Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was a fearless writer, woman’s rights advocator, and anti-lynching crusader. She literally fought for gender and racial justice. On May 4, 1884, she was asked and later forced by a railroad conductor to give up her seat for a white man. Infuriated by the discrimination against her, she filed a suit against the railroad company. The suit sparked her career as a journalist.
Wells was motivated to become a civil rights activist after she had bought a first-class train ticket to Nashville. On the train the crew members forcibly removed Ida from the train after she refused to mover to the African American train car. After this incident Ida sued and won a $500 settlement against the railroad. Ida wrote about the issues of race and politics in the South after the Tennessee Supreme Court overruled the settlement. Then in 1892 Ida wrote articles denouncing lynching and wrongful deaths of the African Americans, this was the start of her anti-lynching campaign.
Wells was motivated to become a civil rights activist after she had bought a first-class train ticket to Nashville. On the train the crew members forcibly removed Ida from the train after she refused to mover to the African American train car. After this incident Ida sued and won a $500 settlement against the railroad. Ida wrote about the issues of race and politics in the South after the Tennessee Supreme Court overruled the settlement. Then in 1892 Ida wrote articles denouncing lynching and wrongful deaths of the African Americans, this was the start of her anti-lynching campaign.
It's mostly the story of Murray's grandmother, who had been a slave (and a mistress of the household at the same time), and her grandfather, a scholar and teacher and Civil War veteran who brought education to the newly freed slaves following the Civil War. Her grandmother was born after a plantation son raped his sister's slave. This was an interesting family history told by Pauli Murray, a founder of NOW (National Organization for Women.) She pays homage to her grandparents and great grandparents, documenting the life of "freedmen" of color as well as the lives of slaves who later become free. The story addresses so many aspects of race in American history, pre- and post-Civil
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism by Angela Y. Davis Undoubtedly, Angela Davis epitomizes what millions of African American men and women have long felt about the never ending oppressed conditions that exist for them in America. Davis, one of the founding mothers of the radical 60’s and 70’s black feminist and civil rights movement, usher into the 20th century a buried and overlooked oppression that many black woman experienced at the end of racial slavery that cannot continue to go unnoticed. In her book, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, Davis attempts to breakdown the wall barriers of gender oppression by examining the sexuality and lyrics of three iconic women of the blues; challenging the “mainstream ideological assumptions regarding women being in love… and the notion that women’s place was in the domestic sphere” Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (pg.11). But before discussing the works of Angela Y. Davis it would be injustice not to discuss the woman, herself, and the many accomplishments as-well-as trials and tribulation she has overcome. Angela Davis was born January 6, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama to two highly educated parents, both of whom where educators themselves.
In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money. Tubman returned to the South again and again. Tubman even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, "You'll be free or die." Jarena Lee was likely one of the first African American female preachers in America.
The civil rights movement represented an improvement in the lives of African Americans because they would be treated the same way as white people when paying for the use of public facilities. Rosa Parks was not an ordinary black woman. Rosa’s father was a carpenter named James McCauley, who traveled a great deal when she was young and was not around very much during her early years. Her mother, Leona Edwards, was a teacher who had to live away from her home and children during the week in order to teach at a black school. Rosa and her mother stayed with her mother’s grandparents in a small community near Montgomery.
She tries to gain sympathy for what she has been through. The largest difference between the three stories is the audience. The quote I chose is the quote from Jacobs; it reads “I would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation, till the grave opened to give me rest, than to live with an unprincipled master and a jealous mistress” (Jacobs 84). I decided to change the audience to white men of the time period; as they believed that slaves were their “property”. Many slave masters were also sexists.
In the 1950's blacks in america started to see the need for change. They wanted to be seen as equal with white citezens. More and more blacks began to speak up about their civil rights and take action. they did this through using non-violent protests like boycotts sit ins and freedom rides. A young Black girl called Linda Brown had to walk miles and miles through a railroad switchyard every day to get to her black elementary school because she was not allowed at the white elementary school that was only seven blocks away.
From being raised in a family where they don’t want to speak of the unfair events to schools where if you speak of them you are fired. All these things shaped Anne Moody to become who she was and is. Coming of Age in Mississippi is about a young African American girl and her experiences in a town in the state of Mississippi. The story begins with Essie Mae being a little girl and her family living on a plantation. During the day while her parents are working Essie is being taken care of by her uncle ̦ George Lee.