HJ's Blog

Whites were so far ahead on education from blacks, that blacks needed more time to catch up to white students. Putting white students in the same classrooms as black students meant two things: White students would be held back from learning further, and black students would not understand the concepts that white students were learning due to how far behind they were. Keep in mind, many blacks during this time still didn’t know how to read properly or write, so they needed special education to learn this. Majority of whites already knew how to do these things.  Historically, whites were, and always had been, more ahead and superior in their education. It was going to take years, decades even, for blacks to catch up. For example, the first black public high school was Paul Laurence Dunbar High, created in 1870. The first public school in America was known as the Boston Latin School, built in 1635. This goes to show how far ahead whites were on their education.  https://www.natio...

    In class, we watched the 1989 movie "Glory". Starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Cary Elwes, the movie reflects back to the days of the American Civil War, and how Robert Gould Shaw leads America's first black regiment in the North through the war. The movie accurately portrayed white confederacy and systematic racism throughout. A good example of this was when racist officers did not allow the African Americans to fight in the Union Army, even though doing so would help the army grow and help defeat the south.           The movie was widely known as the best war film, specifically about the Civil War.  It earned, in total, 14 wins and 18 nominations. Three of these winners were Oscar's, being "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" (Denzel Washington, who played Pvt. Trip), "Best Cinematography", and "Best Sound".      Over all, I really liked this movie. I can see why it won these awards. It was perfectly acted o...

    This week in class, we watched Part One of the famous 1939 film, "Gone with the Wind". Featuring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland, the movie was essentially a mix of a love story and  set in the American South during the reconstruction era during the Civil War.                The love story involves Scarlett O' Hara, daughter of a plantation owner, who pursues a marriage with Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. During this time, Ashley has to go off to fight in the civil war, and ask Scarlett to come with him. Scarlett agree's, not knowing the danger that is about to take place.      Over time, Scarlett starts to see the impending doom that the yankees were bringing. Setting all the buildings on fire around her, they learned they had to evacuate, quickly. Scarlett leaves with Ashley and a slave, and makes the long journey back home. On this journey, ...

  State Vs. John Mann, a North Carolina Supreme Court from 1829, was "probably the most notorious judicial opinion on the relationship between master and slave ever rendered by a state court", according to a article on NCpedia.org. John Mann, the defendant in this case, was convicted of Battery after shooting a slave woman, Lydia, for fleeing minor punishment.            Lydia was not one of Mann's own slaves, rather, he had "rented" her from her actual owner for work.  The courts Judge, Joseph J. Daniel, believed that this punishment was cruel and inhumane, and that he had no right to shoot Lydia because he was not her actual owner. He was judged guilty, and to this, Mann appealed to the court.         Ruffin's reasoning behind Mann's conviction consisted of two famous quotes said by himself: a slave is "one doomed in his own person, to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to make anything his own, a...

    June 7th, 1892. Homer Plessy, a mixed race man, bought a ticket for a train from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. Instead of boarding the African American car, he boarded the the whites only car. The conductor came up to him, and asked him to leave the car. He refused, so he was arrested and sent to jail.            New Orleans court claimed he was violating the 1890 law. In reaction to this, he made  a petition against judge John Ferguson. According to Plessy, the law "violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment".  This led to a court case that led on for years until the case was finally at a decision.            On May 18th, 1896, Supreme Court made a decision. "In declaring separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads, the Court ruled that the protections of the 14th Amendment applied only to Political and civil rights (like voting and jur...

    Today, I did research for a project in my first year seminar class. In this project, each individual in the class is assigned a famous American Activist, either pro slavery, or anti slavery. The class will enact a modern day debate as to what they think about slavery, impersonating their assigned person. My assigned person was David Wilmot.     Born on January 20th, 1814, in Bethany Pennsylvania, Wilmot grew up to get an education in Read Law. From there, he worked as a United States Representative and furthermore, a United States Senator. David was appointed by Abraham Lincoln to this position. He worked as a senator from March 14th, 1861 through March 3rd, 1863. As a senator, he also worked as a representative from 1845 through 1851.       Wilmot was best known as the prime sponsor of the Wilmot Proviso Proposal, which ultimately ended up failing. The proposal was to ban the expansion of slavery to Western Lands. Though this propos...