Zinn Chapter 17 (English 2nd

¶ … ZINN CHAPTER 17 (English 2nd Lang)

What is your gut reaction to this chapter?

it is a haunting feeling to watch the same American society that we live in today behaving so differently. Whenever I watch any of these documentaries or read written accounts about what happened, I always wonder where some of the people are today who were very young back then.

How did World War II put pressure on the U.S. To end racial segregation and what was one of the first actions President Truman took to begin the process of desegregation?

During World War II, it became obvious that beliefs about black people being less intelligent or capable than white people were completely untrue. Black American service men and women served their country as well as heroically as white Americans. When they returned home, it became much more difficult to allow racial segregation in American society after so many Americans (including black Americans) fought and died in a war against other societies who demonstrated the dangers and immorality of racism in their societies.

3.) Describe one incident of the civil rights protests: a lunch counter sit-in, one of the Freedom Rides or one of the voting rights protests. When and where did it take place, who was involved, explain the conflict and the outcome.

In the summer of 1964, three civil rights workers, (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) were kidnapped and killed in the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi. They had been falsely arrested, jailed, and then released from jail into the hands of violent white segregationists who killed them by beating them and shooting them. The local police were involved because some of them were members of the Ku Klux Klan, but they were acquitted at trial by an all white jury. Eventually, some of them received jail sentences, but others escaped any consequences for many decades.

4.) Explain the criticism within the Black community of Martin Luther King Jr. And of his non-violent strategy to achieve civil rights. Who was opposed? What was the difference in their philosophy and strategy?

In general, many law-abiding people in both the black and white communities believed that the fight for civil rights belonged only in the courts of law and never on the streets. Their philosophy was that immoral laws could be changed through the constitutional process and that even non-violent and civil disobedience was a form of lawlessness and that it is not acceptable to violate any laws even to achieve justice.

5.) According to Zinn, what were the achievements of the Civil Rights era and what has yet to be achieved?

Zinn acknowledges that the United States made tremendous progress in racism. However, he also warns that there are still many remaining areas of inequality between white and black society that have lasted much longer. In almost every measure of the quality of life, black people have fewer advantages than white people and they still face prejudice and discrimination. Zinn suggests that there is still a substantial amount of racism in the country that exists on more subtle levels that, in some ways makes it harder to address effectively.

1.) What is your gut reaction to this reading?

I agree with Martin Luther King Jr. completely: it was disgraceful for anybody to suggest that civil rights protestors wait until the laws caught up to the times. The authorities who wrote and enforced those laws were some of the racists.

2.) Explain the philosophies of love and of human nature that fuel non-violent activists in their practice of non-injury toward another, even if he/she is getting attacked