Book Critique: Racial Equality in America, by John Hope Franklin. This paper is developed to display a summary of "Racial Equality in America", by John Hope Franklin, and to make a critique of the book. The first part shows information about the author and the credentials that confirm him as an important spokesman for racial equality in America. Also, after the summary, I will try to give my humble vision on how to change the "obsession" of Americans regarding racism (adjective copied by me from Franklin).…
In 1776, as the new United States of America was declared, a new age of democracy dawned over the world. Equality, freedom, and fairness were championed by enlightened men in the United States and throughout the world. Fifty-six proud signatures on the Declaration of Independence sent a message to King George III of England and the rest of the world that his system of oppression and unfair punishments levied on the colonists was intolerable and abusive. Yet millions of people were still oppressed, denied legal rights such as due process, and received unfair punishments for nearly two centuries in the proud new country. The center of these grievous crimes was the lack of enforcement of the United States law.…
The term disenfranchisement can be defined as dispossessing individuals or whole groups of their power, rights and privileges and deserting them in a state of powerlessness. This notion is profoundly explored and evinced in Harper Lee’s award winning novel- “ To Kill A Mockingbird”, published in 1960. “ To Kill A Mockingbird” is set in the fictitious rural town of Maycomb, Alabama, the United States in the 1930s, in an aeon of great economic and social turmoil. Sexism, racism and other prejudices was at its pinnacle point and Lee embeds these attitudes within the foundation of Maycomb’s society in order to genesis Maycomb as a town with rigid social hierarchy and quintessential traditions and attitudes of that epoch.…
The main idea of this story is racial injustice to the South. As the first paragraph starts of her ancestors come to America was a fur trader and apothecary named Simon Finch, and he established a successful farm. It was on the Alabama river the farm was called Finch’s Landing, It supported the family for many years. Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, who was a lawyer in his nea by town Maycomb, his brother Jack Finch who went to medical school in Boston, and their sister Alexandra stayed to run the landing.…
The other Wes Moore is a non fiction chronicling life of two African American boys whose life took a ridiculous degree of divergence. It presents story of two boys from low-income family with similar background, where one turns out to be a Rhodes scholar, while the other ends up in prison for armed robbery and murder. Writer does not pretend to know why this happened nor holds the belief that a single event was catabolic in creating this chain reaction. The story is mostly descriptive, and writer presents the story as it is, leaving the readers to draw on their own conclusion. The author Wes Moore, and the other Wes Moore both grew up in Baltimore, without a father.…
In the 1930’s, African-Americans made up more than 25% of the students in schools, but received only 12% of all education revenues and only 3 percent of funds budgeted for school transportation (www.loc.gov). This statement proves how prejudiced the country was at that time period. Racism wasn’t just person to person, but it was institutionalized from companies and organizations. It affected everyone, whether it benefited you or hurt you. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee deals with it because the book is based on a family that directly sees racism happen and it changes their perspectives.…
Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist, once stated, “All men are created equal. No matter how hard they try, they can never erase those words. That is what America is about.” Although it is a fundamental American idea that people are created equal, this often is not the case due to personal bias. The similar sentiment, unnecessary racism, is mirrored in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.…
Would you want to shelter our youth from America’s flaky history and instead tell them lies about what happened when a black man couldn’t go to school with a white person? That’s what could happen if we stop reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. If it is still taught in schools the children of America get to experience the novel’s great life lessons such as not to be so quick to judge people, the novel’s great characters, and the superb symbolism in the book. To Kill a Mockingbird should still be taught in schools because it teaches the reader some great life lessons. For example when Atticus was defending Tom Robinson he said, “Simply because we’re licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us to try not to win.”…
Comparing and Contrasting the Trials of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Boys Racism and prejudiced views, although they still exist today, used to have huge negative impacts on the way people used to live back in the 1930’s. The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal.” Although that was said and implied, the right was still robbed from others because of the color of their skin. The novel written by Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird perfectly portrays this in a court case set in the 1930’s where a man Tom Robinson is convicted of rape solely because of the color of his skin.…
To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is written to address the horrendous issues of the 1930’s, The Great Depression, the Jim Crow Laws, and segregation. It explores a variety of themes, all of which affect the reader greatly. Its portrayal of white supremacy, injustice, and prejudice is evident in many occurrences during the novel. The way the characters react to these times of hardship, however, defines their real strength stated by Martin Luther King Jr with the quote “the ultimate measure is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. These significant themes, white supremacy, injustice, and prejudice, are reflected through the characters Scout Finch, Atticus…
Since the early 1900s, there is racism in the deep south like the State of Alabama. Several African Americans doesn’t have the same right as a white man does. Sometimes, this leads to violence and misjustice. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee wants to tell the people that African Americans don’t have the same rights as a white man. Harper Lee tells a story where a black man is convicted and found guilty because his race is black.…
The use of Equality, Respect, and Integrity in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a book set in the 1930s that centres around Macomb County. This book follows the story of Scout and her childhood adventures. Her father Atticus Finch is Scout’s single surviving parent and he tries to teach her several values. Atticus Finch teaches Scout equality, respect, and integrity through direct and implied conversations. Scout learns equality when Atticus repeatedly teaches her that all people are equal and only their actions set them apart, she learns respect when he shows kindness even to those he disagrees with, and she learns integrity as he repeatedly teaches her a set of values.…
Judgment of African Americans was still very prominent despite the steps that our nation was taking to merge them into our society. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written around the same time period that the Civil Right’s movement was enacted and in it, the author, Harper Lee, continuously implies that prejudging someone based on their race…
Author: Harper Lee Title: To Kill a Mockingbird Reading Level: 8-12 (790L) Sophistication Level: 11 To Kill a Mockingbird is an American literary classic, published in 1960. The story takes place between the years of 1933 through 1935, during the Great Depression era. It takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama and tells the story of Scout Finch and her father Atticus, who is a widowed lawyer.…
The argument made by Harper Lee in “To Kill a Mockingbird” mentions that social inequality is increasing; it is difficult and it affects everyone. The inequalities the occurred during the time period of the book took place in shows the amount of racism the blacks had faced. They ruined all the human nature laws and principles that are lived by. “As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash” (Lee…