The March on Washington 1963

Did you ever wonder what happened in the Civil Right era? I wrote my report on the March on Washington, and it changed everything for every African American in every corner of the world.

         The March on Washington occurred in the summer of 1963, shortly after the Birmingham Campaign, which was an effort to break segregation in the largest urban areas. Over 200,000 African Americans marched to Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963. As a result, the March on Washington is credited for creating a political platform for African Americans to finally have the Civil and Voting Rights in the mid-1960s.

          In 1963, racism was everywhere. Very few white and black got along. They even had separate washrooms, drinking fountains, schools, and stores. If you were an African American on the bus with Caucasians and you were sitting down and they weren’t, you had to give up your seat and move to the back. Blacks were beaten by White citizens and even the police, and they never got justice. Even judges were racist. Blacks couldn’t even vote, nor could they work, and they were getting fed up. In the winter of 1962, Martin Luther King Jr. asked President John F. Kennedy to release a new, fair Emancipation Proclamation, but the president disagreed and caused the March on Washington to begin.

          In the summer of 1961, a man named Philip Randolph decided to get 100,000 African Americans to circle around the Capitol, but some disagreed due to the fact that they feared what the government would do in retaliation. But, Franklin D. Roosevelt ended up signing the Executive Order 8802 which forced racist whites to open the job market to black people. Since the job market was now opened, Randolph decided the march wasn’t necessary. On August 28, 1963, 200,000+ demonstrators marched to Washington to Lincoln’s Monument for the 3^rd anniversary of Brown V. Board of Education and they had a prayer pilgrimage, and it is also the same day King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

          As a result, King met up with President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson at the white house where they discussed a need for two parties to support civil rights. Even though it wasn’t passed until President Kennedy died, which was the Civil Rights of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Brown V. Board

Can you imagine having to walk several miles just to get to school, when there’s a school directly across the street from where you live? African Americans had to do this for a very long time, until The Brown V. Board of Education was passed in 1954. This paper will discuss the causes and effect of the Brown V. Board of Education case and the effort to end desegregation.

Even after slaves were free and were able to vote, there was still segregation. Due to the Jim Crow Laws, blacks and whites weren’t able to use the same public facilities, ride the same buses and attend the same schools. During this time blacks were poor, with not enough books for learning with a class seating 40-50 students a class. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) tried to persuade congress and other legislative bodies to enact laws that would protect from lynching and other racist activity

Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, was the father of Linda Brown. Linda Brown had been denied from a school just five blocks away from her home and had to travel a long way to attend school where she was accepted, because of her race. Oliver Brown decided to sue the school district of Topeka, Kansas to end segregation. The case started in 1952, was heard and then eventually elevated to the supreme courts. The Supreme Court came to a unanimous decision to end segregation in public schools.

In 1954, The Brown V. Board of Education case was solved. There would be no more segregation within the schools; those cases were handled by NAACP and Thurgood Marshall. Kenneth Clark argued that segregated school systems made black children feel lower than white children and felt that, that shouldn’t been allowed. After the attorney generals of the states failed to desegregate schools quickly enough, the Supreme Court was forced to come up with a plan on how to do it in 1955. This ruling became known as Brown II

In conclusion, traveling far just to attend school had finally ended. I was able to attend schools where ever I wanted. Several laws were even passed; there would be no more segregation between whites and blacks. Everyone was to be treated equal under the law.

Monique 10/23/14

Cotton Gin

Have you ever wondered how we are able to get the things we use daily made of cotton, don’t worry here’s the answer!

 The creation of the cotton gin is important because it helped the farmers separate the seed from the cotton. This was a difficult thing to do because the seeds were buried inside of the cotton. Eli Whitney realized that the slaves had a difficult time picking the seeds from the cotton bolls. He accepted an invitation to stay with Catherine Greene who was the widow of an American Revolutionary War general near Savannah Georgia. While there Whitney learned of the production of cotton, and how the farmers faced hard times making a living not being able to pick the cotton faster. He decided to put together a simple invention to make it easier for the slaves to separate the seed from the cotton bolls in a shorter amount of time. Whitney worked on getting a patent for his invention that he planned to build and install throughout the south. The production of cotton increased in the south. The number of slaves and need for them also increased in the United States. This was all brought about because, in 1794, Eli Whitney patented a very simple machine, the cotton gin.

The farmers were excited about the idea of Whitney’s invention that could improve the production of cotton surprising, since they had no intentions sharing any of their percentage or profits with him. So, Whitney found out in that time the patent laws had loopholes that would make it hard to protect his rights as an inventor. However, the cotton gin still transformed and increased the production of cotton in the American economy.

The production of cotton increased in the south which made cotton a cash crop by 1860. The number of slaves in the United States had increased. Although the cotton gin made the process less labor-intensive, Farmers earned more profits which led to grow larger crops which required more slaves were a cheaper form of labor. The southern economy depended on cotton and slavery, and continued to hold onto their social order. However, the northerners focused more on industry than agriculture, which in turn made a difference in the two economies. Whitney had no idea that his invention would affect slavery in a negative way.

    This paper is about the importance of Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. As a result of Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, today we have many things made from cotton.

Gloria 10/23/14