Coretta Scott King Freedom Essay

Improved Essays
Freedom Essay

Coretta Scott King, wife of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, once stated, “Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” Evidence clearly supports Mrs. King’s contention that freedom is a constant struggle. Wars, conflicts, and struggles throughout history and some that continue today provide the best examples. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States, World War II, and the Cold War provide the strongest evidence that people must struggle and sacrifice to maintain their freedom.

To begin with, African-Americans were enslaved prior to the Civil War. After the Emancipation Proclamation and passage of a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery, African-Americans had to continue to struggle for their freedom. For nearly a century, African-Americans faced racial discrimination. In the 1950s and 1960s, a Civil Rights Movement in the United States wanted to get rid of discrimination. One civil rights group called the “Freedom Riders” wanted to help African-Americans fight discrimination, but they faced violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). When the “Freedom Riders” went on a bus ride to New Orleans, “local police did little to stop angry mobs, and sometimes encouraged them,” as it stated in paragraph 5 in an article about the “Freedom
…show more content…
The Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt and by several other empires throughout history. Sadly, millions of Jews lost their battle for freedom in World War II when the Nazis and Hitler conquered many countries in the world. The Nazis killed six million Jews during the war. After the war, the Jews who survived created Israel in the Middle East as a homeland for the Jewish people. To this day, there is always war and conflict there. If the Jewish people had believed that freedom is permanent once you get it, Israel would have been destroyed many years

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    John Lewis was born in Troy,Alabama,on February 21, 1940. John had a great childhood. In 1957 John Lewis left Alabama to go and attend the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee and he learned about nonviolent protests against racial segregation. He was arrested during these demonstrations and his mom was very upset with him for it. Even though his mother was upset he was determined on the Civil Rights and went to participate in the Freedom Riders in 1961.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Civil Rights Movement Many people take for granted not having to sit on different sides of the bus or being able to eat in the same restaurant and even walking on the sidewalk. African Americans before the Civil Rights movement were harassed or treated very disrespectfully by whites. The Civil Rights movement is when blacks became as respected or as important as whites this was when whites noticed that African Americans were just like whites and deserve to be treated equal and not to be separated. Many Supreme Court cases concerning slavery or separation between blacks and whites helped America get closer and closer to were whites were able to understand that there not much different than blacks: (Dred Scott…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the biggest book awards to receive is the Coretta Scott King Award. The Coretta Scott King Book Award is given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. The award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honors his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood (ala.org). This award was established in 1969 and the award for illustrators was added in 1979. In 2010, “My People,” written by Langston Hughes and illustrated by Charles R. Smith won the Coretta Scott King Award due to its illustrations and powerful message.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Imagine yourself working endlessly, scorching hot days out in the fields plowing, planting and harvesting your crops. I work so hard to keep my family together so we can try to create a future. However, this land is not my land. I can’t keep and cherish all my harvest for my family and I. I am required to sacrifice a portion of the harvest to the white landowner. This situation draws a picture of what the African Americans during this time period went through.…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the Civil War, African Americans were supposed to be free and treated equal, but many people, especially in the south, still showed animosity towards them and many still saw African Americans as inferior. There were laws such as the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws that kept them segregated from White Americans and many African Americans still struggled to find jobs and positions of power. Almost immediately after the Civil War, Southern states who were fighting against the black’s rights, passed laws that would still restrict blacks. These laws were called Black Codes and although African Americans were emancipated, they still were faced with heavy oppression and many restrictions to their rights. Another set of laws that affected the…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the South, reconstruction after the Civil War could have been considered a failure. This is because after the war freed slaves would still live on the plantations that they were freed from and work as sharecroppers. Also with the African Americans free, they wanted to start finding out what happened to their loved ones who were sold away from them. The other problems that they were facing though were racism and hate because of which they were, even though the South would claim that the war was not over slavery, but over states’ rights. In the North on the other had African Americans still experienced racism, and hate because people were scared that as they moved north they were coming to take away the jobs of the northerners.…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Despite violent and non-violent economic and political suppression the freedom riders continued the protests. The Ku Klux Klan is a secret hate group that started in the southern Untied States. The group is uncontrollable towards the law and uses violence on whomever they are attacking.the white citizen councils is an organization founded in the southern United States that was founded to oppose racial integration of schools, voting and public facilities. There were many attacks where the local police should have shut down these internationally know racist groups,but sadly all local departments agreed with the situation. On May 14th 1961 the Ku Klux Klan had a plan to firebomb the Freedom Riders bus in the Birmingham terminal.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The time of modification after the Civil War, has been named the Era of Reconstruction. Amid this period, the government should have attempted to rebuild the South and fortify the Union. The government however, neglected to enable the South to finish its conversion into existence without bondage. The government ignored the treatment of African Americans and allowed the South to continue treating them inhumanely. The government additionally, neglected to help stabilize the economy in the South, as well as the political climate which was loaded with distrust and corruption.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In consequence, instead of being afraid all these incidents, more and more people started to support freedom riders in order to them succeed what they started. Most importantly, awareness of racial segregation began to build up in many people’s minds, led to various civil right movements later…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Segregation In The 1930's

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Segregation Imagine being segregated by society every day by the color of your skin. African Americans commonly faced challenges including, hate and abuse from white people. Most white people were always brought up to stay away from the blacks and not to be involved with them. In the 1930’s, African American rights were negatively impacted by segregation through transportation, education, and voting rights. African Americans lacked transportation rights.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    On May 4, 1961, a group of six whites and seven African Americans departed from Washington D.C. to begin their fight for Civil Rights. Their goal was to end segregation in bus terminals and in all transportation stations. These people were called the Freedom Riders. They fought to prove that “separate but equal” was not truly equal. They wanted to end the Jim Crow laws, and this was just one of the many ways they fought.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout much of American history, African Americans have been enslaved, feared, and loathed by white citizens. Despite gaining their freedom after the Civil War, African Americans continued to deal with racism, violence, and segregation. It wasn’t until the mid to late 20th century that blacks in America were granted equal rights. Many of us accredit the late Abraham Lincoln for the abolishment of slavery; though this was his initial plan before he was assassinated, we owe the credit to the late Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson was appointed after the death of Abraham Lincoln and even though he abolished slavery, he did not include slaves into his plan; but slaves were still free and deserved their rights of freedom.…

    • 2638 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Much of that suffering stemmed from the secret society of white supremacists going by the name of the Ku Klux Klan. The secret society, which was first emerged in the 1860s and later reemerged in 1915 by Colonel William Joseph Simmons, found many ways to hinder African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan marked themselves as “heroic redeemers of southern life” and against equality. (Bowles, 2011). The Ku Klux Klan is responsible for much of the violence against African American which included but was not limited to murder especially by lynching, arson, and assault and intimidation which in many cases were used to hinder them from voting.…

    • 1749 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freedom is underappreciated in today’s society. It is a luxury that people ignore and are oblivious to its existence. However, freedom is the core idea of America and its history is a huge part of how life is today. This essay will be over The Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King’s…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Due its prevalent nature, freedom, in general, cannot be placed in a particular category or as an idea. Rather, it has been the focus of insistent conflict in American history. The history of American freedom is an anecdote of deliberations, disagreements, and struggles rather than a set of an everlasting continuum or an evolutionary narrative toward a predetermined goal. The ideal meaning of freedom is an impacted privilege at all levels of society.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays