Final Blog

    So even though my semester of my first year seminar class in 2021 concludes, it doesn't mean that the blogging will. This class taught me so much, taught me things I have never heard about in the 18 years I've been on Earth. Blogging is not only enjoyable but also gives me the chance to express one of my First Amendment rights, Freedom of Speech. 

    Honestly, if MLK was still alive, he would have a post every other day that expanded on his ideal dream to change the way things were back then. I feel like it could have attracted a lot more attention but that would be if EVERYONE was on the internet and followed his blog. He would have told the world about the changes that needed to be made and whether or not he was planning another protest or march(to get the word out and attract more people to help). The only downside about the internet is that everyone of all races would have socials like this and some would be against it and eventually plan to attack King's protest and hurt not only him but potentially thousands of others. In addition to MLK, Malcolm X and many other Black influential leaders would have blogs and if anything create one big blog so all their powerful ideas and words are on one page. 

    The internet expands the horizon about getting word out about marches like Black Lives Matter just like the Civil Rights Movement and "The March". Also similar to the past, when there were marches and protests, it wasn't only Blacks that participated. People from different skin colors and backgrounds came out and supported both movements.

August 1963

June 2020

With the internet and social media starting to become a big form of communication within the politicians and Americans, one sentence can turn into a social media war. In my opinion, blogging can both hurt and help the constitutional law. Today's day and age, politicians are having a hard time making good decisions for the good of the people and the "United" states isn't looking so united right now. But I'm praying that mayors and governors etc. make the best decision for the people while keeping the Amendments in mind. In addition to politicians, we the people also have a say but our opinions will clash with other that could cause conflict.

    All history aside, blogging had its pros and cons. Pro, I get to express my freedom of speech, freedom of the press and much more. I also get to blog whatever topic I want whenever I want. The blogging doesn't have to stop once FYS is over. A con is that there are times where I'll have a blog to post but get a brain fart and forget everything I was going to say. Especially the really important details to make the post spicy. I enjoyed being able to research past historical cases and learn about all the people that made the US what it is today, good and bad. 

    

    Dear future students, I recommend not slacking off when it comes to blogs because honestly you could get caught up with one and get so into detail with it that you forget about all the others. Don't be like me and procrastinate but also be like me and have fun while you're at it. It's worth it, trust me :)

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/22/mapping-black-lives-matter-protests

https://www.racked.com/2017/10/30/16496866/denim-civil-rights-movement-blue-jeans-history

Brown v Board

     In the case of Brown v Board, not only did it change history, but it also changed how schools were set up. If this is not already known, Brown v Board is a case where Linda Brown was denied admission to a public elementary school close to home and was told to go one further away. Oliver Brown, Linda's father, was furious about this. "Brown, an African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor and a Santa Fe Railway worker, wanted his daughter to be allowed to enroll in the all-white elementary school — not because the all-white school was superior to the all-black elementary school she attended two miles away — but because it was a matter of principle."

    As this case went on, the Brown family and their lawyers used "Separate but equal", the decision made in1896 of the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. They used the resources of this past case and also used it to argue that they created equal facilities, even though races were segregated. Plaintiffs in the case also claimed that the "separate but equal" ruling violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. One thing that was unknown is that according to Linda Brown, "Quality education was “not the issue at that time,”... “but it was the distance that I had to go to acquire that education.”

    In 1951, with the help of the NAACP which was led by attorney Charles S. Scott, a lawsuit was filed against the school district in federal court but unfortunately lost. The case was then appealed and taken to the Supreme Court a year later. The case combined five other cases from across the country that was involved with desegregation within schools. “The other cases included: Bolling v. Sharp, in D.C.; Briggs v. Elliot in South Carolina; Belton v. Gebhart (Bulah v. Gebhart) in Delaware; and Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County in Virginia."

    In addition to Brown being the lead plaintiff in the case, Thurgood Marshall could back him up as Marshall was the chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and "led the arguments on behalf of black children denied access to all-white schools, challenging the “separate but equal” legal doctrine that had stood since 1896 with the Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson."

    On the 17th of May 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. It was in the words of Chief Justice Earl Warren, "We conclude in the field of education, the doctrine 'separate but equal' has no place. Although Oliver and Linda Brown are deceased, their history will forever live on.

Above are students at Barnard Elementary School in Washington, D.C., one of the first schools to desegregate after the Brown ruling.

https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-six-decades-later-brown-v-board-education-ruling-is-still-only-an-aspiration/

Nettie Hunt and her daughter Nickie sit on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court following the high court's ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case. (Getty Images)

https://www.the74million.org/article/mcclellan-on-the-anniversary-of-brown-v-board-celebrating-the-unsung-female-heroes-of-the-landmark-school-desegregation-ruling/

More Bibliography:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/27/the-determined-black-dad-who-took-linda-brown-by-the-hand-and-stepped-into-history/

https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/index.html

EOTO Regents v Bakke

 Olympic protest of 1968

    As we know it, the Olympics are a series of sports where men and women from across the globe come to compete for the gold medal. But it wasn't always fun and games. In 1968, a San Jose State sociology professor, Harry Edwards, founded the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which included Tommie Smith and John Carlos as leaders. The project focused on the welfare of Black people globally and advocated for Black athletes. Specifically, they fought for the hiring of Black coaches and the barring of South Africa and (what is now) Zimbabwe from the Olympics for practicing apartheid. The African- American athletes intention was to draw the attention from all across the globe to address the problem, people of color in the U.S spotlighting the injustice and inequality millions of Black Americans encounter everyday.

    When receiving their medals, the duo stepped up to the podium wearing their symbolic beads, scarves, socks, and gloved fists. Carlos used a black shirt to cover the "USA" on his uniform to "reflect the shame I felt that my country was traveling at a snail's pace toward something that should be obvious to all people of good will," which he further explains in his book, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World. 

    Wearing beads and scarves to oppose lynchings and black socks with no shoes to highlight poverty, African American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos took to the podium during the October 16, 1968, Olympic medal ceremony in Mexico City to receive their respective gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter race. But it was a single accessory—a black glove—and an accompanying gesture—a raised fist during the American national anthem—that sparked an uproar. From that moment, the two athletes would be vilified, threatened and, in some circles, celebrated.

    During the award ceremony, Smith and Carlos, gold and bronze medalists, raised their fists in honor of Black power, and took off their shoes to symbolized Black poverty. In addition, the two men had such a powerful impact with their movement, that a statue was made of them.

Colin Kaepernick decided to continue the movement but in a different way in 2016 during the national anthem at a NFL football game. 

Bib:

https://www.history.com/news/black-athletes-raise-fists-1968-olympics

(EOTO) Plessy v Ferguson

    After hearing the trial Plessy v Ferguson, I was informed of many things that have gone on the past when it comes to rights for black Americans. How no matter of skin color, everything is looked at through the eye of a white man. 

Once my peers finished this argument between both parties, I was given the information that was somewhat related to the case. I learned many things I never knew existed in the past, specifically the 1890s. I knew of the Great Depression that was one of the many lows in American history. But what I didn't know of what downfalls that had came before it. One of them being the Depression of 1893. "The Depression of 1893 was one of the worst in American history with the unemployment rate exceeding ten percent for half a decade." 

    The Depression of 1893 included strikes, crusades, change in the economy and much more. But to change to a positive note, there was much economic growth. "Railroads opened new areas to agriculture, linking these to rapidly changing national and international markets...Railroad construction was an important spur to economic growth. Expansion peaked between 1879 and 1883, when eight thousand miles a year, on average, were built including the Southern Pacific, Northern Pacific and Santa Fe...The post-Civil War generation saw an enormous growth of manufacturing. Industrial output rose by some 296 percent, reaching in 1890 a value of almost $9.4 billion. In that year the nation’s 350,000 industrial firms employed nearly 4,750,000 workers. Iron and steel paced the progress of manufacturing."

  

    

    There is much more information related to the economic highs and lows in the U.S but there is more to the topic that can co-inside to the main argument of Plessy v Ferguson, the fact that Greeks and Romans even had slaves. Although the religions are split into three , surprisingly, in the religion of Christianity, Jesus himself never spoke out about slavery. 

    In the Jim Crow era in 1896, while there was chaos, women fought for their rights. There was also financial depression aka The Panic of 1893. 

https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-depression-of-1893/