Harlem Renaissance

Harlem renaissance also known as the New Negro Movement was an African American association created right after the World War I and later dissociated in 1935 by the Great depression. As leader and chief interpreter, Alain Leroy Locke described Harlem Renaissance as “a spiritual coming of age in which the black community was able to seize upon its first chances for group expression and self determination.” As its name indicated, Harlem renaissance was based in Harlem, a locality of New York. In fact, many factors such as black urban migration contributed to the creation of the movement. In fact, many former slaves, in order to live a better life, fled the south and headed to the urban northern cities where Blacks were more considered. In other hand, access to education in north is another factor that participated to the configuration of the movement. This point is supported by Jessica McElrath, who in The New Negro Movement states, “In addition, the black middle class was increasing and more educational opportunities were available to blacks.”

Moreover, important figures such as Philip Randolph, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey led Black community to gather in this movement. In fact, Du Bois was the editor of Philip Randolph’s magazine entitled “The Messenger and the NAACP’s The Crisis.” Also known as the Prophet of the Civil Rights Movement, Randolph, along with Du Bois, through their publications called and reminded Blacks to get involved in the fight for their rights, later known as Civil Rights Movement. Speaking of Marcus Garvey, this figure is known to be an advocate for the return of African Americans to Africa. Garvey, founder of the party UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association), was fighting for the economic, political, and social independence of Blacks in U.S.

All these factors led African Americans to become conscious and therefore more active in the fight for their rights. For instance, a result was the formation of Harlem Renaissance in New York. This organization was so active that it had impacted education, philosophy, and political and religious views of African Americans. Next, during Harlem Renaissance period, there was an emergence of Black Writers who gave more credit to African American Literature. Among these writers, there are Sterling A. Brown, Countee Cullen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston.

For instance, this latter is a writer, anthropologist, and folklorist, better known for her 1937 book entitled Their eyes were watching God. She also wrote other books such as Dust Tracks on a Road in 1942, and Seraph on the Suvanee in 1948. One of her quotes is “Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to “jump at de sun.” We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” According to the Website “Women in History”, “Zora Hurston was a utopian who held that black Americans could attain sovereignty from white American society and all its bigotry.” Unfortunately, her end was sad since she was more criticized than appreciated and died poor.

As I mentioned above, Harlem Renaissance also influence religious beliefs of Blacks. For instance, John Carroll stated, “in 1921, Marcus Garvey created African Orthodox Church.” Later in 1924, Bishop Ida founded the Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America headed mostly by women. On the social plan, Harlem Renaissance contributed to the success of black businesses, admiration of African Americans by other nations, and creation of popular night recreation places such as Cotton Club.

From my previous blog assignment and research, the civil rights movement started in 1955 and lasted about 10 years. According to Wikipedia, the civil rights movement refers to “the reform movements in the united stated aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring suffrage in southern states.” This movement is marked by the civil rights Act of 1964 and the Voting rights Act of 1965. However, it is important to mention that this movement was boosted by NAACP. One key event of the civil rights movement is Brown v. Board Education in 1954. In this case, according to Wikipedia, the court stated the “Segregation of White and Colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of Negro group.”

As we all know, African American have ran a difficult path full of oppression and discrimination in United States. Among these difficulties were segregation, terrorism and lynching occasioned by White people. For instance, in 1955, the lynching of young African American Emmett Till occurred in Mississippi. This event described how far and low White racists could express their hatred against Blacks in America. In fact, I heard about this story two years ago in my History class when we were studying segregation and its consequences in U.S. All I remember is that Emmett had been killed just because he whistled to white woman in a store.

SNCC is an acronym that stands for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which was created at Shaw University in Raleigh. This organization was founded in 1960, after the Greensboro sit-ins, by a group of black students in 1960 in order to stop discrimination at school. The most important figures of this movement were John Lewis, Julian Bond, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, Ella Baker, and Stokeley Carmichael. In fact, “John Lewis is also known as an important figure of the Civil rights movement”. During his active fight, Lewis has been allegedly arrested more than 20 times.

Even though SNCC was founded by students, this organization was deeply determined to fight for Blacks’ rights. Consequently, these students, along with their allied participated in Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, Freedom Ballot, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and March on Washington in 1963. According to Wikipedia, this march was “a large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963 where Martin Luther King delivered his historic I Have a Dream speech advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial.” During this rally, John Lewis showed his anger against the federal government which according to him “was not doing enough.”

On the other hand, SNCC is also known towards its contribution to Black Power, Vietnam War, and the feminist movement. It is also important to mention that white people gave a hand to SNCC.

After reading Clayborne Carson’s article, I realized that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were two figures targeting the same point but yet proposing two diametrically opposed solutions or directives. This point is emphasized by Carson who mentioned, “Malcolm and Martin understood the African-American dilemma from different perspectives rooted in their different experiences. Each leader was a visionary.” First of all, these people emerged from two different environments even though “both were sons of politically active Baptist Preachers.” In fact, King grew up in a stable family and surrounded by positive people such as George Kesley. However, Malcolm X encountered difficult situations that affected his life. First, Malcolm was only 13 when his father died in 1931, and later on he did not grow up with his mother since she was mentally affected.

Basically, King was an advocate of nonviolence fight as opposed to Malcolm X who wanted to reach his goal by all means including violence. It seems like Malcolm was more led by the eager to retaliate against White people.

Overall, this article depicts the impact of environment, and personal experiences on somebody’s personality. Based on my experiences, there is no doubt that environment has a lot to do on somebody’s future. For instance, I took a look back to my friends during childhood and I realized that I have grown up in a peaceful family as opposed to some friends whose parents were divorced. Today, I am pretty close to get my Bachelor Degree whereas some of them have dropped out of school or are just entering College. However, I am not saying it is their fault if they did not succeed in school, but they are victims of the environment that nurture them. Also, I think we do not have the same manner of thinking or philosophy given that they encountered difficult situations that forged them earlier. However, the advantage they have on me is the fact that they were adults before me and are more prepared to challenge new difficulties in their lives.

References:

SNCC 1960-1966, http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/index.html

Harlem Renaissance, http://www.kurahulanda.com/temporary-harlem-renaissance

Carroll, John. Harlem Renaissance. http://www.jcu.edu/harlem/index.htm

McElrath, Jessica. Writers of Harlem Renaissance.

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/harlemrenaissance/a/harlem_writers.htm

Rowen Beth, Brunner, Borgna. Great Days in Harlem.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmharlem1.html

Women in History. http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zor.htm

Privilege in our society

List of privileges
- I am sure that if the bus is full, a man will rather give up his seat to me than to another man. This is just because I am a woman.
- If I shop with my credit card, I am more likely to be asked ID for further verification just because I am black.
- I am pretty sure that If I drive a fancy car, I have more chance to be pulled over by a police officer just because of my race.
- Sometimes, I feel not considered by classmates when they see me at first or when I tell them I am from Africa. This is maybe because Africa is known to be a primitive continent.
-Also, I think the society is way too materialistic. In fact, I tried to dress differently in two days, and I made some remarks. For instance, I realize that when I am well dressed, people consider me or are more attentive to me.
- At work, I realized that my complaints were taken into consideration when I was directly speaking to my African American supervisor.
- Also, I found that some coworkers were favored just because they have been sexually involved with one or more supervisors.
- Moreover, I realized that African American customers were nicer to me than to other coworkers just because I was black.
- Also, in bank, the customer service is based on the amount of money you have in you bank account. Therefore, If you are broke, you will not receive the same level of customer service and consideration as a rich person.
- Education is another factor encouraging privilege. For instance, if you have attended college, you have better chance to obtain a job than a person who has merely a high school degree or a formation in this career field.
- Also, I think at work, a white person has better chance to be promoted than a black person even though they both started working at the same period of time. Another alternative is that a black person will have more to invest and prove than a white person.
- Also, in U.S. Blacks are more likely to be laid away than White people. In other hand, White people are more likely to be employed than Blacks even though the company proclaims to favor multicultural diversity.
- Most of the time I went shopping in fancy stores, I realized that employees generally helped me out either because the store was empty or because I was dressed like those spoiled rich kids.
- Also, at the cashier station at Wal-Mart, I can count on my fingertips how many times the cashier said “hello or hi” to me. But when the customer after me is white, I hear greetings like “ how you’ re doing? What a nice day outside mam, sir?” That is very irritating when you realize you are black and the other customer Caucasian. What a shame!
-I am pretty sure I have more chance to be accepted in a French company on the basis that I speak French than any other person not speaking French.
-I know that if I want to get a loan, in order to be granted, I will have to provide more information or more documents than any other White person.
- I am pretty sure that an overloaded woman is more likely to be helped or assisted than a man in this situation.
-I am persuaded that if I want to be promoted at a job, I just have to seduce my supervisor by wearing provocative clothes. Men are less likely to do so.
-Generally, women who molest children, received less charges than men convicted of the same act.
- Also, parents, especially fathers tend to be more attentive to their daughters than to their sons. In fact, they give more money to girls.
-Also, in my culture, women are not allowed to stay around men or to discuss with men. Their activities are limited to the kitchen and children care. Moreover, some tribes do not allow girls to attend school, because women are born to serve men who are considered the family’s force.

-police officers are generally more violent and aggravated with Blacks. Sometimes, they even beat them like they were animals.

To my mind, a privilege is an advantage somebody has over somebody else. According to Wikipedia, a privilege is “ etymologically "private law" or law relating to a specific individual—is a special entitlement or immunity granted by a government or other authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis.” This advantage is based on diverse aspects such as race, gender, social status, and of course money. As Tim wise says in the video, African Americans and Latinos are more likely to be stopped by police officer than any other White man. Also, I think everyone of us have been privileged or have specific privileges. For instance, every parent has more attention for their own kids than to their nephews or nieces. However, I think it is important that we know how to use them so that they would not discriminate anybody else in places such as work, hospitals and schools. I personally think privileges constitute a boosting factor in discrimination, therefore it is important the society knows how to regulate these privileges for a better functioning.

Blog Assignment

1)
Even after the ratification of 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments between 1865 and 1870, Black people were still not treated as Human beings and not able to enjoy their rights. In the contrary, they were still victims of injustice and abused by White people who only saw them as “slaves” and nothing else. Also, these White supremacists called Blacks “Negroes,” a term that is really disgusting. Thus, in order to abolish segregation, disfranchisement, and inequality, Black community decided to stand up and fight for their rights. One major organization that fights for the advancement and respect of Blacks is known to be NAACP. This acronym, which stands for National Association of Colored People, is an interracial organization existing since February 12, 1909. This date was set on purpose, since it marked the 100th anniversary of President Lincoln who was a protagonist for abolition of slavery. His prominent members were W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimke, Henry Moskowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison, and William English Walling. However, it is really important to mention that these members were not all Blacks. For instance Henry Moskowitz, Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison were Caucasian people who lined up with Blacks and help them fight for their rights. The major goals targeted by NAACP were to stop the segregation, violence against Blacks, and of course grant civil rights to Black people.
In fact, the birth of NAACP comes from the “Niagara Movement” which according to African American Registry was “a black civil rights organization founded in 1905 by a group led by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter.” It is called Niagara Falls because his founders met in hotel located in Canada by Niagara Falls given that at this time in United States, hotels were segregated. Latter on, after the coalition of Ovington, Moskowitz, Walling, and the Niagara Movement became NAACP.









In a letter of Mary White Ovington written in 1914, it is mentioned that “NAACP was formed in response to the 1908 race riots in Springfield, capital of Illinois and Birthplace of President Lincoln.” According to Wikipedia, NAACP’s mission is “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.”
There are many examples that justify the importance of NAACP for African Americans. First, NAACP fights for equal rights among all Americans and contribute to the civil rights movement. This organization step by step brought numerous cases to the Supreme Court to point out practices of segregation against Blacks. These points are emphasized by Veronica Shoemaker in the Naples Daily News. Veronica Shoemaker is an African American Woman who lived and grew up in the segregation. She remembered the period when Black and White division was accentuated. In the Naples Daily News, she stated “the NAACP is the mother, the father, the sister, the brother, that has kept this civil rights movement together.”
Also, NAACP put an end to the segregation which caused the death of numerous Blacks. Back then, everything was segregated, school, restaurants and even public restrooms. Blacks under no circumstances were allowed to use the same restrooms or sit on the same table with Whites. For instance, Wilson Bradshaw, president of Florida Gulf Coast University shares his testimony in the Naples Daily News. Here, he states “I remembered growing up in West Palm Beach and attending segregated schools, eating at segregated lunch counters, and drinking form colored water fountains.” This statement shows how bad, Blacks were treated back then.
Moreover, NAACP helped fight Jim Crow laws which limited or reduced rights of Blacks. For example, in 1917, NAACP won the case Buchanan v. Warley which “nullified Jim Crow housing ordinances in Louisville, Kentucky, as they were found to be in violation of 14th amendment.”
As I already mentioned, NAACP brought numerous case to the Supreme Court which ruled in favor of Blacks. Some of these cases pointed out different domains such as transportation. For example, in 1946, the NAACP won the case Morgan v. Virginia with the help of Thurgood Marshall, the counsel of NAACP. This case opposed Irene Morgan in Virginia, who refused to give up her seat to a white couple in a greyhound bus. As result, she got arrested for violation of Virginia’s segregation law. According to NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, her arrest was in violation of 14th amendment that protects the right of former slaves. Therefore, they bring the case to the Supreme Court that rules in favor of NAACP.
In addition, there are other Supreme Court cases won by NAACP that marked the history of African American evolution in United States. Among them, there are Smith v. Allwright (1944), Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), Sweatt v. Painter (1950), and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954).




2)
In 1913, NAACP emerged in Oklahoma, at its head Roscoe Dunjee. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History, “people of professions were the first to join the organization.” Among them, there were lawyers, preachers, doctors, and teachers. In Oklahoma, NAACP’s objectives were the same the organization applied in other states and all over the country. To be more explicit, NAACP fought to achieve segregation, injustice, discrimination, torture and lynching perpetrated on Blacks. The organization also wanted to lead and drive African Americans of Oklahoma towards the civil rights movement. That is why Dunjee through his speeches urged Blacks to wake up and to follow him in the fight against segregation. Another point that NAACP underlined is “silence means approval.” By this expression, NAACP wanted Blacks to take action and revolt early, because if they do not do so, they will be victims of torture, lynching, and segregation.
However, the arrival and rise of association were not accepted by everyone in Oklahoma. In fact, the organization was mostly contested by white supremacists who still wanted to abuse of Blacks. In the encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, James Smallwood, mentioned that “Most whites viewed the NAACP as sinister organization that threatened their way of life. They believed the NAACP was a danger to white society.”
As in other states, Oklahoma NAACP brought and won numerous cases to the Supreme Court. For instance, the Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma case of 1948 marked the history of Oklahoma. This case opposed Ada Lois Sipuel and the University Of Oklahoma that refused to admit Sipuel to the Law School of the University just because she was Black. Her refusal is more detailed in the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (EOHC) by Melvin Hall who states “after reviewing Fisher’s credentials, the university’s president Dr. George Lynn Cross, advised her that there was no reason to reject her application for admission, but that Oklahoma statutes prohibited Whites and Blacks from attending classes together.” Determined to attend OU college of Law, Sipuel and NAACP represented by Thurgood Marshall, her lawyer brought the case to the Supreme Court which ruled in favor of Sipuel. However, her battle and admission to the college law was not easy and direct in the sense that she was at first suggested to attend Langston University School of Law. Sipuel refused this proposition because Langston School of law was not as qualified as OU school of Law. On June 18 1949, she was finally admitted to the University because attorney general of Oklahoma did not want to return to Washington for another trial.
Another case won by NAACP in Oklahoma, is the Mclaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents in 1950. In fact, McLaurin is an African American man who was refused admission to the graduate program. Once again, NAACP brought this case of injustice to the Supreme Court that rules in favor of NAACP. According to NAACP, this case is another illustration of violation of 14th amendment of U.S. constitution. From this period, African American students were no longer segregated at the University of Oklahoma.
Moreover, NAACP members in Oklahoma fought hard to put an end to segregation. One important figure is Clara Luper who was the NAACP advisor for Oklahoma City. She is very famous for her sit-in movement of 1958. This sit-in movement is better explained in the EOHC by Stephanie lee Decker who underlined “on August 20, 1958, walking into the store and ordering cokes, the youth, under Luper’s guidance, demonstrated their discontent with segregation and launched the nation’s sit-in movement.”



3)
The civil rights movement started in 1955 and lasted about 10 years. According to Wikipedia, the civil rights movement refers to “the reform movements in the united stated aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring suffrage in southern states.” This movement is marked by the civil rights Act of 1964 and the Voting rights Act of 1965. However, it is important to mention that this movement was boosted by NAACP. One key event of the civil rights movement is Brown v. Board Education in 1954. Once again, Thurgood Marshall is the attorney of NAACP in this case. We all know that one principal goal of NAACP was to put an end to segregation in schools. Theatrically, schools were known to be “separate and equal.” However, it was not technically the case given that schools were still not equal. In this case, according to Wikipedia, the court stated the “Segregation of White and Colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of Negro group.”
Another key event in civil rights movement is Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In fact, in 1955, Rosa Parks, a member of NAACP, was arrested because she refused to give up her seat to a white person in a Montgomery bus. To protest against her arrest, about 50,000 African Americans led by Martin Luther King organized a bus boycott that lasted about 381 days. Due to significant reduction of bus revenues, the Montgomery Bus Company decided to stop segregation in bus.
The 1960 sit-ins are also a key event in the civil rights movement. The sit-ins were held in segregated public places such as parks, swimming pools, churches, and libraries. These non violent sit-ins were initiated by members of NAACP youth in lunch counters. For instance the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 involved four students: Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain. Basically, the goal of sit-ins was to put an end to segregation to public places.
Another key event of civil rights movement is the Voting rights Act of 1965. This act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson who convinced the congress to pass his voting right acts. According to Johnson, “every American citizen must have an equal right to vote, the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting because they are Negroes.” According to Wikipedia, this act “prohibited poll taxes, literacy tests, and other subjective voter tests.”
There are other events that marked the civil rights movements. Among them, there are Mississippi freedom Democratic Party of 1964, freedom rides of 1961, and desegregation in little Rock in 1957.



4)
There are a lot of similarities between the NAACP’s relevance to the African American experience and the legal movement. In fact, both organizations had for mission to improve the living conditions of African Americans. They were always pointing out acts of discrimination against African Americans. African Americans were tired of being behind, tortured, lynched and segregated. They wanted to be treated just as the Whites; they also wanted to benefit the same treatments received by Whites. Black people were determined to bring segregation and discrimination to an end in United States. They wanted their child to attend or receive the same quality of education as White students did. To arrive to this point, they organized non-violent sit-ins in public segregated places such as school, parks, and restaurants. Thus, NAACP and Civil rights movement brought numerous cases of segreagation to the Supreme Court. One of them is Brown v. Board Education in 1954.



5)
The reconstruction is a period that marked the history of U.S. This period went form 1863 to 1877. The major goal of reconstruction was to bring the divided country back together as one. Also, another purpose of reconstruction was to rebuild the countries since many factories, farms, and cities had been destroyed by the civil war. The reconstruction is detailed in two parts: presidential reconstruction and congressional reconstruction. In fact, presidential reconstruction is marked by President Andrew Johnson who assigned black codes in southern state governments. According to black codes, “the freedmen have more rights than the free blacks before civil war.” However, black codes implement some restrictions to black rights. For instance, Jessica McElrath in the document entitled The Black Codes of 1865, mentioned that “blacks could not control their own employment, they were still not citizens, and they could not own firearms.” Later, the congress passed a series of amendments in favor of Blacks. The first one is the 13th amendment. This amendment was signed in 1865 and also marked the end of slavery in United States. The section 1 of 13th amendment indicates “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Next, the 14th amendment is a 5-section document ratified in July 9, 1868. His principal goal is to secure the rights of former slaves. The first section of the document states:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Finally the 15th amendment, passed in 1870, provides the right to vote to everybody, even colored people. This document has two sections and the section 1 states: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
To my mind, reconstruction was not successful in the sense that there were still riots in United States. For instance, there was a riot that happened in 1908, in Illinois; obviously, this occurred the ratification of the three amendments. Therefore, we can conclude that the reconstruction was not really successful, but yet marked the first steps of African Americans towards civil rights movement.




6)








This year, NAACP is celebrating its centenary proving the association is still active and not ready to retire. The longevity of this organization is synonym of strength, charisma, and determination that his members have used since its creation to fight for African American rights. However, NAACP is representing every people of colors; otherwise it would be against their ethic.
For instance, in 2008, NAACP created the Voter Empowerment Program. This latter, according to civic engagement staff, Greg Moore was designed “to empower African Americans and people of color by increasing awareness and participation in the electoral process.” On the other hand, this program was divided in five sections: voter registration, voter education, election administration, Election Protection and Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV).
Until today, NAACP work is to ensure that all students of all colors, especially Black students received the same education as the White students. The organization is fighting against segregation in public schools. On their official website, NAACP national education department mentions its goal is “to ensure that all students have access to an equal and high quality education by eliminating all education related to racial and ethnic disparities.” Also, their goal is to increase teacher quality and sensitize parents who have to engage themselves in their children education.
Moreover, NAACP is also active on judicial and economic sectors. In fact, the organization has released the 12th Annual economic Reciprocity Initiative. The criminal justice goal of NAACP is to “eliminate disparate treatment of blacks in all aspects of law enforcement and criminal justice systems.”
NAACP health goal is to improve health conditions of African Americans who are more exposed to certain types of diseases than any other groups. The organization also wants to sensitize African American community by providing some tips about avoiding diseases such as AIDS. NAACP health program involves Health screenings, HIV/AIDS testing, Kick the Habit Program, and Montague Cobb health Advocacy Award.












7)
First of all I want to be honest about my total ignorance on NAACP. In fact, I thought NAACP was an organization only representing Blacks. Thus, I was surprised when Anthony R. Douglas informed us that NAACP is also representing Whites and other groups of color. Next, I was informed about the NAACP involvement in youth education. During the meeting, the guest speakers asked us to be very thankful to God since we have the chance to attend university. They also emphasized on the importance of equality of education. To better illustrate this point, Rhonda Williams, NAACP Youth and College Division Adviser for Oklahoma narrated us her childhood. She told us she could not read because of segregation, she could not attend college early because of segregation. However, she told us she has succeeded in life because she was a good athlete and she was determined to succeed. Also, the two guests informed us about the existence of an OU’s NAACP student Chapter. Basically, Rhonda Williams and Anthony Douglas, want us to be more involved into the NAACP youth department by spreading the message everywhere and by convincing non scholar African Americans to attend schools. For instance, I remember Mrs. Williams saying, “We have to always give back to the community.”

References:


Selanders, Renee. “Rebirth of NAACP student chapter on the horizon.” OU Daily. Feb. 9, 2009. Accessed Feb. 13, 2009. http://oudaily.com/news/2009/feb/09/rebirth-naacp-student-chapter-horizon/
“African American Registry.” The Encyclopedia Britannica. Fifteenth Edition. 1996. Accessed Feb. 12. 2009. http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1005/The_Niagara_Movement_founded

Bishop, Kathy. Miguel, Tracy. “A lifetime of changes: Reflecting on the NAACP's 100-year anniversary.” Naples Daily News. Feb. 11, 2009. Accessed Feb 12, 2009. http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/feb/11/justice-all-countrys-evolution-our-evolving-equali/

NAACP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAACP

Civil Rights Movement. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/NAACP.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955%E2%80%931968)


Smallwood, James. “NAACP In Oklahoma.” Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & culture. Accessed feb. 11, 2009. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/N/NA001.html
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/F/FI009.html
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/L/LU005.html

Johnson, Lyndon B. “We Shall Overcome.” The History Place . Great Speeches Collection. March 15, 1965. Accessed Feb. 11, 2009. http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/johnson.htm

McElrath, Jessica. “Black Codes of 1865.” Accessed Feb. 12, 2009. http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/blackcodes/a/blackcodes1865.htm


Moore, Greg. “NAACP Civic Engagement.” Accessed Feb. 13, 2009. http://www.naacp.org/advocacy/civic/index.htm
http://www.naacp.org/advocacy/health/index.htm

free blog assignment

After conducting research on issues threatening American society, I found that criminality constitutes a major problem whose rate has been pretty high ever since. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, the most recurring crimes are forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and homicide. However, this latter is mostly perpetrated by the minority society composed of Native Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans.
In this assignment, I will focus myself on African American society which is at the same time victim and perpetrator of crime. In other words, African Americans are killing each other for any purpose such as diapers, drugs, money and retaliation. This kind of behavior is certainly related to the high rate of poverty, lack of education, drug influence, unemployment, and absence of father in family. In fact, most of time, African American women are single parents struggling hard to raise and educate their kids who are sometimes hard to control.
On the other hand, television can be in some way, held accountable for the high rate of crimes. Nowadays, it seems like everything is broadcasted on television without being reviewed or analyzed. For instance, African American rappers through their lyrics and videos make their fans believe life is a way too easy. They encourage them in dropping out of school, selling drugs, wearing arms and of course killing each other. To my mind, these types of video should be banned from television since they are negatively influencing kids who are to run the society tomorrow. As mentioned above, crime prevalence can be explained by drug traffic which itself, is already a serious problem for the society. According to statistics, most of the crimes are committed by drug addicts who become easily aggravated and uncontrollable when they do not have substances to which they are extremely dependent. For instance, last week on television, an African American man got arrested for killing a man he intended to rob. When interrogated, the man explained he was just trying to rob the victim because he needed money to buy drug. This is very shocking because the man will spend the rest of his life behind bars because of barely $20. Another example is a 17 year old kid who killed a man because he was trying to get money to purchase his baby’s diapers. What a sad truth.
There is no doubt that criminality has a negative impact on the society . Among the consequences, there is the decrease of life expectancy due to the high rate of mortality in the youth. In fact, young people are the major victims of homicides. Homicides also have impact on the society since it increases the rate of orphans and single parents. As already mentioned, being a single parent is a very difficult task in the sense that it is not easy to educate or take care of a child. Therefore, homicides can also increase the rate of uneducated children who are to be considered very dangerous for tomorrow.
Consequently, I think it is very urgent to find and apply solutions that will reduce considerably the high rate of criminality in United states and especially in the Black community. To my mind, the first step is to educate children who are the first vulnerable victims. This is very important since children are likely to copy everything they see, watch without judging. For this, we need to teach them that it is very important to go to school and emphasize on the point that school will put them away from trouble. Another alternative is to urge parents to be responsible towards their children. Parents should show their children the right path to follow. Next, some people need to be aware of the fact that life is not easy as they think. They have to work hard in order to get what they want. Finally the major work goes to the government which has to fight ruthlessly against

Free blog assignment

Today, I will talk about my weekend, basically about what happened in my little world. It was not that bad even though I had an History class on Saturday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. At this moment, you might think I am a crazy girl but I am not. In fact, I needed one more class to complete my program and this class was the only one fitting in my schedule. By the way, I would not advise anybody to take this kind of class unless you are really determined, focused and organized.
First of all, my weekend started on a Friday afternoon right after class. I was so tired that I decided to take a nap which turned to be very long. Later on, I watched television with friends of mine who were very entertaining. Among the shows we watched, there were CSI:Miami, Law & order and of course the 2009 Australian Open women’s final. This latter was a fantastic game played by two famous tennis players: Dinara Safina and Serena Williams. Despite all Safina‘s efforts, Williams won the game by 6-0, 6-3 in less than one hour. By referring to the duration of this game, you can imagine how tough and good Serena was. This victory represents the 10th grand slam title for Serena, who this night, returned to the top of the rankings. Once again, Serena represented and proved the public that she is still on the top of her game and not ready to retire.
After this game, I went to bed since I had an early class in the morning. This class is about the history of United States from the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Civil war. In fact, this course was more interesting and animated than I expected. This is because the professor uses a better and different way of teaching. Instead of letting us listen to her hour after hour, the professor had us watch films and documentaries about History. To my mind, this method of teaching is easier since the student tends to learn an memorize fast with pictures. In addition, every student has the opportunity to share his or her point of view. So far, I have learned a lot of materials about Columbus and his relationships with the first native American tribes he met. Also, we went through the massacre or extermination of native American tribes caused by the greed and arrogance of Europeans. Honestly, I did not know there was more than one hundred Indian tribes before Columbus. Later on, we discussed about the arrival of the first Africans in America. It is believed that Africans were brought to America by Dutch who used them as servants and slaves to work in fields. I have to admit that this part of history is very shocking to me since it reveals all the painful treatments our ancestors endured. On the other hand, it is always a pleasure for me to learn and acquire more information.
Moreover, I was stunned by Michael Phelps scandal which has been broadcasted on major television channels. Phelps, the famous olympic swimmer was caught doing drugs. I am pretty sure that this scandal will have a serious impact on his career and reduce his popularity. All I can say is: “Nobody is perfect.”