John Hope Franklin A Train From Hate Analysis

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WHAT COMPELS YOU? Have you ever been in a situation where there was something that you really wanted to do, and you were told that by law you could not do it because of the color of your skin? What if what you wanted to do was drink from a water fountain, eat at a restaurant, or even just go to the bathroom, but you could not because you were wearing the wrong skin? Would you be upset and get angry about it? Luckily we do not have to endure this practice today in America due to some amazing leaders in that time who fought for what they believed to be morally right regardless what the law said. John Hope Franklin was one of these amazing leaders who experienced first hand the effects of racial segregation, and he stood up against it while enduring it with a peaceful attitude. In “A Train from Hate,” Franklin writes about an experience with racism and feels the need to write this…show more content…
Franklin was raised in the “all black town of Rentiesville, Oklahoma” (203), where he was exposed to racism at an early age. Society at that time was mainly based on race. After the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, different races were broken into social classes with African Americans at the bottom and whites at the top. This meant that blacks were treated as inferior to whites, and they could not do any activities with other races. In the essay “A Train from Hate,” Franklin and his mother were escorted off of a train because they mistakenly got on the whites only coach resulting in them having to walk home through the woods. Franklin wrote in his autobiography Mirror to America, “I endured the very strict segregation laws and practices in Tulsa, Oklahoma” (Durham). Franklin’s experience with racism and the role he played in society compelled him to write this essay. As he stated in the story, “My pilgrimage from racial apprehension— was early and brief”
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