Standing Up For Your Beliefs

            It's Black History Month, and we have begun to read texts that demonstrate the struggles of African Americans in the 1960s. This is when the Civil Rights law was passed by former President Johnson. In Martin Luther King's, Letter From Birmingham Jail, I was shocked to read about how he was thrown in jail for something that he simply believed in, which was ending racial segregation. My favorite part of his entire letter was when King described the American Dream. "They were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence." (1140). Martin Luther King Jr. wanted all African Americans to live the American Dream freely and not be bound down to evil unfair segregation. In the Declaration of Independence, one of the document's on which our country prides itself, states that all men of this country are created equal. All being equal, everyone had a fair shot at the American Dream, the irony is that, during this time many black Americans couldn't reach that because of the horrible, unfair segregation in America.
            Connecting to the novel that we recently started, The Secret Life of Bees, the character of Rosaleen, was unfairly put down by racism and segregation of African Americans. Rosaleen like all African Americans of the time wanted to live their own American Dreams and prosper in the country. But, they couldn't, due to ridiculous laws preventing them from doing many things white's could do. Rosaleen wanted to go into town and register to vote but she was getting harassed by white men, with rude comments. She fought back and poured her tobacco cup on their shoes. While reading, I was shocked when the men literally got up and beat her. She's a woman, and a man should never beat a woman. That just shows the disgusting racial views many white American's had during those times.  Just that demonstrates that something needed to be changed in America.
         Most importantly, what Martin Luther King Jr.  and the character of Rosaleen did is a drive to all people trying to accomplish a goal in life. Rosaleen's story is historically true, she was an African American woman trying to get the American right's that she deserves. Many African American's were trying to do the same thing Rosaleen was. The character of Rosaleen, and then some actual Civil Right's activists, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and many more are extremely inspirational American citizens. When the United States was going through one of the biggest racial segregation battles of its history, these people were brave and powerful enough to stand up and fight for what's right and end the unrighteous barrier between white's and black's. Those people didn't care that they could go to jail for what they were trying to accomplish, they were fighting for what was right and did things that have gone down in history.
         I find Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and the other figures of the Civil Right's Movement great examples of historical Americans. They stood up for what they believe in, ending some as important as racial segregation and accomplishing something great for America and letting all have a fair shot at the American Dream.  If those great people could help accomplish something that then seemed such a far shot and sometimes impossible, you should never give up on what you believe in because, it can always be done if you put your heart in it and not let anything get in your way.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Martin Luther King Jr.
-- I Have A Dream