Time to Build my Identity as an Activist

You can always do more! So why haven’t I? 

I could answer that I don’t pay much attention to the news or “politics” in general, which would be true but that’s the problem. It is a problem that I am walking around oblivious to what people are facing today in this world. I should be searching to get involved, the resources are at my fingertips. I am surrounded with so many opportunities. 

Answering the question “Who are you as an activist?” was difficult to find an answer to. I sat with it and really dwelled on the question. After thinking I came to the conclusion that I don’t feel I have much of an identity to claim myself as an activist. I feel I find myself self advocating often. I self advocate in school, to my teachers. At times I even have to advocate for myself when I am with friends or family. But there are also times I advocate for them as well, my little brother especially. I asked myself why I feel the need to advocate for him?  The answer brought me so much clarity. It’s simply because I am protective of him. He’s my baby brother, how could I not be? I love him and would do absolutely anything for him. 

So why can I not apply this to my peers? I may not have the same love for them the way I do my baby brother but I am one in the same as my peers. We are all people. I would go far lengths to protect my rights. It could be me in their situation and I know I thrive with support. 

As a young adult I have the accessibility to do my part as an individual to support my peers. I have to take the responsibility to seek knowledge and give out my support to those who need it. I have the opportunity to build my identity as an activist.

 

 
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Activist views on Freedom

I believe I would do a lot for my freedom. I do not know what I would do If I felt my freedom was threatened. This is because I live in a country where I feel safe and have my whole life. The idea of losing my freedom hasn’t run through my mind. We as Americans get the privilege to be whoever we want to be. Therefore I do not know what I would do in a situation where I felt as if my freedom was being taken away from me. Many people grow up and live in countries where there are no freedoms. If they lash out for freedom there are harsh consequences such as death. If I were to live in a country like that I do not know if I would put my freedom over my safety. That is what is hard about trying to obtain freedom. Is the freedom you’re fighting for worth your life? Is life worth living with no freedoms? Many people in history have asked themselves these same questions.  I believe if I was in a situation where I had little to no freedom I would fight for justice. This is a very hard thing to do though. I do not feel as if I’m an activist either. I do have strong opinions about certain topics but I tend to keep them more to myself. I do not think my opinions are powerful enough to change someone else. I may have ideas and thoughts that I believe could be useful but I tend to never speak them. Maybe in the future, I could start to share my beliefs and ideas with other people. I don’t believe you have to be an activist to get things done. Many great things can come if you’re a pacifist. I think trying to find the middle ground on any problem is one of the easiest solutions to keeping the peace.

 
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Civil Rights Workers

The three men accepted their work was fundamental, but moreover, perilous Ku Klux Klan participation in Mississippi was taking off in 1964 with participation coming to more than 10,000. The Klan was arranged to utilize savagery to battle the Respectful Rights development; on April 24 the bunch advertised a show of its controlorganizing 61 synchronous cross burnings all through the state.

Mickey Schwerner was a  Center field specialist slaughtered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in reaction to the civil-rights work he facilitated, which included advancing enlistment to vote among Mississippi African Americans. Born and raised in Unused York, he went to Michigan State Collegeinitially plans to end up as a veterinarian. He exchanged to Cornell Collegein any case, and exchanged his major to humanism, going on after graduation to the School of Social Work at Columbia CollegeWhereas an undergrad at Cornell, he coordinates the school’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi Crew. Twenty-four-year-old Schwerner had come to Mississippi in January of 1964 with his spouse Rita after having been contracted as a Core field laborer. In his application for the Center position, Schwerner, a local of Modern York City, composed “I have an enthusiastic have to be offer my administrations within the South.” Schwerner included that he trusted to spend “the rest of his life” working for an coordinates society. On January 15, 1964, Michael and Rita cleared out Unused York in their VW Creepy crawly for Mississippi. After talking with gracious rights pioneer Bob Moses in Jackson, Schwerner was sent to Meridian to organize the community center and other programs within the biggest city in eastern Mississippi. Schwerner got to be the primary white respectful rights specialist to be based exterior of the capital of Jackson. Once in Meridian, Schwerner rapidly earned the scorn of nearby KKK by organizing a boycott of an assortment store until the store, which sold for the most part to blacks, enlisted its to begin with African American. He moreover came beneath overwhelming assault.

Andy Goodman was sent to Meridian, Mississippi, and on 21st June 1964, Schwerner and two of his companions, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, went to Longdale to visit Mt. Zion Methodist Church, a building that had been fire-bombed by the Ku Klux Klan since it was planning to be utilized as a Opportunity School. On the way back to the Center office in Meridian, the three men were captured by Delegate Sheriff Cecil CostAfterward that evening they were discharged from the Neshoba imprison as it were to be halted once more on a rustic street where a white swarm shot them dead and buried them in a earthen dam. In June 2016, 52 a long time after the murdering of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney, state and government prosecutors have said that the examination into the killings is over. Mississippi lawyer common Jim Hood said. “The prove has been debased by memory over time, and so there are no people that are living presently that able to make a case on at this point.”

James Chaney was born May 30, 1943, in Meridian, Mississippi to Ben and Fannie Lee Chaney. In 1963, he joined the Congress of Racial Correspondence (Center). In 1964, the Center driven a gigantic voter enlistment and integration campaign in Mississippi called Flexibility Summer. As a portion of the Flexibility Summer exercises, Chaney was riding with two white activists in Mississippi when they were assaulted and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964. On January 7, 2005 Edgar Beam Killen, once a blunt white supremacist nicknamed the “Evangelist,” argued “Not Blameworthy” to Chaney’s kill, but was found blameworthy of murder on June 20, 2005, and sentenced to sixty a long time in prison. He was a local of Meridian and the eldest child in a family of five children. His mother, a residential worker, was defensive; his father, a plasterer, cleared out his mother when James was in his mid-teens. He was somewhat built, but athletic. He was portrayed as bashful in open, but a cutup in his home. Chaney to begin with experienced issues at the Catholic school for Negroes he gone to in 1959, when he was sixteen. Chaney was suspended for a week when he denied to evacuate a yellow paper NAACP “button.” The following year he was removed from school for battling. Chaney attempted to connect the armed force, but his asthma come about in a 4-F preclusion. Unemployed and fretful, Chaney joined the Negro plasterer’s union, where he apprenticed with his father. His work as a plasterer finished in 1963 after a battle with his father.

Gracious Rights activists driven by Ruth Schwerner-Berner, the previous spouse of Michael Schwerner, and Ben Chaney, the brother of James Chaney, proceeded to campaign for the men to be charged with a killInevitably, it was chosen to charge Edgar Beam Killen, a Ku Klux Klan part and part-time evangelist, with more genuine offenses related to this case. On June 21, 2005, the forty-first commemoration of the wrongdoing, Killen was found blameworthy of the murder of the three men. On 21st October 1967, seven of the men were found blameworthy of contriving to deny Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney of their gracious rights and sentenced to jail terms extending from three to ten long time. This included James Jordon 4 a long time and Cecil Costa long time but Sheriff Lawrence Rainey was acquitted.

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are murdered by a Ku Klux Klan horde close Meridian, Mississippi. The three youthful civil rights specialists were working to enroll Dark voters in Mississippi, in this way motivating the anger of the neighborhood Klan. The passings of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and individuals of the Congress of Racial Balance Core, caused a national shock.

I dont think i would join because I wouldn’t  want to be killed or go through what the 3 men went through because I have a whole life ahead of me. I don’t think i could do the life they went through and going through all the troubles of trials.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-murder/

http://www.core-online.org/History/schwerner.htm

https://spartacus-educational.com/USAgoodmanA.htm

http://www.core-online.org/History/chaney.htm

https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/how-the-naacp-fights-racial-discrimination-video

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-kkk-kills-three-civil-rights-activists

 

 

March book 3 The Bombing of 16th Street First Baptist

When reading pages 1-61 I felt like there were many things that stood out to me. To start off the main thing that stood out to me was the bombing of 16th Street First Baptist Church in Birmingham AL. The reason why I feel like this event stood out is because even though some of the blacks lost loved ones and family members, I feel like they were able to stick together to fight for what they loved. I felt that this was a very important event because as a college student I realized that even today everyone has to fight for what they want and need no matter how many obstacles it takes to succeed.
Growing up as a little girl there were many things my grandmother had to sacrifice for her children and also grandchildren. I feel like my grandmother had to fight many obstacles to get her in the peaceful place she’s in now. Growing up my grandmother didn’t really have anything for her just because of the environment she lived in. My grandmother had to pray many times to keep pushing through hard times because she knew that one day, she was going to be in the perfect place she always wanted.
The reason I felt like talking about my grandmother and the people during the bombing of the 16th Street First Baptist Church is because even though neither my grandmother nor the people of the bombing had much, they had to look in a positive direction to where they could change minds of other in the future no matter if they succeeded the first time or not. Also, both topics I talked about didn’t let anything hold them down no matter how many people tried to hurt them for them to give up.
Compared to then and now I feel like the news back then was very unequal. The reason I say that is because there were mainly only black being targeted no matter if they did anything or not. Back then I feel like whites got away with a lot of hate crimes just because of how privileged they were. Therefore, I feel that news has gotten a lot better with getting both sides of a story to where it’s like 50/50 of information being provided. I also feel like news now has made people realize how real life really is and how people can make the world a better place by using their voice instead of hiding their voice.
When looking at the choices the characters made in the book, I feel that their choices were worth it because they chose to fight for what they wanted for the future. I feel like they wanted their voice to be heard and remembered through all the pain and suffering they went through.
If I had to be a character in the book it would most likely be the police officers. I chose the police officers because I felt like they never sat and listened to what was going on around them. One thing I would change to make it a better situation would be putting myself in the protester shoes to understand the pain they’re going through just to have freedom and to live a better life like the whites at the time.

 

Activism and Voice

Activism

Activism is special because every single person is an activist , and many of them do not realize the power they have. We are all passionate about different components. Wether that’s emailing a teacher , because of a grade that seems to be wrong, and replying for a change.

We all have that feeling to promote a change within our human minds. Mine kicks in when I want my parents to do something for me that they don’t think is appropriate, like buying me a new car every year or letting me go to “that” party , where every other teenager is going to be. I can’t say that is the only way I’m an activist , but it is the most relatable for younger readers. I’m a stronger activist for Agriculture. I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born from hard workers and human beings with the desire to see other human beings be able to sustain a healthy lifestyle.

I have spoken out for these issues at the local, state, and national levels. I have a strong desire to the men , women , and children have the opportunity to provide for themselves, and have their voices heard. Just because these people don’t have the best education, or the same amount of wealth as the urbanized communities, they should not be left out of the conversation.

I see myself continuing to be a peaceful activist. I feel that using my voice is the ultimate weapon in todays society. A persons’ voice gives a voice to the voiceless. Violence is never the answer. Peace can move mountains!