Welcome!


Welcome to your Honors American Studies blog. We will use this tool throughout the course to discuss current events and reflect upon class discussion.

Friday, January 28, 2011

ASSIGNMENT: Frederick Douglass


Today we had a conversation on the excerpts we read from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. You made some great observations and connections to the text in our discussion. I'd like to extend the conversation just a bit further. In a comment to this post, please answer the following questions. Think deeply and use the text to support your response:

How and where is Douglass's narrative still relevant today? What are the threads that still remain in the contemporary texts we've read recently- ie; Crash, Recitatif, Twilight L.A. How does Frederick Douglass continue to inform our understanding of race relations in this country today?

Please post your comment by 9am MONDAY JANUARY 31st.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Museum of Science Addresses Race

Check out the following link. It discusses the new gallery offering at the Museum of Science dedicated to understanding the social construction of race.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Current Event: Treasure Coast activities honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

In southern Florida, Treasure Coast counties such as St. Lucie County, Indian River County, and Martin County are honoring Martin Luther King Jr. with parades, and many activities leading up to January 17. The whole meaning behind theses events is to bring about a theme which is self-above-self, which means that people should help others and their community. The activities in the counties are supposed to catch the attention of people of all races, countries and faiths working together.
From January 7-14th, the St. Lucie County is having a "week of kindness", which consists of many events such as MLK gospel songfest, MLK spelling bees, awards breakfast, family fun day, and youth essay and oratorical night.
Although many of the events are free, and accept public donations, some require a small fee between $3-15. Following the parade in that county January 17, there will be other events that follow to furthermore honor Martin Luther King Jr.
In the Indian River County, and Martin County, they are also having similar activities to those in the St. Lucie County, as well as having small fees to enter.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/jan/10/treasure-coast-activities-honor-civil-rights-jr/


Probing Question: Do you think that other states such as Massachusetts, should hold parades and activities like the ones in the Treasure County?

Monday, January 10, 2011

Current Event: 150 million dollar superblock plan denied

A 150 million dollar plan to make a new shopping center, hotel, apartments and garage building has been denied because African American scholars stepped forward and said that one of the buildings on the block is a historical landmark. Read's drugstore was the site of the a sit in protest done by black college students back during the civil rights movement. This sit in convinced the drugstore chain to open its counters at all 37 stores around Baltimore to all black people. It was one of the first places to not be segregated in Baltimore.

The building is not currently being used for anything. It is abandoned and the contractors decided it wouldn't be worth it to remodel the building. They have also tried suggesting donating 100,00 dollars and creating a plaque.

This project would have been an "economic engine" not only creating new homes and stores in the area for people, but also supplying jobs for people in the area. This block would also right new value of other homes in the area overall helping everyone.

Probing Question: How important are landmarks like this and when do we forget the past and focus on the present day issues?


Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Current Event- Why Barbour's Civil Rights Remarks May Not Kill a White House Run

My current event was about Haley Barbour and how he was making racist remarks. Haley is the Mississippi Governor and will be running for president in 2012. Haley never had himself recorded or on a video, and if he did when running for president people will watch that and will lose some voters. In the article, it was talking about elements to "help kill political careers." This means that Haley put himself in a situation, but there is not proof that he said any racial remarks. The four elements consist of how there was no video of Haley, a quote online or on paper doesn't mean as much as to hearing it in person or on a video/audio. The second element consists of how untimely this situation is happening. Haley is running for president and is current governor in Mississippi, he will lose some voters and when people go to vote, they will think about those remarks. The third element is journalists or political hacks will find history about Haley and see if they can find anymore incidents similar or worse. The final element consists of how Haley will lose African American voters or any voters who are against racism.

In this interview by Justin Miller, it says, "The Citizens Council wasn't as bad as the Ku Klux Klan, Barbour said, apparently not adding that it was anti-black."

The Citizens Council is a newspaper that ran through October 1955 to September 1961. The main purpose of the Citizens Council is to inform white families to not let their children interact in classrooms with African American children.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866. It extended to most of the southern states by 1870. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s saw a surge of KKK activity, this includes bombing black schools, churches, violence between black and white.

Probing Question: If you were 18 and could legally vote, would you vote for Haley Barbour for president?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/12/why-barbours-civil-rights-remarks-may-not-kill-a-white-house-run/68367

Monday, January 3, 2011

Current Event- Activism Through Media for Civil Rights

The article “Civil Rights Activists Tap New Media” shows the launch of activism through technology. This includes Twitter, e-mail, Facebook, and blogs. A very successful website creator is James Rucker who has created a lot more awareness of the Civil Rights problems today. He created ColorofChange.org which has an email list of 800,000 people. This organization was able to raise $285,000 from donors to pay for lawyers for six young black men in Louisiana who were charged with attempted murder to a white classmate. With all of these people uniting together for the cause, the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor. It is thought that there was too harsh of a charge given because the men were black.
Color of Change also led a boycott against commentator, Glenn Beck when he called the president a “racist”. There was a large amount of controversy over his words and through this Beck realized he was wrong and made a public apology where he expressed his strong approval of the organization.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is another example of a successful media advocacy. Two years ago there were only a couple thousand followers of the website which was then revamped. Now, there are over 400,000 members of the online advocacy. NAACP created awareness of two black girls who were charged with double life sentences in 1993 for only an $11 armed robbery. Supporters of this cause through NAACP though this sentence was not fit for the crime because of their race.
Historically, this ties in with the “sit-ins”. The “sit-ins” happened during the early 1960’s at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. On February 1st, 1960, 4 black students from North Carolina sat down at the local lunch counter. The lunch counters were “white only” and blacks were not allowed to sit there. Although they were not served they sat at the lunch counter for the day. The next day twenty-three students showed up at the counter and by 1961, 100 southern cities were participating in lunch ins. This spread to “kneel-ins” at churches, “sleep-ins” in hotel lobbies, “swim-ins” at public pools, along with many other places that were segregated. Within a few months four theaters and six lunch counters were desegregated showing that this was making an impact. Between 1961 and 1963, 20,000 people were arrested for these non-violent acts and within just 1963, 15,000 were imprisoned. People participating in this, mostly young people were beaten up and arrested. They would be spit on by white people and even had shakes poured on them. Although all this mistreatment, they remained non-violent.

Probing Question: Do you think a public display of activism on the streets or an easier access to activism through technology is more effective? Why?

Sources:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/01/02/civil_rights_activists
http://socialistworkerorg/2010/02/01/sit-ins-that-ignited-a-movement

THIS I BELIEVE ASSIGNMENT


So today we learned about our next writing adventure! Who are you? What do you care about? What do you BELIEVE in? You have some thinking to do.

I'd like you to take some time to listen to some examples. (Perhaps you'll have better luck than we did in class.) Go to this website: http://thisibelieve.org



Check out the site, and click on the "listen" tab. There are lots of ways to navigate the site. You can search for an essay written by a certain individual (there are lots of famous contributors) or you can scroll through themes or topics.

Once you've listened to one, add a comment to share a quick summary and your thoughts about the essay. Make sure you name the essay title and author, and include specifics. If you repeat an essay that someone's already written about, you'd better be sure to add additional insight.

Please add your comment by Wednesday January 5th.

Remember, your completed "This I Believe" essay is due at the start of class on Wednesday January 12th.