Racism In John Hope Franklin's The Train From Hate

Improved Essays
John Hope Franklin tells a story of something that happened when he was only seven years old in the story of “The Train from Hate”. It involves Franklin’s father which had moved to Tulsa to be able to support his family, while John, his mother, and his sister had still lived in Rentiesville Oklahoma. After researching more into the story I found that Charles Haskins, had done a lecture on Franklin, explaining Franklin’s father did not feel safe with his family being around the racial riots happening in Tulsa at the time. I myself grew up in a town with many racial issues. One of the middle schools I went to only had three white people, I being one of them. My parents didn’t feel comfortable sending me back to that school after I was jumped and beat so badly. Racism along with discrimination is still thriving in the blood of our youth today. While history keeps repeating itself due to the ignorance …show more content…
Living in an all-white town, going to an all-white church, having only all-white friends gave me the impression that this is what the world was like. I never heard of any other race other than white or any other religion other than Christian until one year in elementary an African American girl came into my class. I was in awe of her stunning dark skin and dark hair, yet petrified to ask her anything regarding her differences. When I arrived home later that day from school I told my mother about her and asked why I had never seen anyone like that or why I never knew that there was people like that in the world. My mother looked as if I had shown her a monster that had been hiding in my closet and then she yelled and sent me to my room. As the years went on I began to learn more of what was in the world and how racist my family really was. Saddened in the way my family felt I promised myself I wouldn’t follow in their footsteps and that I would be the change for the

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