racial and economic equality. Two such leaders who helped shape the political discourse were Ida B. Wells and Booker T. Washington. Urging politically divergent approaches, they both wanted African American people and men in particular, to be valued and respected by the white south. However, they differed significantly in the means by which they believed such change would come about. Ida B. Wells told the truth in a way that made many whites uncomfortable, addressing lynching and other racially motivated atrocities directly and proposing that African Americans collectively leverage economic power through strikes and boycotts, and individually protect themselves from lynches with weapons. In contrast, Washington was more conciliatory, appealing to whites to give African Americans the opportunity to prove their technical capacity and participate alongside whites as legitimate economic partners. While the “gradualist” gained unprecedented access to formal political power through his white benefactors, I believe Ida B. Wells’ argument that African Americans stop conceding power to whites was more persuasive in advancing racial equality for African Americans in post-reconstruction America.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of his political beliefs was that if blacks were educated and trained industrially it could reduce the hostility from…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Washington was the nation’s most influential black leader. He had access to the most powerful political and business leaders in the United States. He would even become an advisor to the President. Washington was a former slave with no money who, with help; taught himself to read; was a very religious person; always the top student in his class; worked his way through school, and people admired him. Washington soothed white people and reassured black Americans as he counseled conciliation, patience, and agricultural and mechanical training as the most effective means to bridge the racial divide. His 1895 speech at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta elicited praise from both white and black listeners. (Darlene Clark Hine, et al., The African-American Odyssey, p. 443) Washington cleverly spoke in a way to raise up black aspirations without making white people fearful enough to kill and change laws. The south was only three decades out of the Civil War, and one of every three people was black. Many blacks in the south were kept illiterate and impoverished. Washington told whites that if they kept this up they will also be down. But, if they help lift blacks up, they and their community will also be lifted. He advised blacks to not be so distressed where they could not see the opportunity around them, and that their destiny was in the south. He also stated to cast down their buckets where they were in areas of trades and mechanics to live by production with their hands. During this time, black white collar workers such as lawyers could not find much work. Washington thought being a doctor was great, but stated; don't miss the opportunity in front of you right now. Washington also expressed to whites that black people have never treated them wrong and since their destiny rest in blacks, stop brutalizing them and help blacks get an education. Whites, at this time, feared blacks would vote and take over. Washington told whites…

    • 1842 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the years of segregation after it was made that colored people were allowed to go to colleges and have an education Thurgood Marshall had gone to Howard University School of Law (magna cum laude) to work in the field of law and begins private practice in Baltimore. When Thurgood Marshall fought for equality he used previous cases he worked to defend his position that he could be the person to work cases for racial equality in the Supreme Court. Marshall used his words of experience to prove that he indeed had much experience even as a colored man. Thurgood Marshall inspires people by being brave and working his way to obtain his high position even though he wasn't privileged. Marshall also inspired people by showing them there was…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    why he was in Birmingham and why racial segregation needed to be changed now. He…

    • 836 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prudence Crandall tried to open a school for young girls that were African American and white but the public did not welcome this idea. Prudence was put on trial for breaking the local laws in particular the one limiting education for African American students. Unfortunately she had to stop her plans for opening the school due to repeated badgering of her students and people trying to burn the school down. Also for African American families it was hard for husbands to support their families due to racism. They were not paid as much as white men and there were immigrants that worked for a much lower wage which made it easier to not pay them as much. Due to this African Americans would not be able to obtain a middle-class…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Stokely Carmichael

    • 2211 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Stokely Carmichael came to the United States in 1952 at the age of eleven, and by the time he turned 13 he became a naturalized citizen. When Stokely was fifteen he was accepted to the prestigious Bronx High School, this is where he was introduced to a different social set than what he was accustomed to, now he was surrounded by New York City’s rich white liberal elite. He learned very early on of the racial differences that divided him from his classmates and began to develop his thinking of what was wrong with the separation of races not only in his school, but also in the nation itself. He stated that, “Now that I realize how phony they all were, how I hate myself for it. Being liberal was an intellectual game with these cats. They were still white, and I was black.1”…

    • 2211 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    eventually because of his passion he was able to help abolish segregation in our country. There…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thurgood Marshall

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Thurgood Marshall was a great African American Civil Rights activist who changed a lot of lives in the United States. As a passionate lawyer and prominent Supreme Court justice he fought for Civil Rights and social justice in the courts and believed that racial integration is best for all schools. Very early in his professional life Marshall broke down racial barriers and overcame resistance despite the odds. He then became a role model of the disciplined leader, although he didn’t have the religious qualities or charisma as Martin Luther King. However, in terms of achievements, most of us would agree that he should be ranked next to Martin Luther King Jr. Thurgood was particularly famous for winning the Brown vs. Board of Education case, where the Supreme Court case had said that black children should go to school with white children. He helped many Americans win their civil rights, which is one of the many unique qualities that marked Marshall’s accomplishments. Those who knew Thurgood Marshall could specifically testify to his other vocations, some of which included the training and mentoring of young lawyers, thereby helping them to achieve their potentials.…

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Brown Abolitionist

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Brown’s raid revealed a deep division between the North and the South. As a historical figure and symbol John Brown was complicated, debatable, and dangerous. Blacks had seen Brown as a hero believing his only rival was Lincoln, Brown was a white man who identified himself with enslaved Negroes and he showed no prejudice and he didn’t doubt putting his life at risk to liberate them. On another hand to white settlers Brown had forcefully taken the rule of law and had tried to spark a murderous slave revolt. By the 1900s. Negroes lived in the land and lived terribly scared in the white mind, as a “degenerated” race that the whites controlled through the separation of people by race and religion and by murder.…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Several facets of life display unequal treatment and perception of African- Americans. The economic divisions between white and black Americans are vast and shocking. The unemployment rate for Black men, 15 percent, is more than twice that of their white counterparts at 7 percent. African-Americans age 20-24 are even worse off with an unemployment rate of 23 percent (Norris 94-95). Even the children are affected by racial injustice; black children are much more likely to live in areas of concentrated poverty. Forty-five percent of black children are in poverty compared to 12 percent of white children (Plumer). These statistics show MLK’s dream has not yet been realized.…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thurgood Marshall Speech

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Many people know Thurgood Marshall as the first African American Supreme Court justice. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908, Marshall was raised in segregation and believed himself to be a Southerner. Upon graduation from law school he opened a practice in Baltimore. With limited opportunities for African Americans during the Depression, he became member of the local NAACP branch in an attempt to spread his name in the community. From 1938 and into the early 1960’s Marshall, beginning at the age of 32, served as the chief attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and directed litigation for the advancement of legal rights for African Americans. He argued several civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, with the most famous case as a lawyer for the NAACP being, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. This case was the corner stone of desegregation in public schools. The Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” did not pertain to public education, because separate could never be…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays