In “Their Eyes Were Watching God” written by Zora Neale Hurston depicts how women such as Janie in the novel and African Americans general lived. In the novel it shows that many African Americans did not have the same freedoms as the white people did after slavery was abolished. When Slavery was abolished more and more African American Communities were starting to become more and more popular and segregation started. In this essay I will be talking about how the lifestyle of African Americans was depicted in the book “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, it shows an accurate depiction of how they really lived. The social impact of segregation was very damaging at the time for African American’s and America.
Blacks who lived in Montgomery faced segregation in their everyday life. Public facilities like schools, theatres, restaurants, parks, buses were divided according to the color of the skin. The law discriminated blacks in many ways; they were refused the right to register and participate in elections, through unjust jailing and executions. In addition they were banned from holding public offices and had very limited choice in terms of occupations they could perform ( Burns. “Daybreak of Freedom”, p.25) The segregation law of the bus system was one of the major areas of resentment among Montgomery blacks in that times.
We had to drink from separate water fountains, the whites ate in the restaurant and that blacks got their food in the back, we couldn’t go to the same school, etc. Basically as you can see we as an Africa-American had it pretty rough, and we couldn’t have anything they had, or do anything they did. Life Now in
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the result of mistreatment of African Americans using the public bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. For the black community, segregated seating had been a long source of resentment. African Americans were forced to pay their fares at the front of the bus then board the bus in the back. Individuals were arrested for refusing to give their seats to white patrons. Vernon Johns and Claudette Colvin were two examples.
She had to walk 20 blocks to school even though there was a school for white people two blocks from her home. The NAACP helped her father to bring a legal case against the education board. On 19 May 1954 the court declared that segregation was against the law and the constitution of the USA. The Board of Education of Topeka and every other education board were forced to bring segregation to an end. But many schools continued to refuse to implement this, and by 1956, in six southern states, not a single black child was attending any school where there were white children.
Papa must work away from home to earn himself a good salary to keep the Logan’s own land, rather than working as sharecroppers on someone else’s land. The second example of the callous segregation is evident, as it is seen that the “elite white community” have transport to school, while the harshly treated African Americans are deprived of this service, and are forced to walk to school. Also, the whites are inconsiderate, intentionally splashing mud on the blacks’ clothes. The Berry’s burnings is a significant incident revealing the cruel manner the white community behave towards the African Americans, burning them taking “a match to them,” without any justifiable reason, portraying the discrimination between the people. At school, an important instance of racism takes place, when the students of the black school, The Great Faith Elementary School, received “new” books.
(Griffin, 1996:45) This example is an illustration of the norm as it states that the Negro population is treated extremely poorly and includes racist remarks, cutting and defaming names for who the Negroes are. It speaks to the conditions they are subjected to, inclusive of what most people would take for granted, a place to eat and access to a bathroom. Another example from Black Like Me of a Norm, is when Griffin went to the bus station to purchase a bus ticket and the ticket seller did not even want to serve him or even look at him. Pg 50 “When the lady ticket-seller saw me, her otherwise attractive face turned sour,violently so. The look was so
Though the desegregation of schools in North Carolina granted blacks access to better educational resources and wealthier scholastic opportunities, the resultant dilution and erosion of the black educational community devastated its resolve and essential coherence. These negative effects of integration are only somewhat less visible even today. Black-only schools operated under astounding inequity before integration. With white schools hogging state funds, black administrators turned to their communities for support. When George Miller was principal in Wilkes County, NC, the community struggled to support the schools with funds, equipment, and food for the cafeteria.# Still, communities could provide very little, so educators adjusted their educational focus.
Black people in America had still hope for the future. the black people in America stood up for their rights and fought for their freedom. They developed brotherhood and love, and didn’t lose hope. The thing which was really unacceptable for them was their failure to enjoy their basic rights, like other people, even though they lived in their country. the black people in America suffered from the police interference in their lives and were even imprisoned even though they were not guilty.
In order for her to get to school she had to walk. (Rosa Parks Bus, TheHenryFord.org) This was because the elementary schools bus system would not pick up the little black children, because they were not to be with the whites on the bus. As Rosa began to get older, she was then experiencing types of racism and segregation between the whites and the blacks. (Rosa Parks Bus, TheHenryFord.org) Due to her mother and grandmothers illness Rosa was needed at home, so she had to drop out of school. When Rosa was nine-teen she met Mr. Raymond Parks, who later became her husband in 1932.