The Brown v Board trial was a court case about the desegregation of schools. This case was argued under the 14th amendment because these schools were not equal therefore, they did not live up to the separate but equal law created by Plessy v Ferguson. Many people saw this as the court’s way to reverse the effects of the extremely poor decision of the Plessy v Ferguson case and end the separate but equal law. I think both teams for the mock trial did a great job at gathering good points and information for and against the trial, however, I found this case interesting because I feel my views on this case changed based on the education system that we see for minorities today.
Originally when I first learned of the case it seemed obvious that schools should be integrated. Schools were not equal; clearly, black students were given less than 1/3 of the same accommodations as white students. However now we get to see the effects of Brown v Board, especially my personally attending a PWI (Predominantly White Institution) and I find myself agreeing with the other side of the argument concerning comfortability or social norms and representation. If we were to look past the fact that schools were not equally funded and instead created equal would there still be an argument?
During the trial, representation was a topic that was slightly mentioned but not brought up enough. From my viewpoint, I’ve seen my dad’s impact as an elementary teacher at a Guilford County Public School. Being a black male teacher has a significant impact on all the students not only the ones that he teaches. The students can see an educated black man and feel comfortable around him because of their mutual respect and understanding. Students of all grades go to him to seek advice because they think their white teachers would not understand their dialect, home life, or background.
For example, there was a student that did not want to go to gym class because they were going to be playing outside. The white teacher did not understand why and tried to force the student to go to the gym. However, the student went to speak to my dad and explained the reasoning was that he was wearing his new shoes and was not allowed to get them dirty. Since this is common in African American households my dad immediately understood and allowed the student to stay behind in his classroom. While it may seem simple and insignificant small understandings like this matter so much at a young age.
Therefore, I can’t imagine in the 1950’s being taught by a white teacher that refused to even see an African American as a person learning a little black child in their formative years. While not all teachers may have not been negative, I guarantee that some teachers refused to teach black students or taught black students extremely unfairly due to the belief that black students were just unable to learn anything at all.
Aside from the representation of teachers, there’s also the representation of your fellow peers. This a problem we still see heavily mention in today’s schooling system. As said during the mock trial Black people make up only 12% of the American population. This means during the time of the trial while attending school African American children will be surrounded by children that were taught to hate them. Even today it can be extremely uncomfortable for African American students to be the only person of color in an all-white class.
However, I still agree with the decision of Brown v Board mainly due to the concept of a marketplace of ideas. Being separated from people that look different than us or think differently from us puts society into a box, we never stop to think that there could be something of value in learning from someone else. Integrated schools help to end racism and biases in the younger generation. For younger kids’ school is one of the only places they have to develop their beliefs and values of the world outside of their parents, therefore children can realize the biases their parents instilled in them are not true. This creates a new generation of people that can communicate effectively with each other because they were no longer separated by biases forced on them by their parents.
On Sunday, September 15th,
1963, 16 street Baptist church was blown up in Birmingham Alabama. A bomb was
placed under the church that left 22 people injured and ended the lives of 4
young girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia
Wesley. At least 16 sticks of dynamite were placed under the church blowing not
only the church up but several cars and properties in the surrounding areas.
This event was tragic and terrible however it also showcased the disgusting
lengths that white supremacists would go to inflict torture on the black
community.
Why did it happen
Birmingham
was a city in the deep south located in Alabama, making it a place of huge
amounts of violence against Black people, yet Birmingham was also known for a
lot of civil rights movements and can also be seen as a city of great
resilience. This was partly due to greatly opposing leaders residing in
Birmingham. First, we have Alabama’s Governor George Wallace a segregationist
that pledge “to stand in the schoolhouse door” to stop the integration of
schools, alongside Eugene “Bull” Conner another segregationist that was
supposed to be the head of public safety in Birmingham. These men fought
against civil rights leaders such as Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth the founder of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference alongside Martin Luther King.
Along
with strong opposing leaders, the location and its sentiment also played a big
role in why it happened. During this time Birmingham became known as Bombingham
after experiencing over 50 bombings between 1947-1963. These bombings would
happen anywhere, but they were targeted at places that played a part in the
civil rights movement, for example, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth’s house was
bombed. 16th street Baptist church was not a place just for religion, but it
was also a place for community, black panther meetings, and black safety. While
this church stood as a huge symbol of community and culture for black people,
16th street Baptist Church was also the First African American Baptist Church.
All these factors made it the best place to inflict terror and immense pain on
the black community.
Who was responsible
Overall,
the KKK was known to be over this act of terror, but at first, it was unknown
which specific member or members were to blame for this crime. It wasn’t until
1965 that four suspects were found by the names of Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby
Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr were all found by FBI
investigations. Yet these men did not receive any prosecution during the time
since there was a claim being made about there not being enough evidence. It
wasn’t until 1977 when Robert Chambliss the leader of the group was charged
with the murder of children and a church bombing. Yet unfortunately, the other
3 men weren’t all prosecuted until 2002.
Lasting Impact
Immediately
after the bombing, extreme violence broke out in Birmingham. News of the church
bombing went to both national and international press. People had no choice but
to pay attention to everything going on in Birmingham unlike the bombings in
the past that had been ignored. The nation had no choice but to hear about the
lives of 4 little girls taken because of hate and hate only. Immediately after
the bombing happen the Birmingham campaign happened on May 2nd, 1963. This
campaign was performed by more than 1,000 African American students that had
attempted to march into downtown Birmingham, unfortunately, hundreds were
arrested. The biggest impact is the lives of 4 innocent little girls who were
lost due to racism and hate. These 4 little girls were simply getting dressed
for choir just to be unexpectedly killed in a building of safety and community.
America was forced to look at the death of four little girls due to pure hate
and racism they chose to ignore.
Into the heat of the night was a huge difference from the
movies that we’d watched previously. Instead of it being a dramatic love story
Into the Heat of the Night is a murder mystery with Sidney Poitier playing the
lead role of Virgil Tibbs. The movie starts with the murder of Philip Colbert a
wealthy white man in the state of Mississippi, and throughout the movie, the
redneck Sheriff Bill Gillespie and the elegant northerner Virgil Tibbs must
work together to find the murderer. However, what I found most interesting
about this movie was the portrayal of race relations. This is because the movie
is set in a time when race relations were a prominent subject in America with
the rise of the civil rights movement, this movie gives a black man a lead role
where he can be intelligent alongside a white man whose role is to learn from
the black man.
Our first introduction to Virgil was him being falsely
arrested for the murder of Philip Colbert, with the only evidence for his
arrest being a large amount of money he carried in his wallet. False arrests
were very realistic to many African Americans during the Jim Crow era, and it
continues to happen even today. For example, Ed Johnson was accused of sexually
assaulting a woman in 1906 who was knocked unconscious with a leather strap
after a witness claimed to see him walking with a leather strap despite him
never owning one. These false arrests happen partly due to harmful stereotypes
that African Americans are aggressive, uneducated, and poor. However, in the
movie Virgil disproves all these stereotypes by being a highly paid police
officer that is well-known for his work in homicide cases.
(Ed Johnson)
Another scene that showed a portrayal of race relations was
when we were introduced to Endicott. Endicott is a rich white man that owns a
plantation in the south, while it’s not directly mentioned this plantation
still has only black people working its land and working inside of the house.
This is because even after being freed some African Americans continued to work
on plantations because that was all they’ve ever known. Without having an
education, no land, and no money some African Americans saw no change in the
13th Amendment because they would never have the same status as a white person.
Endicott also portrays the south’s old dream of returning to slavery and
plantations making him a well-revered rich white man in the small town. However, Virgil shows that this dream is over and Endicott does not have any power over him after returning his slap without any repercussions from the sheriff.
Finally, I would like to point out the main relationship
between Virgil Tibbs and Bill Gillespie. The sheriff starts off disliking
Virgil because he assumes Virgil will meet the typical biases and stereotypes,
he has for African American people. Yet Virgil immediately challenges his
beliefs because he is intelligent and motivated. However, throughout the movie,
we see the sheriff slowly start to change his perception of Virgil as he comes
to understand him, and Virgil had similarities and he begins to see Virgil’s
passion to solve the case. This is the main point of the film to show that
despite having prior biases blacks and whites are more similar and
interconnected than we realize, making it no reason for the country to be
divided over race. If we were to work together, we could solve more problems
rather than create problems by being divided.
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