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Example research essay topic: Young Black Man Board Of Education - 1,225 words

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The 1950 s was the time that Civil Rights issues were coming to a head. African Americans were making bold steps forward, becoming heard and becoming seen. Unfortunately, many Whites resisted these steps forward, refused to hear and recognize these invisible men. People s ignorance closed the doors of opportunity to many well-qualified and deserving Black people. Even though many laws were passed, the South was predominantly and publicly against integration and the North was secretly racist and openly opposed. More than laws had to change in American society.

America s eyes were soon wide open to the injustices that happened everyday, all over the country. The social upheaval of the 1950 s took place, not only on the streets, the court-rooms, and in the home, but in the theater as well. While Civil Rights were finally coming in to the public eye through the new television media, play-writes pushed the issue further, putting racial stereotypes and discrimination in the forefront of their plays. The inspiration for plays such as Member of the Wedding, Trouble in Mind, A Medal for Willie, and Raisin in the Sun came from the everyday living conditions that America had been turning a blind eye to. The public was desegregated through Supreme Court rulings starting with Brown vs. The Board of Education.

Brown vs. The Board of Education decision said that segregated schools were unconstitutional. This decision was practically impossible to enforce on the Southern States that held that the decision to segregate, or to DEsegregate for that matter, was completely up to the State. The most severe show of resistance was in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Governor Orval Faubus was openly against nine high achieving Black students entering all-white Little Rock Central High School. The resistance was so, that Governor Faubus announced that the students would have neither protection from the mobs of White segregationists, nor would they have support from the State. On the students second attempt to enter the High School, Governor Faubus called in the National Guard to turn them away with bayonets.

President Eisenhower, after much deliberation with the Governor, sent in Federal Troops to escort the youths to and from school, as well as class to class for four months. The next school year, Governor Faubus closed all the public schools, and White students attended Private Schools. The KKK became very active, spreading violence and fear throughout Black communities. Burning crosses, marches, demonstrations and lynching ravaged the South. Blacks were lynched for the most menial of infractions, if you could call them that.

Emmitt Till was beaten and drowned in the Tallahatchie River. His body, found days later, was barely recognizable. His crime was allegedly flirting with a White woman. The two White men were identified and put on trial. Testimony from his Uncle who saw the men take Emmitt from his house, evidence of the cotton gin fan and other obviously incriminating evidence was obviously not enough for the men to be convicted. They confessed, or rather bragged, about the murder months later.

In other communities, Whites spoke out against the arrival of Black families. But somehow progress was being made. Slowly but surely, the television screens lit up the eyes of America as to what was REALLY going on. The movie Member of the Wedding touches lightly on several race issues. Censorship was running rampant thorough Hollywood and much of the script was horribly altered.

In the original play, the old Black man corrects the young Black man when he response harshly to Frankie s father. Frankie s father then rips into the two of them, telling them how they should respect White men and how stepping out of line could be very dangerous. Later in the play, the young Black man is thrown in jail for fighting with a White man and while in jail commits suicide by hanging himself. And, of course, there s the stereotypical Aunt Jemima character. The big Black mothering slave who hands out candid sage advise. What is actually seen in the movie is toned down considerably and the issues are lost amidst the tidal waves of McCarthyistic censorship.

Trouble in Mind takes the Black aspect of Wedding and makes it into a full length play within a play. Civil Rights and stereotypes are talked about by a Black woman play-write named Alice Childress. She addresses almost every aspect of the Black movement at the time. Childress writes in a wonderfully casual and free-flowing manner, overlapping conversation and using stereotypes to their fullest. Through these stereotypes, Childress is able to show many different views of Civil Rights through the eyes of the people that Civil Rights was all about. But she did not limit her play to Blacks talking about Blacks.

In Trouble she makes the White people the minority in their little studio world. Childress provides classical characters and through dialog with other characters, shows the audience why they are thinking what they are thinking. Another play that uses stereotypes to make a point is A Medal for Willie. Medal, however, focuses more on segregation and separate but equal issues. A town prepares for a distinguished Army General to present Willie s mother with a medal of honor because Willie died in combat. In this play we see how the cycle is perpetuated through ignorance, fear, and complacency.

Willie s mother breaks the mold in the end by not accepting the medal and refusing to read the pre-written speech that she was told to read. Lorraine Hansberry s Raisin in the Sun brought an even more intimate look at a struggling Black family. This was a typical, hard-working, honest family that just wanted the American Dream: They wanted a house of their own. They wanted their dreams of stability to come true.

They wanted a better life and they knew that they deserved it. This look at African American life took the theaters by storm. Not only was the cast all Black, but so was the director, and the crew, and even the producers. Raisin was one of the most influential plays about Civil Rights ever because of what it said as a play and because of how it was produced. It really brought Black play-writes, women, and actors into the hearts of indifferent, uninvolved Americans.

The 1950 s was certainly an age of racial enlightenment. Besides the Cold War, the nuclear arms race, McCarthy s Red Scare, the space race and the Korean War, Civil Rights was literally next-door. It was something that many people thought that they did not have to be involved in because it did not affect them. People, and by people I mean White people were more than willing to stay uninvolved because becoming involved would say something about them. Whether it was standing up to let a tired Black woman have a seat on the bus, or speaking out against schools that refused to desegregate, people were content to sit back and watch their commercials and think, Thank God I don t have to deal with that.

These movies and plays showed the American public that they DID have to deal with Civil Rights. That their voice DID make a difference. That saying nothing was just as harmful as supporting segregation. Truly, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and America was waking up.


Free research essays on topics related to: board of education, civil rights, young black man, governor faubus, raisin in the sun

Research essay sample on Young Black Man Board Of Education

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