Homework Question on Reflective Writing
- Select from one of the two videos below in order to complete writing assignment.
- You will base your analysis and answers to the following question, according to the video you have personally chosen to review.
- The Movement:The Freedom Riders:The story behind a courageous band of civil rights activists called the Freedom Riders who in 1961 creatively challenged segregation in the American South.
- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/
- A Class Apart:From a small-town Texas murder emerged a landmark civil rights case. The little-known story of the Mexican American lawyers who took Hernandez v. Texas to the Supreme Court, challenging Jim Crow-style discrimination.
- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/class/player/
- Prompt In your own words assess the political climate and define the political issue trying to be resolved.
- Who are the major leaders and what type of actions they thought were necessary to achieve their goals (i.e., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through peaceful civil disobedience; Malcolm X through the use of force and violence; the U.S. Government and the Supreme Court through law enforcement and the use of military force).
- Discuss the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, focusing on the many ways that people fought for their rights, including peacefully protesting, violently protesting, fighting, killing, and even taking arguments to the streets and to the courtrooms of the United States.
- Explain why or why not you can personally connect to the issue.
- Assess whether the actions taken either successful or only temporarily provided resolve to the issue, and how is it relevant to current politics.
- While this assignment asks for you to focus your response from a perspective that is personal and opinionated, Please make sure that your reflection is well reasoned, providing clear and rationalized explanations of your position.
Homework Answer on Reflective Writing
The film, Freedom Riders, depicts a narration behind the courageous band of civil rights activists who creatively challenged segregation that took place in the American south. The political climate was hostile and wild especially in the West. The major issue in the film was the fight against segregation in the South. Segregation was a practice that prevented racial groups from mingling with one another and took place in different cities in the country. This included day-to-day activities such as traveling wherein whites were not permitted to mingle with the blacks in the same bus.
The major leaders included John Patterson who was Alabama’s governor at the time. His major role was to offer profound protection to the riders. Being a political opportunist, Patterson had the support of Ku Klux Klan and was an opponent of Bull Connor which enabled his acquisition of the Democratic gubernatorial seat in 1958. The leaders challenged the law of the interstate to allow the different groups to travel on the same public transport and applied the laws that had already been imposed on the issue of racial equality. The action therefore permitted positive law enforcement in the period of toxic cultural emotionalism. The law had already been handed over twice in 1946, in Morgan v Virginia and in 1960 in Boynton v. Virginia.
The 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights movement was faced with great opposition from every direction. Activists applied numerous forms of protests to affirm their rights, even to the point of sacrificing their lives. Their actions were successful and resolved the issue after numerous freedom rides, where more activists faced attack and arrest. Finally, after much adversity, an order was given by the Commerce Commission to end segregation in public transportation. To this day, the effects of the historic battle for equality resonates in society and current politics as people strive to continue what the historic leaders had fought for.