I think its interesting that we are learning beyond Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. They are cool and all but we have been taught that since second grade.With the civil rights video, "The Rage Within"... why did the grandfather (Mose Wright) let the white people take his grandchild from Chicago (Emmett) from him? (Emmett was later found dead in a lake).
Why did the jury find the obvious killers innocent? Was it to put even more of a message to blacks not that they should not break the rules of segregation? Or was it because the jury didn't really pay attention to the case and just sided with the white men?
Leah
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One more from Mariah:
So many incidents occurred that were similar to the Emmett Till case in that the verdicts were injust and unfair. Why is it that most of the cases and occurrences that we have heard about and been taught about are only involving blacks when other minorities were also fighting for their rights? Was it because the other minorities didn't want to have to do the dirty work because they knew when the African-Americans recieved the rights they deserve all the other minorities were also entitled and would recieve then as well?
3 comments:
I thought the Emmett Till case was refreshing to learn about because we already know so much about rosa parks. I think it showed a less famous view of what also happened during that time.
The first question of why did emmett's grandfather let the white men take him popped into my head also. I thought it was sord of strange how he was couragous enough to stand up in court agaisnt them but not when they demanded he give them his nephew. I guess he thought he was falling the laws of segregation by doing so. I guess he might of thought that they would do no harm to him.
I think the jury found the obvious guilty men innocent because they were all white. I think they didn't care about injustice or even what happened to the boy. They thought discrimnation what right and they tried to keep it that way. I think they didn't want to raise a disturbance in their town and wanted to keep things the way they were. Justice was not served to Emmett or any African American in that court room.
This section really opned up to the millions of others who were effected by segragation. It taught you how the reporters were threatned and how poorly treated African Americans were.
Hannah Burch
Hour:5
I think that the Emmit Till case was interesting, especially because I never heard the story before. To comment on something that Hannah's comment: I think that his grandfather let them take him is because his grandfather really couldn't do anything. If he did he would have probley gotten killed too. Back then i think all they could really count on were themselves. They couldn't look after no one else. But thats just my opinion. The killer was announced innocent because they always took the white people's side. I guess they thought blacks were stupid and didn't know any better. So they believed the whites. I don't think that the whites had any feelings about what happened to Emmit. But the blacks did. The man that stood in front of the court had alot of courage. Even though he problay knew that the whites were still going to be announced innocent.
Personally, stories like this makes me angry. I'm sure it makes others angry also. But i makes me mad because no one ever listened to what the blacks had to say. That boy was tortured and murdered for no reason. And the court cared nothing about it and niether did the people that did it.
Ciara Embry-Brown
6th hour
To answer Leah's question, it's possible that the jury chose the verdict they did to warn other blacks and just to side with whites. For the most part, I think they did it mostly to side with whites. They were probably trying to save face as well. If they chose the verdict guilty, people would hate them and they'd be disrespected. I don't think they really put the case into thought and just decided that the two men were innocent to save their reputation and to get the trial done and over with.
Elise Lieberman
4/30/07
5th hour
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