A time of grief
Published 6:42 pm, Friday, January 31, 2014
During the 1950's and 1960's, the southernmost part of the United States experienced an era of time where people of a certain descent were mistreated unjustly only because of the complexion of their skin. They were the African-Americans.
They were forbidden from doing certain things and banned from certain places. Segregation, which is the action or state of setting someone apart from other people or things or being set apart, was common.
The white parents didn't want their children attending the same schools or same facilities as the black children. They thought the black people were dangerous and felt hatred towards them. They called them names, ridiculed them, and even beat them when things escalated to that point.
This wasn't the only time this took place, but this is when my Grandmother lived through it. For example, before slavery was abolished, the white people thought of blacks as their property and sold and traded and bought slaves to do many things for them such as field work and house cleaning. When slavery was officially abolished, by the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, the white people were angry and confused because they couldn't think of the blacks as their equals right after they thought of them as beneath them, as their property. This led to segregation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a public speaker and he talked to people about segregation. He participated in civil rights demonstrations and was ridiculed and hated by his critics. He never had time to respond to them but on April 16, 1963, he was sentenced to the Birmingham Ala., jail for being a part of these civil rights demonstrations. King described being in the cell as "alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell." Some fellow clergymen had published a letter directed to him telling him to drop his campaign and leave "the battle of racial equality to the courts." King then wrote his best statement about social justice and basically responded to the clergymen in a peaceful way. It was written in such a calm and understated manner that it shocked the world and focused their attention on Birmingham and caused that "famous march" on Washington. It was called, "A Letter From The Birmingham Jail."
It touched on many topics that struck interest in the people of the North and South. My grandmother, who grew up in the southern part of the U.S., in Florida, was even affected by it.
When asked how you and the people around you felt during the time, she responded with: "It was a scary time for me and my family. We couldn't foreshadow what would happen to any of us. We just wanted all of this to just go away and for everyone to be equal." This is very similar to what Martin Luther King said. In his letter he stated, "Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from out fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty." What the two said was very similar and made me think about how I would feel if put into a situation similar to this one. I think I would be in fear as well that I would be in danger of being hurt, or even killed. Also, when asked, how did your parents respond and feel when you asked them if you could go places (that you were prohibited from), considering you were young, she replied saying: "I couldn't really understand how they really felt because I had never seen them exert so much emotion when they spoke to me. I just remember them telling me I couldn't go somewhere and me crying and them feeling bad because there was nothing they could do." Ironically, King made a reference about this sort of thing in his document by saying: "When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your 6-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a 5-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?" It seems they have experienced the same things but in different roles. I have an idea of how times would have been as King easily labeled it as "a tragic misconception of time..." and "civil disobedience..."
In conclusion, I understand fully how the times could have been for people of the African-American race. I know for a fact that this is not an environment that I would like to be resident to. I wouldn't want to live in fear of mistreatment due to skin color. Martin Luther King has done a great job and succeeded in his mission for equality of everyone and justice. I will no longer take my freedoms for granted after realizing what my grandparents went through.
Calen Razor is an eighth-grader at John Winthrop School in Bridgeport.