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.

An Important American: Obama

Barack Obama is the most important American alive today. He can pass laws for the country.  He helps the people in need and he gave the country Obama care, for people without Medicaid. He helped the community with creating more jobs for the people and that is why I thing that Obama is the most important American alive today. 

Mia

The Most Important American

In my opinion, the most important American right now is the president of the United States is Barack Obama. He is the first black president, and he is trying to make a difference in this world for us with better jobs, better schooling and better places to live. He is trying hard to change everything that’s been wrong in our country, and I believe he will make so many good things happen to come. Those are the reasons why Barack Obama is the most important American to our country.

Nakeya

An Important American: Magic Johnson

The most important American alive today is Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson built schools all over the world to give students another chance, up to the age 21, to be able to finish school and earn their high school diploma. Magic Johnson is an AIDS survivor who came forward with his condition in a time when others were afraid to do so. His example has helped other people come forward and get help for any disease they have had. Magic proved to others that you can still move forward in life no matter what’s going on with you. Magic inspired young people to stay healthy and active. Magic has given back to people and places to help one another move forward. Magic Johnson is the most important American alive today.

Monique

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was hailed as a global renaissance woman. She was a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. She was born on April 4, 1928 in St Louis, Missouri. She grew up in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination. She also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African American family community and culture as a teenager.

Dr. Angelou loved arts.  So, she won her scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco.  As a  laborer, at 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African American female cable car conductor.  A few weeks after graduation, she finished high school giving birth to her son Guy.  As a young single mother she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook. However, her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center stage. 

Maya Angelou read and she also studied and mastered French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic.  While in Ghana, she met Malcolm X.   In 1964, she returned to American to help Malcolm X build his new organization of African American unity.  After she arrived in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated and his organization dissolved. 

Maya Angelou served as northern coordinator for the southern Christian leadership conference.  Maya began on her book that would become I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, which was published in 1970.  Also, it  was published to  international acclaim.  Maya appeared on television and films, including the landmark television adaption of Alex Haley's Roots.  President Clinton requested Maya to compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1933.  Maya Angelou read her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning”.  It was broadcast live around the world.  Maya also won awards of arts in 2000 and the Lincoln medal in 2008.

Takeya

Who Is Barack H. Obama?

Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Barack’s first name means “Blessed’’ in Swahili, an African language. Barack was his father’s name too, but neither of the baby’s parents called him Barack he was always “Barry”. Barry’s father was from Kenya, a country in Africa. His mother’s name was Stanley Ann Dunham, but she was known as Ann to her friends. Barry was an outsider for most of his life because he didn’t have a lot of money.

In 1992, he married Michelle and eventually had two beautiful daughters. Their names are Malia and Natasha (Sasha). Barry accomplished many things like writing a book titled The Audacity of Hope, being sworn as an Illinois senator, and being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Barack H. Obama became our 44^th president of the United States on January 20, 2009!

Nichole

Harriet Tubman

Name: Harriet Tubman

Occupation: Civil rights activist

Birthday: 1820

Death day: March 10, 1913

Place of birth: Dorchester County, Maryland

Place of death: Auburn, New York

Originally: Armanda Harriet Ross

Nicknames: Minty, Moses, General Tubman

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was an American bond woman who escaped from slavery in the south to become a leading abolitionist before the American Civil war. In 1861, The Civil war broke out between the northern and the southern States. John Andrew the governor of Massachusetts asked Harriet Tubman to work for the union army. John Andrew knew about Harriet Tubman as a slave. Before Harriet Tubman’s death she knew she wasn’t going to get well because of the pneumonia she had.   

  

Madam CJ Walker

Madam CJ Walker was born near Delta, Louisiana on December 23, 1867. Her birth name was Sarah Breedlove. Her parent’s Owen and Minerva were freed slaves and died from unknown causes. Sarah was the 5^th child and was the first in her family to be free born. Sarah became an orphan at the age of 7 when her parents died. She was sent to live with her sister Louivina and her brother in law. They all moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1877 where she picked cotton and was likely employed doing house hold work. 

Sarah got married to a man name Moses McWilliam and gave birth to a daughter name A’Lei, Moses died 2 years later. Madam and her daughter moved to St. Louis where Sarah her brothers were established as barbers. There Sarah had found work as a washerwoman earning $1.50 a day, enough to send her daughter to a city public school. While in St. Louis, Sarah met her second husband Charles J. Walker, who was known as a big time advertiser. He helped Sarah promote her hair products.

In 1890’s Sarah developed a scalp disorder that caused her to loose much of her hair and she began to experiment with both home and store bought remedies. In 1905, Madam was hired as a commission agent by Annie Turbine Malone (a successful, black hair care product entrepreneur) and moved to Denver, Colorado. Charles j Walker helped her create advertisement for hair care products use for African Americans. Charles J.  Walker  encourage  Sarah to use the more recognizable name Madam CJ Walker by which she was there after known as. In 1907, Walker and her husband traveled around the south and the southeast promoting her products and giving lectures demonstrations on her, involving her own formula for pomade brushing and the use of heated combs. In 1908, Walker opened a factory and a beauty school in Pittsburg. In 1910, Walker transferred her business operation to Indianapolis. The Madam CJ. Walker Manufacturing Company had become wildly successful with profits that were modern day. The company also trained sales beauticians.

The Walker agents became well known throughout the black communities of the United States, they promoted Walker philosophy of “cleanliness and loveliness” as a mean of advancing the status of African Americans. In 1919, Madam CJ Walker died in Irvington, Houston. Madam CJ Walker was best known for her hair care products and the straitening comb (hot comb). 

Monique