Civil Rights Impact

http://images.cdn.fotopedia.com/flickr-1054179588-hd.jpg 

Imagine living in a world where blacks and whites do not attend the same schools, do not ride the bus next to each other, and do not share the same bathrooms. It would be a world of segregation and great inequality, but fortunately the Civil Rights movement occurred and segregation was abolished. The Greensboro sit-ins led to the Civil Rights movement, which in turn led to more equality for African Americans. If it had not been for the Greensboro sit-ins and the proceeding Civil Rights movement, then segregation might not have happened, my family might not have moved to Greensboro, and many people from the North might not have moved south including my family.

            The fact that the Greensboro Sit-ins occurred was a major win for the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s. When the four young men decided to demand equality from Woolworth’s cafe they started the nationalization of a movement that would forever change the course of United States history. The sit-ins as a major event in civil rights history created other African American movements and transcended the civil rights movement from a local affair to a strong force in the national sphere. This event led to a stronger Civil Rights movement and in turn the movement led to desegregation and more rights for blacks. If this had not happened then it might be possible that there would still be segregation and inequality between whites and African Americans.

            If the Civil Rights movement had not occurred in America and segregation had remained in tact in schools and public places, then it is probable that my family might not have moved to Greensboro. My mother is from Cleveland, Ohio and my father is from Buffalo, New York. Therefore if segregation had not stopped in the South my father might not have moved my family down to Greensboro. My father is a podiatrist and in the 1980s he needed to complete his residency and one of the only ones he could find in Greensboro, North Carolina. If the South had still been segregated who knows if he would have received or even taken a residency from a practice somewhere in the south such as Greensboro. If segregation had not occurred then I might not have grown up in Greensboro, I would not have been exposed to the University of North Carolina, and possibly not ended up in this class writing this essay. The Civil Rights movement changed the course of history and ended up indirectly changing my life.

            If it had not been for the Greensboro sit-ins not only my family would have been affected, but also many other families that live all across the nation especially in the North. Like my family, other families that lived in the North might not have migrated south, if it had not been for desegregation and the Civil Rights movement. Many families including my own have moved from the North to Greensboro, especially from upstate New York. If segregation had not occurred these families would not have moved and the population of Greensboro, NC would be radically different. The Civil Rights movement has changed a lot of things and has drastically changed the course of history and the way the white and African Americans interact with each other and within the world.

            The Greensboro sit-ins caused the desegregation of the south, which provided a smooth transition of families including my own from the North to the formerly segregated South. The Civil Rights Movement was a major event in United States history and because of the spark of the sit-ins the nation has been completely transformed.  Many things have changed over the years and this story shows how a small incident that occurs in history has the possibility of drastically changing the world.

           

Works Cited

Kowal, Rebekah J. "Staging the Greensboro Sit-Ins." TDR 48.4 (2004): 135-54. JSTOR. The MIT Press. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. 

The City of Raleigh

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miracle_man/104025801/

            During colonial times, cities would spring up all over the place in the thirteen original colonies.  Most of the time, these cities just happened as a result of a lot of people living in close proximity to each other and growing from there.  Raleigh, North Carolina, however, is an exception to this common theme.  Raleigh was created to be the planned capital city of North Carolina in 1972 by the State of North Carolina.  The reason for this planned capital was that North Carolina’s General Assembly decided that the state needed a centralized, permanent location in order to manage state government.  Once this was decided, the state purchased 1,000 acres of land from a landowner in Wake County named Joel Lane on March 30, 1792.  The city plan was developed and approved that December, and was officially named “Raleigh” after the sixteenth-century English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh.  Raleigh would grow to become one of the most desired places to live and work in the country.

            Although the city grew slowly at first, as time went by it became more than just a city of government.  Businesses began to open all over Raleigh including inns, taverns, and other services and basic needs.  Store began to replace residences downtown, and commerce became a big part of the capital.  This expansion and creation of new businesses was directed toward consumers up until the Civil War.

            On May 20, 1861, North Carolina seceded from the Union and became part of the Confederacy in the Civil War.  Raleigh had the first training camp in the state, resulting in thousands of North Carolina residents arriving there to train for the war.  Raleigh, however, was fortunate enough to not have received the devastating demolition that other southern capitals experienced.  This was because by the time General William T. Sherman of the Union arrived in Raleigh, the Confederate general Robert E. Lee had already surrendered in Virginia.  Raleigh still played a very important roll in the Civil War, and was hurt by the loss of the war.

            After the Civil War, Raleigh tried to expand economically through manufacturing.  Despite these efforts, it did not really thrive as a manufacturing base like many other cities in North Carolina.  Instead, it became a center of family businesses, which provided slow and steady economic growth for the city.  Raleigh experienced a movement of different publishing establishments, which helped with communication and advertisement.  Over time, Raleigh evolved into the social nucleus of the state.  People from all over the state would come to downtown Raleigh for the rich culture it offered.  This included, opera, motion pictures, shopping, and other entertainment.

            Not only did Raleigh establish itself as the governmental and cultural center of the state, but also the educational center.  Women’s colleges such as Peace College and Meredith College, black colleges like Shaw University and St. Augustine’s college, and a large land grant university in North Carolina State University all helped the city’s standing in this department.  Raleigh was a pivotal provider in the world wars, offering sons, money, and time.  It did benefit from World War II once it was over, as it experienced a housing boom, which led to population growth.  Research Triangle Park was established and made Raleigh a high-tech research city.

            Despite all of these changes, the event that affected Raleigh the most in history would be the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.  Black students and activists performed public protests all over the city.  They paraded through the streets, drank out of white water fountains, and went into white restaurants all to ensure equal rights for all citizens.  These actions made sure that the Jim Crow laws were abolished and that the city of Raleigh would soon have legislation that would safeguard all people, no matter their race.  After this monumental change in culture, Raleigh continued to expand over the next few decades, while remaining the core cultural focus of North Carolina, as well as one of the most important cities in the South, and in the county.

Works Cited

Peters, Ken. "North Carolina History Project : City of Raleigh." North Carolina History Project : Encyclopedia. Raleigh City Museum, 23 Feb. 2006. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

Not Just a College Town

By Destination Raleigh http://www.flickr.com/photos/destinationraleigh/3897240478/

            It’s that awkward moment when you tell someone you’re from Wake Forest, North Carolina, and they think you’re talking about Wake Forest University. Sometimes I try to explain that while the university did at one time exist in my small town, it is now located in Winston Salem. Other times I just smile and nod because it is not even worth the effort. It angers me that people are not knowledgeable enough to know that the university moved in 1956 (Biddlecom). I can understand people from different states being unfamiliar with the story, but I feel almost ashamed of the people who have lived in North Carolina all their lives and are unfamiliar with the facts. Yes, it does make sense that Wake Forest University would be located in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and it once was, but people should know that the university does not define my small town.

            Wake Forest was founded in 1832 when the North Carolina Baptist State Convention purchased the land from Calvin Jones for two thousand dollars (Biddlecom). The Convention had been looking for a place to start a school where bright young men could be trained into apt ministers. After seeing Jones’ ad in the paper, boasting the richness of the land and the even temperament of the people, they decided to purchase the land to start the school (Biddlecom). They started plans for the Wake Forest Institute that was later re-chartered as Wake Forest College (Biddlecom). The college drew people from all over the state and the enrollment continued to climb. Even during the Civil War when the college had to be officially closed, volunteer teachers continued to hold classes without being paid. Wake Forest as a city never really existed before the railroad line was installed in 1874 (Biddlecom). Prior to that, the city was more like an intermittent dispersal of villages, but after the railroad depot was relocated to Wake Forest, the town was unified around the depot on the east side of the college campus (Biddlecom). The prestige that the Wake Forest College had drawn gained the attention of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and in 1956, the college was moved permanently (Biddlecom). The campus was then converted into the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is still in operation today.

            Though I was never around when Wake Forest was located in my small town, I can see how it became highly acclaimed in such a short time. The buildings upon which the campus was surrounded are nothing short of beautiful, and the town tucked the college within its folds like most college towns should do. However, now that Wake Forest College is no longer located there at present, and the college currently residing is not as widely attended, I feel that the town still has retained most of its charm. Though I am extremely biased, the article lists several reasons why the town of Wake Forest has always seemed to be a good place to settle, such as “perceived as safe, good schools, and good heritage and historic value” (Biddlecom). I have always walked around downtown where my father’s dental office is located without needing to fear any type of danger. The small town of Wake Forest has always been friendly to me. Most of my friends attended the public school located downtown, though I never had the experience, and they were sufficiently pleased with the results. My favorite part is the historic value of Wake Forest. I like that when I’m walking around, I can see the giant, Victorian plantation houses with placards indicating they are part of the original town. Not much has changed about the town, and not many people value it the way I do, but as far as the nod in the article towards our “lack of pride”, I highly disagree (Biddlecom).

            Supporting my small town means everything to me. Whether it is the people or the town itself, I cannot be sure, but I know Wake Forest will always have a special place in my heart. I can only hope that more people will come to understand that the university is not synonymous with Wake Forest, which the town stands alone and is separate and unique. The university once did play a large part in initiating the growth of the town, but now the people who call it home do their part to foster and care for the place they love.

Work Cited

Biddlecom, Cara, Zulfiya Chariyeva, Melissa McMahon, Kasey Poole, and Nikie

Sarris. Town of Wake Forest. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 10 May 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2011. <http://archives.hsl.unc.edu/cdpapers/WakeForest2005.pdf>.

Greensboro Sit-ins

By dbkinghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/3072465891/sizes/m/in/photostream/

 

For young African Americans, the 1960s represented a time of struggle, subjugation, unfair treatment, and a second-class status. However, they refused to allow their rights to be undermined, and chose instead to fight back. Four young men from Greensboro, North Carolina, helped to found the budding civil rights movement with their nonviolent protest. Their sit-ins marked a historic time period where African Americans gained some liberty, civil disobedience was used in place of violence, and the civil rights movement evolved to become a national campaign.

Greensboro played a significant role in the advancement of the civil rights movement during the 1960s mostly because it was the location for the first sit-ins at Woolworth’s lunch counter. On February 1, 1960 four African American freshmen from North Carolina A&T University decided to demand service from the lunch counter at Woolworth’s, which only served white people up until this point. The sit-in that they staged did a lot to start the process towards creating equality between the white and the African American races.  After the sit-ins at Woolworth’s eventually other stores on Elm street began to have sit-ins and the number of young and old African Americans that came to protest began to grow. Eventually all of the 65 seats at Woolworth’s were filled at some point during the day by an African American that would come to sit, read, study and many other things that demonstrated their protest. This congregation and communion of support played a huge part in the liberation of the African American race. This demonstration was one of the first steps on the road to civil equality for blacks.

Another thing that puts Greensboro on the map as a significant location for the move towards civil rights is the fact that the sit-in was a staged event with lots of planning executed by the students and the other African Americans that protested during this time. Some have analyzed the performance of the protesters and found that their demonstration can be compared to a theatrical performance. A performance where the location, costumes, speech, and action are all carefully thought out and everything is acted out perfectly. This theatrical approach to the sit-ins  shows that the protesters really wanted to design their demonstrations so that they would ma

ximize their political and social goal. The fact that each of the sit-ins was so carefully planned out shows how committed these young people were to their cause and how much they wanted everything to go smoothly. These Greensboro staged sit-ins also proved to be perfect examples for other people around the world to follow when leading their own sit-ins. All of the planning shows how Greensboro played a key role in leading the civil rights movement during this time of turmoil.

Finally the main reason that Greensboro was so important for the civil rights movement was that it was the mark for when the civil rights movement went from being a local southern movement to a national call for the rights of African Americans. When the young men decided to sit-in at Woolworth’s they launched a new campaign that would be taken to the national level in order to gain equal rights for African Americans. Many people all over the world heard of what they were doing in Greensboro and they decided to follow along, transcending the civil rights movement into the national sphere. When the sit-ins at Woolworth’s took place in Greensboro the national government started to take notice and from then on the course of history would be changed and African Americans would eventually win their rights and freedom.

Greensboro is a place with great history that was the location of one of the most influential acts in history. The Woolworth sit-ins helped African Americans in society by having staged protests that helped make the civil rights movement a national event. If had not have been for the four young men who decided to change the rules in Greensboro, then who knows what would have happened to the civil rights movement. Without them it might be possible that African Americans would never have gotten their liberation.

Work Cited

Kowal, Rebekah J. "Staging the Greensboro Sit-Ins." TDR 48.4 (2004): 135-54. JSTOR. The MIT Press. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488599>.

Martha Avery Upton

            Every girl’s dream is to shop until they drop, goes on vacations to the Caribbean, be the captain of their high school cheerleading squad, and get accepted into their favorite university.  Martha Upton is living that dream.  Her all-American lifestyle shows how being personable and fun person, always willing to say yes to a challenge, can really make a difference in your life.  Martha lives a glamorous life of fun and fashion, lives life to the fullest, and never backs down from achieving her goals.

            Martha’s favorite hobby and passion is shopping.  Among her favorite stores include Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters.  Most girls like shopping, but mainly just because they like getting stuff.  Martha’s love for shopping goes deeper than that.  Her second cousin and her mom were pretty much like sisters when they grew up.   Their favorite thing to do when together was shop.  So Martha grew up going shopping with them.  She saw the passion that they had for it, but also the fun they had.  They challenged themselves to who could find the cutest clothes, or the best deal. They taught her to pursue what she loved to do, and to enjoy life.

            Several places that Martha has traveled to include St. John’s, Turks and Caicos, and Bermuda.  All three of these places are tropical paradises.  Seeing these beautiful countries has given Martha a world of exciting experiences to draw from.  Through these pleasurable events, she shows what it means to live life to the fullest.  Many people do not step outside the box, and just stick to the same routine.  Martha, however, shakes it up.  She likes to see the world, and really enjoy it.

            In addition to Martha’s fun activities and impressive vacations, she also is quite accomplished.  Most girls envy the captain of the cheerleading team, and wish they could become her.  Martha put this wish into action, and worked hard to achieve this.  She accepted the challenge of all the practices and hard work it required, and accomplished this feat.  Martha is very well balanced, however, and worked hard in the classroom.  Growing up, she was always a huge Carolina fan and always wanted to go to school there.  So despite all the time she put into enjoying life, she put a lot of time and effort into her studies.  Twelve long years of school later, she was accepted into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

            All in all, Martha Upton is a fun loving, exciting, and hardworking girl.  Her attitude toward life and willingness to succeed has shown this.  Martha’s experiences and actions can be examples for those looking to spice up their lives.  They can really help young individuals know that they can achieve their goals if they set their minds to it, while still living life to the fullest.

            

James Hickey

By John O Dyer http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_dyer_jr/4447996016/

             “Home is where the heart is”, a saying that most people are very familiar with, can be applied to adults that, as children, grew up in the same town for their entire life. They feel certain connections to this town and the people within it, as opposed to military kids, for instance, who never really resonate with one place. Many say that it is beneficial for a child to remain in one place while growing up, instead of being thrust about from place to place. Changing surroundings and breaking ties with friends can be extremely traumatic for children to experience, especially kids that go through the process several times. Fortunately for James Hickey, his parents moved to Raleigh, North Carolina two years before their eldest child was born. He was born and raised in Raleigh, and he continued to live with his family there until leaving to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this year. James was cultured and fostered by his Raleigh community in which he spent the duration of his early to teenage years, and his life serves as an example of the fact that children who never undergo an upsetting move tend to be less scarred from the experience and have less desire to move far from the place they call home.

            James Hickey was born at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina on July 21, 1992, one of the two hospitals in which most people from Raleigh are born. His mom and dad, from Norlina and Charlotte, respectively, had just moved to Raleigh two years before their eldest child was born. The question that faced them was common for most couples: where should they live and raise their family? The answer was simple for the Hickeys. Having both attended college in Raleigh, they could not think of a better place. See, in Raleigh, it is characteristic for a man from NC State University to fall in love and marry a woman from Meredith College. Meredith College, an all girls school, is practically a stone’s throw away from NC State, and who else would the girls go out with on the weekends if there were no boys right around the corner? James was sent to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School for his elementary education due to the fact that his father had attended Catholic school and wanted the same for his children. James grew up in Raleigh and eventually attended Cardinal Gibbons for high school. He played football and became an NC State fan, just like his father. It was a hard choice for James when deciding where to attend college, but UNC had more to offer for a student who was largely undecided on his major.

            When James was nine years old, his family moved from one house to another, while remaining in Raleigh. Kids who may have moved five to ten times during their childhood might scoff at this and say that James was lucky. However, that doesn’t change the fact that James was saddened by the move because he “liked his neighborhood and his previous house”. If James felt this way about a move across town, imagine what kids who undergo a move on a much greater scale must go through emotionally. James Hickey’s reaction to his move makes it clear that children that go through large scale moves when they’re young are subjected to much distress and trauma. Most kids that are raised in one place tend to attend college near to or at least in the state in which their hometown is located. On the other hand, children that grew up one place and then moved somewhere else during their teen years are more likely to have a desire to return to their previous home. James really did have a pleasant upbringing compared to the lives of other children.

            James Hickey’s parents really did make the right decision in raising their children in one place. With less emotional stress, the child can grow and become familiar with their surroundings and community without any fear of change. In addition, children who have an attachment to where they grew up are much more likely to remain close to home when leaving for college or even choosing where to start their own families. James Hickey was lucky to grow up in a place like Raleigh, and it seems that he would say the same.