... that "when white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out." He also expressed the horror he felt while reading about slavery. Malcolm then became determined to learn more about the past. He hungered for books about history, especially black history. He also wanted ... began to search for books and stories and poems about the black race - "about my people," writes Marshall. Like Malcolm X, Marshall discovered that through reading she could learn about the African American culture and could gain access to a sense of intimacy with her people. However, unlike Ma...

• Word Count: 1004
• Approx Pages: 4

... his education secretly. If Frederick's learning were to ever be discovered by the public, punishment would take place and maybe result in death. Although reading wasn't against the law for Richard, he still had to give away money and steal food to succeed like Frederick. They both had that powerful ... Frederick and Richard had to live on their own moral principals for them to succeed in life because they basically just had themselves to engage in reading and writing; they were forced to learn everything on their own. This realization made it hard for Frederick because he had no one to ...

• Word Count: 1141
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Church, Atlanta, who pushed him to believe in himself, live through the spirit of God, and to welcome the challenges life has for you. As I continued reading through the many trials Martin Luther King, Jr. went through as he became famous, I believe this book was well deserved. He covered many aspects of Martin ... what was happening (once you defined the "big words"). One thing Mr. Frady did not take consideration of was the various types of people who would be reading this biography. I consider myself to be a good reader and often found myself lost in his words. He often used "big wor...

• Word Count: 1044
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird has been placed among the list of "most frequently banned books"(Lee). Many of the American classics that generations of children have grown-up reading have been banned from the classrooms due to content that society has deemed questionable. In this novel, Jean Louise Finch ("Scout"), recalls the lessons she learned while growing up in ... religious opinions (Haight). Due to the desire of school boards to avoid conflict, may of them have yielded to the People for the American Way, PAW, and taken books off reading list. The most common reasons fo...

• Word Count: 1207
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Haley was writing his autobiography. I do not fully understand why Elijah Muhammad allowed such politics to enter the Nation of Islam. It appeared from the reading that Mr. Muhammad truly cared for Malcom and his mission in building the Muslim religion. As I have not done extensive research on the Nation of ... dead! I find myself wanting to know more about him and his life, as well as the Muslim religion and their beliefs. I can honestly say I started reading this book with a prejudice, I thought to myself, "Why are we studying him? Why not someone else, surely there are better men for u...

• Word Count: 4036
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... teachers weep over my writings. I have made entire classes afraid to sleep at night because of my writings. In retrospect I guess my ability to write came from my love of reading. As a small child I was fascinated at the large leather backed books my grandfather kept on the shelves. I dreamed of being able to read one of those books, until I realized I could ... for me to read those big books I will have to start small and work my way up. This realization started my love for reading. As a child I will spend all day reading and imitating the style of the writer. After reading a book I wo...

• Word Count: 1287
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... reputation as the mother of African American journalism. "The Slave Auction" describes an unpleasant and inhuman process of slave trade from the perspective of the victims. After thoroughly reading her poem, it gave me a different look on the slave auction. From my knowledge of a slave auction, I remember seeing pictures of how these helpless black men are sold as if ... and forced to open their mouths for the buyers. "And mothers stood, with streaming eyes, and saw their dearest children sold," from lines 5 and 6 made me unhappy just reading this very small line. Horrible things went o...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... any subject with him. Malcolm felt unknowledgeable. At this point in Malcolm X life he decides to teach himself and become educated. He first starts out with reading and copying the dictionary. Malcolm then starts reading anything and everything he can. He claims that he read so much and for so long that he in turn became a monk amongst the prisoners. Malcolm X education ... history. He endured severe hardships while growing up that created in him, the need to change white and non-white views about the Afro-American community. What was interesting threw reading the book was watching Mal...

• Word Count: 2027
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... deeply moved. The way in which Mr. Douglass walked me through each stage of his "career" as a slave gave me a better understanding of the African American slaves" struggle. I realized in reading this mans story that he was a gifted individual and I pondered over where his strength came from? It is true and obvious that Mr. Frederick Douglass was an extremely gifted man ... Aunt Hester is getting whipped for sneaking out in the middle of night. I did not want to think that a human being could treat another in such a worthless way but after reading I was convinced that one did. Douglass t...

• Word Count: 1601
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... the slave Jim and its repeated use of the word "nigger." The book was removed from some schools in the New York City school system, and its place on required reading lists was threatened in other cities. Some people see Huck Finn as a racist, but this is not the case. He says the word "nigger" because that was the term used ... a majority of those kids listen to music that contains that word over and over. I believe that they use the line of "Oh it offends me." as an excuse of not reading the book. Completely banning a book is harsh. There could be people who want to read the book. Taki...

• Word Count: 905
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... happens to a "Dream Deferred" when your in "Harlem"? Langston Hughes wrote one poem and it was titled two different titles throughout his life, each title gives the poem a profoundly different reading. Reading this poem with the title "Dream Deferred" makes it universal, anyone can relate to it. The majority of the world can relate to having a dream deferred in their life, and ... them, "Does [the dream] stink like rotten meant?"(ln. 6) As the reader encounters the strophe of questions they reflect back on their dreams and do a type of self analysis almost. Reading "Dream Deferred" is a...

• Word Count: 525
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... and less likely to be in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, or calculus. Although 53 percent of white eleventh-graders could perform reading tasks that they were likely to encounter in college, only 20 percent of black students could perform these complex reading tasks. The relatively recent use of microcomputers in school has already resulted in quantitative as well as qualitative inequalities. Schools with ... homes in which the head had less than a high school education, a third were receiving welfare and a quarter were living in substandard housing. Differences in size and type of fam...

• Word Count: 6633
• Approx Pages: 27

... slaves were mirror images of what Twain renders. Though the language used and the images of African Americans present within in the novel is reflective of 19th century society, one reading this novel in the contemporary era would find the text very demeaning if not read or taught in its context. The use of the word "nigger,"" a racially charged epithet in ... the extensive use of this word. For example, when Jim is introduced, he is not introduce as Jim but as "Ms. Watson's big nigger."" So a child of African-American descent reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn today would take t...

• Word Count: 596
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , he was highly popular in the Deep South, for his stand against civil rights legislation. American conservatives would learn major lessons from their defeat in 1964, which you will be reading about in Lisa McGirr's book Suburban Warriors. Rather than ushering in a new period of liberal Democratic hegemony, that election would mark the gradual unraveling of the New Deal coalition and ... of equal protection of civil rights in employment, housing and public accommodations, upholding broad principles of non-discrimination. Overturning obstacles to and committing government to defense of bl...

• Word Count: 3629
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Americans students and parents find it tremendously offensive and are adamant in taking the novel out of class curriculums and libraries. Parents of black students also are worried that in reading the controversial novel in schools, the consequences are African American students will lose their self-confidence and even threats of harassment from white students will occur as declared by Judge ... Reinhardth, "reading books causes evil conduct" (Bob Egelko). In comparison, many historians and teachers proclaim that the highly sensitive racial slurs that occur in the novel, Adventures of H...

• Word Count: 640
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , which entices the reader through their emotions. This is the style that grabs me as a reader and keeps my attention. Pathos will get you emotionally involved in what you are reading and makes you feel connected to the characters. The ethos style is used to charm the audiences sense of ethics. In order to persuade the reader to understanding the author ... excellent job at putting his words on paper and using the different writing styles to persuade the audience. Even if a reader was not involved in the situation either way after reading this letter, the reader would become more bias on...

• Word Count: 663
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... the street cars they touch as free citizens, each paying for the right to ride, the white not in a place of command, the Negro without an obligation of servitude." After reading the title Did Racial Segregation Improve the Status of African Americans, I had to read it over again about three more times just to make sure I had read it right. After ... reading this question, one might think that the answer is obvious. However, Howard N. Rabinowitz really did believe that the racial segregation helped the African Americans. He believed that blacks had one ... when and where blacks were se...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Reconstruction did not transform the South for African-Americans. I have come to this conclusion from reading "Retreat" and "A Short History of Reconstruction". After reading the two readings, it made me realize slavery did not really "end" until the Civil Rights Act. Reconstruction in my opinion just bought on all of the "white supremacist" groups, ... 't African-American's have the right to vote but women also were not treated equal, women were only good for household chores and bearing children. I have come to this conclusion by reading about different women with the exact same views. The ...

• Word Count: 552
• Approx Pages: 2

... with Derek's father and they were sitting around eating dinner. Derek mentions Mr. Sweeney and how he was black and how Mr. Sweeney had 2 PhD's and that he had them reading black literature. Derek's dad says "Oh is it Black History Month". Soon there after his dad goes off and starts talking about how the force hired two black men over ... said don't give in to Sweeney's trap. 3. Derek's father and his father's beliefs in Affirmative Action socialized Derek in a couple ways. In the dinner scene Derek explains that he is reading black literature in English class. His dad asks if its blac...

• Word Count: 1172
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... 's stories after reading Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God was like jumping into a cold shower and wiping the sleep from my eyes. His writings wake you up for the gross injustices and inhumanities ... the end. The first time I felt so bad, I felt pity for him, but I know that is not what Wright would have wanted the reader to get from the story. Upon reading it again I felt differently, I was genuinely mad, mad enough to hate the portrayals of the white characters in this story. There was one single defining moment in this story when ... ...

• Word Count: 542
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... . When Hughes" writes "Or crust and sugar over- like a syrupy sweet?"(42). there is not much understanding as to what is the point. One can better understand this poem by reading other works of Langston Hughes" and of other writers" of black literature. This poem illustrates the hope that black Americans are losing and how they are not advancing to reach ... hope to his readers. He let's his readers know that they should not give up their dream and they should try harder in order to be noticed. What I understood from reading the last lines are an explanation that sometimes what we have t...

• Word Count: 1462
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... Finch has been held up as a role model of moral virtue and impeccable character for lawyers to emulate. To Kill a Mockingbird has endured as a mainstay on high school and college reading lists. It was adapted to film in 1962 as a major motion picture starring Gregory Peck. Plot and Major Characters To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the small, rural town of ... courage, intelligence, and humor, and they come to regard him as a hero in his own right. Critical Reception Since its publication, To Kill a Mockingbird has been enormously popular with the reading public, has sold millions of copi...

• Word Count: 2287
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... how everyone around her sat on the edge of their seats the entire time, especially when Joe Louis got on the ropes. She also gave images of them not breathing. Reading this autobiography Angelou makes the reader feel the intensiveness from her childhood she showed the reader what it was like being an outsider in America. As she told the story ... reader how all the Negroes sat sweating and praying while the fight went on. She talked about the black sky that was streaked with lightning on this one specific night. Reading her story makes readers imagine people sitting around listening fea...

• Word Count: 790
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... , impossible" (Foley) to teach the novel in a predominantly black classroom; and the offensive language in the book certainly makes it a difficult book to read. Some might argue that by reading this book and its racial slurs, "impressions can be made that such racist actions are all right or allowed." (Maseda) Many people say that Twain's use of the ... because the "n-word" brings up vulgar images of the past and can promote a negative image on black people, making them "cheap slave-era stereotypes." (Salwen) After reading Huck Finn, I believe it all comes down to how the teacher approac...

• Word Count: 920
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... ". In Footloose the parents relate to the white people in the civil rights movement. The parents are the people who are against the teenagers dancing, listening to music and reading. Whereas the white people who were enforcing the Jim Crow laws. The parents had to approve the books the teenagers could read and the music they could listen to just ... always under constant watch of their parents. The African Americans wanted to have the same rights as the white people. If the teenagers were caught dancing, listening to music or reading books that had not been approved they would have to go...

• Word Count: 1310
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School