Week 9 Homework-Civil Rights Movement

My name is Julia. I am for Civil Rights.

I suppose you should know a little bit about me. First, I am white. I was born in 1952 and grew up in Chicago. I was part of a wonderful Christian Baptist family. I love my parents, and I loved my church, my school, and my community. During high school, african-american students started attending the same classes as me. It was...different. I wasn't sure what to think. I liked it, but I didn't really befriend anyone. Earlier this year I turned 16 and now I attend nursing school. It was at this school that I became aware of the civil rights movement, and really started listening to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was then that I realized what my purpose was.

When I first enrolled in school, I was still young and innocent. I had yet to see the true horrors of our society. A culture that refuses to serve people coffee simply because their skin is darker. As a child in a Christian family, we told that God created everyone; that he loves everyone. But, as a young adult who truly believes this, you start to see the hypocrites living all around you. They talk of love, but their 'love' is shallow. Their love of humanity only extends to those that have similar appearance to them. How was a young girl supposed to react? I don't know how one should react, but I know how I reacted. I decided that I needed to become a voice for freedom and equality. Clinging to every word of Dr. King, I fully believe in them. Even though he is now dead, my heart still rings with the words he spoke. My purpose is to fight for freedom, liberty and rights for the black people around me, and that is what I will do.

They are men, they are humans and we should treat them as such. 

However, one person will never be enough to make any change, and that is why I am writing. I am not the only one, but we need more voices, calling to congress, yelling to lawmakers, "We need freedom in this country, we need equality!" I do, however, think that apart from just changing only the laws, we need to change our cultures thoughts from that of, "Blacks are unequal to us and barely human, hardly worth our countries resources and investment," to that of love. Love and recognition that they are humans, and we, as a society, are cruel monsters towards them. When people kick around a dog, they told they are mean hearted and questioned as to why they would hurt an innocent creature. When someone beats up a black man, it is as though nothing even happened. What kind of people put dogs before man-kind, their own brothers? This is why I am writing, this is why I am screaming from the rooftops, "Freedom, Equality!"

Our society needs to change, and not just a little bit. It took months of dark-skinned men and women continually sitting at "the white counters" in cafes, and our small victory was that they were finally served their cup of coffee. Really? I cannot comprehend how our society has gotten to this horrific point. The point where we consider our county free, yet we refuse to serve black people coffee. How one stand it? I cannot. I will scream and shout, march and stand, cheer, and fight. I am white, and, as sorrowful as this is, some people are more inclined to listen to me. If we can have enough people, black and white, fighting for equal rights, we can change our society.

So, join me. Join me in this cause and let your voice be heard! Let the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ring in your ears. Let the stories of black peoples trials in our 'free' country set you heart on fire. Join me in marching, in screaming, in fighting, in making a change. Join me in the cause for civil rights.

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After studying this week about the civil rights movement, I think it is something that, if I had grown really lived in the 1960's, I would've become really impassioned for. The biggest take away for me is that, in the 1960's, people got together and tried to change some things they felt were wrong in our county. Looking around at our society today, there are things I see that I think we could, and should, try to change. Maybe, if we looked back and saw how the people in the 1960's got their point across, we would maybe get somewhere.