Ishmael Beah has given himself to the issue of exploited children in armed conflict and has taken on an active role in its elimination. “You can’t understand a war without having a human context,” said Beah to the Webster University community who had gathered to hear him speak. “I wanted to write this book to put a human face to the story.” A Long Way Gone chronicles Beah’s life in Sierra Leone before, during, and after the civil war. Beah became a child soldier at the ripe age of 13 and would commit terrible acts against humanity. But it also tells of how Beah was rescued, rehabilitated, and eventually adopted by an American family.
Throughout his life and up until the day he dies, Malcolm X tries to pursue this ultimate goal of seeing white racism in a positive light and making something good come out of the events that happened in his life. The four factors that greatly influenced Malcolm X to become a successful activist were his family life, growing up and living in an urban ghetto environment, prison, and his religion. The horrific events of Malcolm’s childhood would have led anyone else to a depression and a downfall. However, these events sparked his reasoning for becoming a successful activist. When Malcolm Little was in the womb, members of the Ku Klux Klan broke all the windows in his family’s home in Omaha, Nebraska.
In ’56 King was arrested on charges of controlling operational buses illegally without a cause. After all he went through, I would have to respect him greatly for what he did because this didn’t stop him from reaching his goal. In the year 1958, he published a book called “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story” which told many of such goals he was striving or reaching for. Later in 1960, King moved to Atlanta and became a co-pastor and soon led a march
Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925, he converted to Islam while serving time in prison from 1946 to 1952. Upon his release from prison he joined the Nation of Islam (NoI) and dropped his surname of “Little” and replaced it with “X” as was common practice of members of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X preached of the evil that white society represented and the superiority of black over whites. He urged his followers to defend themselves “by any means necessary” which included and endorsed the use of violence. These ideals later served as the foundation for Black Nationalism and the Back Power movements.
It impacted us in a very good way. Kings speech was to hope that black and whites could live amongst each other on peace, and for every American to have the same amount of equal rights The Pound Cake Speech was given by Bill Cosby in May 2004, at an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. The speech was a very interesting speech. Not just because of the topic of the speech, but because of how he presented it. For the most part it was him expressing his feeling and telling stories of how the young black people were wasting their lives and not actually bothering to learn how to be real people or learn how to speak properly.
Whether in the classroom or in the media, my generation has become fairly well acquainted to the nonviolent protests of the Civil Rights Movement especially those led by prominent activist Martin Luther King Jr. These nonviolent protests were, however, only one strategy employed in the struggle for equality for African Americans. The Autobiography of Malcolm X gives a firsthand account of a different strategy used in the struggle for black freedom in America. Malcolm X’s autobiography takes us through his life from his childhood during the Great Depression to his the year of his assassination in 1965. Early on, Malcolm X was aware of racism.
Sadly the weight of those very words became evident far too late. The major repercussion that led from this speech was the assassination of very the prolific Martin Luther King, Jr. himself. However, his death was not in vain as it led to a realization of the gravity of the battle for equality that southern African-Americans faced on a daily basis. The fact that a public figure such as Luther King himself could be shot at and killed in broad daylight in that manner had served as a wakeup call to Congress and many other individuals following the proceedings of the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther’s perseverance may have been a determining factor as he proclaims that “this sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.” He was accurate in this proposition.
Robert F. Kennedy’s Speech Briefly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy delivered a speech in Indianapolis about peace and uses his credibility and logic with the goal of convincing the audience to overcome the hate and live together peacefully. Kennedy starts out with a his own experience by saying, “ For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with -- be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.” Kennedy is appealing to the audience by showing how his personal experience can closely relate to their reasons for hate and revenge towards white people. He connects the two national tragedies together to lessen the segregation between the black and white audience. His position as the senator who is campaigning to be president also gives him credibility.
The nature and nurture debate is one of the most popular topics. So many people have argued whether nature or nurture plays a big part in our lives. Nature is the genes you inherit from your parents such as eye colour, hair colour and etc. Nurture is the environment that surrounds you. Nurture influences development of an individual for a lifetime.
Lincoln’s Memorable Speech Lincoln delivered his second Inaugural Address on March 3, 1965 during the time of his second term as president of the United States. In Lincolns Second Inaugural Addressed, he addressed the causes and the meaning of why the Civil War had begun between the Northerners and the Southerners. He pointed out that that whole conflicts of slavery was one of the main reasons why God was at shame with this. And it was because of this, that He allowed the conflicts to happen. Once the Civil War was over, Lincoln says that now that everyone is at ease, they should start behaving gently with each other.