Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Free Reading Book

The free reading book that I decided to choose was The Murder of Jim Fisk.  I found this book to be interesting.  However, I only read the first 5 chapters out of about 30.  I think that there were two main reasons for why I didn't get too involved in this book.  The fist reason is because I never could find a great time to do the reading.  I tried to use our time at the end of the day to my advantage, but found myself rereading the chapters as I had forgotten the information.  The other reason why I didn't read too much of this book is because we had such a long time to did it.  There was definitely a little procrastination on my part.

Overall, I think this assignment could be very beneficial.  I agree with you in the fact that it is important for us to read.  However, one suggestion would be to assign the reading over only one semester rather than the whole year.  I think that more people would read their books if this was the case.  One more suggestion would be to assign an assignment/writing at the beginning of the reading.  This would cause us to pay close attention to details and make sure the reading was completed on time.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Where did African Americans use their economic strength to effect change?

African Americans used their economic class as a way to try and change policies and rules that they deemed unfair.  Many African Americans were in the lower class during the civil rights movement, but they played a rather large role in the economy.

One example of the role that African Americans played is the selective buying campaign.  The African Americans knew that they bought and supplied many of the local store owners with money.  However, they continued to face police brutality.  In order to effect change through economic conditions, they decided to boycott all stores and to not purchase any items from these people.

Another example of African Americans showing their economic strength was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The African Americans knew that they made up a very large portion of the social class, and that they therefore needed public transportation.  So, without the African Americans, the bus companies in Alabama would not have succeeded.  So, to try and gain rights, the African Americans didn't use the bus system.

One more example is the Greensboro Sit-in.  This was an event were two black males went to a counter, designated for white people only, and sat there the whole time.  They knew that they weren't going to be served but were trying to make the point that they deserve equal rights.

All of these examples show the ways that African Americans used their economic strength to their benefit in order to effect change.  The whites had to recognize these claims or else the economy would have suffered.