My Soul Is Rested free essay sample

Option B The Civil Rights Movement in the United States refers to a set of events and reform movements in that country aimed at bringing to an end public and private acts of racial discrimination and racism against African Americans between 1954 to 1968, Whenever the civil rights is brought up there are names that almost always come to mind like Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks. But there are others both black and white that participated in the movement. That are not as famous or not mentioned in history but played a major part in the movement. The book My Soul Is Rested by Howell Raines is a good book that shows exactly from first encounter interviews what went on during the civil rights movement. It has many important interviews that come from the people’s actual point of view of the history of events. Everything that went on during the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, some of the actual people that participated in the sit-ins, what went on during the Freedom rides and, the campaigns on the school and university integrations Some of the people associated with movement and give an eye witness summary of what went down are student, News reporters, Black and white activist, Lawyers and government officials, and Politicians. We will write a custom essay sample on My Soul Is Rested or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The way the book is laid out is that everything that happened or said is from the people that witnessed and lived it. The book is not focused on one point of view or in a way that the author wants you to take or view what happened under his perspective but in a way that when you read the interviews and recollections, you feel what is going on from the unknown point of view. It puts you in the shoes of the interviewee and makes you see exactly what they are going through. The achievement of the legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in the year 1954, rejected separate white and colored school systems and by implication overturned the separate but equal doctrine established in Plessy vs. Ferguson. This victory paved the way for integration and the civil rights movement. But many governors and business men where persistent in letting this happen. As a result a lot of schools shut down rather than put up with integration. Autherine Lucy Foster was the first black student to attend the University of Alabama, in 1956. In 1952, Pollie Ann Myers, and Autherine Lucy foster decided to attend the University of Alabama as a graduate student but, knowing that admission would be difficult due to the Universitys admission policies, she and Myers came up to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for help. On June of 1955, the NAACP secured a court order preventing the University from rejecting their admission applications based upon their race. Days later, the court amended the order to apply to all other African-American students seeking admission. The Supreme Court upheld this in Lucy v. Adams on October 10, 1955. On the very eve of the day Lucy and her friend were to register, her friend got rejected from admissions but Lucy was accepted. Unfortunately, she was banned from all dormitories and dining halls. Lucy enrolled as a graduate student in library science, becoming the first Negro ever admitted to a white public school or university in the state. Her first day of school went good. She sat in front of the class and everything went normal. â€Å"He acts like I’m not here† Is what she said of her professor. (My Soul Is Rested, 325) On the third day of classes, a hostile mob including the Klan assembled to prevent Lucy attending classes. She was escorted out her class as the mob said â€Å"Lets Kill her, Lets kill her,† When asked of what she heard the mob say was â€Å"Hey Hey Ho, where in the hell did Audrey go? Hey Hey Ho, where in the hell did that Nigger go? † (My Soul Is Rested, 327) Lucy was suspended and later expelled for her own safety thee university said. Hamilton Holmes along with Charlayne Hunter was the first two African-American students admitted to the University of Georgia. They where denied their admission to the university but after an eighteen month court battle. Where accepted inside the university. He described his situation by saying. â€Å"I felt that I would be letting down myself and also a lot of other people if I did not accept the challenge. But I tell you, I almost didn’t go, I almost didn’t leave. † (My Soul Is Rested, 334) On one of his days in school he had an incident with the local fraternity KA, They had blocked his vehicle as he was attending class. As he came out and moved the blocked cars, the ringleader of the frat came out and wanted to start trouble with Hamilton Holmes. â€Å"Man, Look, I don’t want any trouble, but if that’s what you want, I’m ready. † He turned around, and he said talking to the boys, â€Å"He sure is talking big ain’t he? (My Soul Is Rested, 335) He managed to scare off the KA boys by pretending to have a gun. His experience in school was not a really welcoming one but after the incident, he did not have any real problems with anyone because they thought he had a gun. Herbert Jenkins was a police chief in Atlanta. He joined the force in 1932 and was made chief in 1947. He was also a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He was assigned as a d river for the mayor in which he had to meet with black people really often. This changed his point of view towards blacks. He said â€Å"†¦. I took a completely different view of this entire situation, because this was the first time I had ever had an opportunity to meet black people that I recognized as better educated, had traveled more, were better off financially than I was, across the board. †. (My Soul Is Rested, 352) He was a good friend of Martin Luther King Sr. He would hear rumors of false accusations about Martin Luther King Jr that he was adopted and that he was smuggled into the united states. He was even contacted by the FBI in trying to do some dirty work for them. On one occasion they wanted to catch Dr King with a white woman in a hotel room only to find out that they were there on a meeting. His cooperation with blacks led the Georgia legislature to pass a bill to take away his police pension. Through it all, he served as chief for 25 years until retiring in 1972 driving the city through racial conflict during the desegregation of public transportation, public schools and parks. he was able to bring all parties to the table helping Atlanta progress mostly peacefully through channels that weaken the other Southern cities. Reporters had it bad. Some Reporters like Richard Veleriani was a diplomatic correspondent with NBC news. In one situation when he was reporting when a man walked behind him and hit him with an Ax handle. They hit him on the side of the head where the bone is at rather than on the top of the head. Richard was stunned and saw that he was bleeding. He r ecalls the conversation with the man that tried to help him. Do you need a doctor? † and I, in a daze looked at my hand and said â€Å"Yes, I think I do. I’m bleeding. † And then he looked at me, he stared me in the face with this ugly look, and he said, â€Å"We don’t have doctors for people like you. † (My Soul Is Rested, 372) Others like Wendell Hoffman, which was the first camera man to be at Selma. Was attacked while he was filming. He recalls that â€Å"They had sticks in their hands, and they were attempting to hit me in the testicles with their sticks, and I was carrying a camera†¦.. And the next time I came to Selma, I went to a store and bought one of these jockstraps†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (My Soul Is Rested, 385) Nelson Benton, a news correspondent in Selma on bloody Sunday for CBS wrote â€Å"†¦.. The film was too graphic†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦We spent the whole afternoon intercutting violence. † (My Soul Is Rested, 386) The civil rights movement was a battle that everyone fought and was affected by. Many organizations such as the SNCC, NAACP, and the SDS were really active in the Civil Rights Movement fought for the struggle which was more than just civil rights under the law. They fought for the fundamental issues of freedom, respect, economic and social equality. They achieved legislative victory in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale of buying or renting a house. In a political system, after a status had been reached in which every citizen has the same rights by law, the issues of discrimination remains. Even if every person is treated equally by the state, there will never be equality due to discrimination within our society. Works Cited Davis, Townsend (1998). Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 311 Howell Raines (1983) My Soul Is Rested: The Story Of The Civil Rights Movement In The Deep South. New York Penguin Books. Http://www. watson. org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/ Http://www. voicesofcivilrights. org/project. html