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Legal Desegregation of American Schools Ruling
Brown v School Board 1954
George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit after the Brown v
Board decision (Library of Congress # LC-USZ62-130574)
Teen-agers storm Baltimore's City Hall in protest against school integration,
1955 (Library of Congress # LC-USZ62-126454)
With all deliberate speed
Source:
www.brownvboard.info/
2
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
The Woman Who Changed
a Nation
By Kira Albin, interview conducted in 1996
Photos courtesy of Monica Morgan Photography and Zondervan Publishing House
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man forty years ago on
December 1, 1955, she was tired and weary from a long day of work. At least that's
how the event has been retold countless times and recorded in our history books.
But, there's a misconception here that does not do justice to the woman whose act of
courage began turning the wheels of the civil rights movement on that fateful day.
Rosa Parks was physically tired, but no more than you or I after a long day's work. In
fact, under other circumstances, she would have probably given up her seat willingly
to a child or elderly person. But this time Parks was tired of the treatment she and
other African Americans received every day of their lives, what with the racism,
segregation, and Jim Crow laws of the time.
Picture: Rosa Parks being booked
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"Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it," writes Parks in her recent
book, Quiet Strength, (ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1994). "I kept thinking about my
mother and my grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a
possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I
had asked of others."
The rest of Parks' story is American history...her arrest and trial, a 381-day
Montgomery bus boycott, and, finally, the Supreme Court's ruling in November 1956
that segregation on transportation is unconstitutional.
But Parks' personal history has been lost in the retelling. Prior to her arrest, Mrs.
Parks had a firm and quiet strength to change things that were unjust. She served as
secretary of the NAACP and later Adviser to the NAACP Youth Council, and tried to
register to vote on several occasions when it was still nearly impossible to do so. She
had run-ins with bus drivers and was evicted from buses. Parks recalls the
humiliation: "I didn't want to pay my fare and then go around the back door, because
many times, even if you did that, you might not get on the bus at all. They'd probably
shut the door, drive off, and leave you standing there."
Forty years later, despite some tremendous gains, Parks feels, "we still have a long
way to go in improving the race relations in this country."
Rosa Parks spends most of her year in Detroit but winters in Los Angeles. Her day is
filled with reading mail,-"from students, politicians, and just regular people"-preparing
meals, going to church, and visiting people in hospitals. She is still active in fighting
racial injustices, now standing up for what she believes in and sharing her message
with others. She and other members of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for
Self-Development have a special program called Pathways to Freedom, for young
people age 11-18. Children in the program travel across the country tracing the
Underground Railroad, visiting the scenes of critical events in the civil rights
movement and learning aspects of America's history.
Says Elaine Steele, Parks' close friend and cofounder of the Rosa and Raymond
Parks Institute for Self-Development, "Mrs. Parks is a role model that these students
look up to, and they feel very honored and privileged to be in her company. And she's
very gracious to accompany the students to these activities."
February, Black History Month, seemed a relevant time to evaluate youth and their
sense of history. But Parks thinks bigger and broader. "We don't have enough young
people who are concerned and who are exposed to the civil rights movement, and I
would like to see more exposure and get their interest," she says, pausing to reflect,
"but I think it should just be history, period, and not thinking in terms of only Black
History Month."
Parks is quiet, soft-spoken, and diplomatic. But she is firm in her belief that enough
people will have the courage and dedication to make this country better than it is.
"And this young man that's taking over the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume, I admire him a
great deal," she adds. About Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Black Muslims, she
says, "Well, I don't know him personally, but I think it was great that he spearheaded
the million man march."
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Parks has met many renowned leaders and has traveled throughout the world
receiving honors and awards for her efforts toward racial harmony. She is
appreciative and honored by them but exhibits little emotion over whom she has met
or what she has done. Her response to being called "the Mother of the Civil Rights
Movement" is modest. "If people think of me in that way, I just accept the honor and
appreciate it," she says. In Quiet Strength, however, Parks is careful to explain that
she did not change things alone. "Four decades later I am still uncomfortable with the
credit given to me for starting the bus boycott. I would like [people] to know I was not
the only person involved. I was just one of many who fought for freedom."
In August 1994, Parks was attacked in her home by a young man who wanted money
from her. Of the event, she writes, "I pray for this young man and the conditions in
our country that have made him this way. Despite the violence and crime in our
society, we should not let fear overwhelm us. We must remain strong." Parks' belief
in God and her religious convictions are at the core of everything she does. It is the
overriding theme in her book and the message she hopes to impart: "I'd like for
[readers] to know that I had a very spiritual background and that I believe in church
and my faith and that has helped to give me the strength and courage to live as I
did."
Source:
http://www.grandtimes.com/rosa.html
Rosa Parks: How I fought for Civil rights
Source:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/rosa/
McCarthy Witch Hunts
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm
http://boomp3.com/m/91d184a59074
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THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller (1952)
In 1953, Arthur Miller's play "The
Crucible" ran on Broadway at the
Martin Beck. Despite being a box
office success and acclaimed by
critics and audiences alike, it was
considered second-best to his
prior "Death of a Salesman." As
Brook Atkinson for the New York
Times reported the day after the
opening, "[T]he theme does not
develop with the simple eloquence
of 'Death of a Salesman.'"
Although the events of the play
are based on the events that took
place in Salem, Massachusetts in
1692, Miller was liberal in his
fictionalization of those events.
For example, many of the
accusations of witchcraft in the
play are driven by the affair
between farmer, husband, and
father John Proctor (Arthur
Kennedy), and the Minister's
teenage niece Abigail Williams
(Madeleine Sherwood); however,
in real life Williams was probably
about eleven at the time of the
accusations and Proctor was over
sixty, which makes it most unlikely
that there was ever any such
relationship. Miller himself said,
"The play is not reportage of any
kind .... [n]obody can start to write
a tragedy and hope to make it
reportage .... what I was doing
was writing a fictional story about
an important theme."
The "important theme" that
Miller was writing about was
clear to many observers in 1953
at the play's opening. It was
written in response to Senator
McCarthy and the House UnAmerican Activities
Committee's crusade against
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supposed communist
sympathizers. Despite the
obvious political criticisms
contained within the play, most
critics felt that "The Crucible"
was "a self contained play
about a terrible period in
American history."
The Crucible (The Movie)
Over twenty years after the
opening of the play, the eightyone-year-old Miller wrote the
screenplay for the production of a
movie version of "The Crucible."
As was the play, the movie is a
fictionalized version of the events
of Salem in 1692. Additionally, the
movie was been changed from the
play in some minor respects. For
example, the movie opens with a
scene of the town girls sneaking
into the woods and participating is
a ritualistic dance with the slave
Top picture: E.G Marshall, Arthur Kennedy, woman Tituba--until they are all
and Beatrice Straight in the 1953 Broadway caught by the minister. In the play
this scene was referred to, but not
production.
performed. Another change is
that the Slave woman Tituba is
Bottom picture: Arthur Miller.
portrayed as black, when she was
actually an Indian.
Although hailed by some, the
movie was not as well received as
was the play. One critic stated,
"This filmic redux of Miller's
theatrical parable is somewhat out
of place on the modern
landscape. What was no doubt a
powerful and emotive effort in the
1950s, when it was written as a
scathing critique of Senator
McCarthy's crusade against
supposed communist
sympathizers, falls flat in the
'90s." Even the star-studded cast
was not enough to save the film
for some. "Winona Ryder and
Daniel Day-Lewis star in this twohour yelling match between good
and evil. Not recommended for
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those with a low tolerance for
'50s-style misogyny and moralistic
posturing." Not all were so harsh.
Another reviewer stated, "With a
head on its shoulders and the
rawest emotions in its craw,
Miller's stage hit "The Crucible"
has become a cinematic grabber
for grown-ups (**** out of four)."
Source:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_CRU.HTM
.