unit 4 post

On these two pages of the book, the African American children of Birmingham, Alabama are marching for equal rights. These children are marching without their parents, due to the fact that their parents were arrested the day before for the same reason, and now they are attempting to finish the march their parents started.

This helped me understand the amount of cruelty between the black and white community at the time, regardless of age. The fact that humanity was so angered by the idea of equality for all races that they were willing to arrest about a thousand minors is beyond upsetting. That day, those police officers arrested one thousand children, which is half of the Davidson student body, and none of them were as old as we are. These were CHILDREN. They knew nothing of the real world, and yet they knew enough about how poor segregation was, and were willing to keep on protesting and fighting for what they knew was right. Today, when we think of the Civil Rights Movement, we tend to think about adults as the important figures and who lead the events we read about in history books. Through this novel and throughout this unit, I have come to the conclusion that many unknown people made important marks on the Civil Rights Movement, and it shocks me that society seems to not know that they existed.

The reason why these two pages of the book in particular affected me differently was due to the bravery of the little girl on page 135. When the police officer (the WHITE, MALE police officer) asked the little girl what she was fighting for, she looked him dead in the eyes and said, “Freedom,” without hesitation, and that amazes me. The bravery of this young, black, girl to stand up to a white, male, police officer proves that those oppressed will stop at nothing to get what they deserve. And the fact that a policeman’s physical appearance alone terrified millions of African American at the time, and that this little girl still had the courage to stand up to him inspires me. The image alone of a white, male police officers still terrify the African American community today, so the respect that this young girl deserved is unmatched.Professor Wills said something in her lecture that really stuck out to me. “When one is willing to die for their ideas- one is free.” This young girl, her parents, and her willingness to stand up and risk her life for something she knows is wrong demonstrates that this girl is free.

pages 134 and 135 of March Book Two- by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell