Message To The Grass Roots Analysis

Decent Essays
In the interview that Ta-nehisi Coates has he brings up a few points that were every meaningful in the case of police brutality. Coates was first really aware of police brutality when a friend of his, Prince Jones, was killed. Jones was a fellow student at Howard University where Coates attended. Jones was driving one day through Maryland where he had just dropped of his daughter and was on his way to see his fiancée. While driving Jones was being followed by an undercover police officer dressed as a drug dealer. The police officer following Jones thought jones was someone else. After driving through Maryland, Washington, D.C and into Virginia, Jones was then killed. I believe that Jones execution was essential to Coates story and to his life because before Jones …show more content…
In "Message to the Grass Roots" Coates remembers a specific quote "Don’t give up your life. Preserve your life. It’s the best thing you have going. And if you’ve got to give it up, make sure it’s even-steven." it was a profound claim about the value of your body that was very important to Coates especially considering his upbringing. Marshall "Eddie" Conway was the former Black Panther leader in Baltimore, Maryland, who served 44 years for a murder he denies committing. Eddie Conway and the men in prison were one of Coates first memories as a child. These memories Coates has of visiting Conway in prison is essential to everything Coates had done as a journalist. Meeting these influential men was a big part of Coates life. Without these men in his life I feel that Coates wouldn’t have followed in his father’s footsteps as a political activism. Malcolm X and Eddie Conway were on of the reasons Coates was aware of the situation concerning the people of color. His eyes were open to all the unfairness, mistreatment and

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