The Civil Rights Demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama Research Paper

The Civil Rights Demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama - Research Paper Example Such cultural or ideological concept was further strengthened with the formulation and implementation of certain ordinances in the city. Two particular ordinances that highlight segregationist policies are Section 369 and Section 597 of the city ordinances (Birmingham’s Racial Segregation Ordinances, May 1951). Section 369 is about the separation of races when it comes to restaurants and other places in the city that serve food. A restaurant may also serve to both blacks and whites but dividers should also be put in place. Section 597, on the other hand, explicitly states that â€Å"it shall be unlawful for a negro and a white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.† These policies clearly banned any socialization done between whites and blacks. What is interesting to note is that Birmingham, during the said period in history, nearly had an equal population of white Americans and African Americans; the fo rmer comprising 60 percent while the latter made up for 40 percent. It is clear that while the blacks were a minority, they were not far behind in numbers when compared to the whites. However, this was also the factor why they bore the brunt of racism even more. This could be seen in how they had been deprived of job opportunities. This consequently affected the capabilities of the blacks to gain income. According to Garrow, the average income of African Americans in Birmingham was less than half of white salary-earners; a fact that could be observed at the local steel mills (1989, p. 165). The jobs that were made available to the blacks were only those that are under the category of manual labor. Any time that retrenchments have to be made, it was always the black workers that have to leave first. Aside from the cultural and economic biases against the blacks in Birmingham, violent actions and political coercion were also made against them. These only made the situations even worse . In fact, there were scores of bombings that were made since 1945 to 1962 that targeted prominent African American individuals. Homes, meeting places, and even churches used by the blacks, especially those that were used as venues to discuss their conditions, were not spared from such attacks. The state of Alabama outlawed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This is the reason why Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, along with other leaders in the church, organized the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. The said organization immediately waged a campaign to junk the segregationist ordinances in Birmingham. The courts were soon convinced that segregationist policies related to the use of the city’s parks are illegal. In response, the city administration decided to close the parks. Early Attempts at Demonstrations and Failures After realizing that Birmingham’s city administration would not easily give in to the demands for the termination o f segregationist policies, Rev. Shuttlesworth decided to seek help from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was fast becoming influential in uniting the blacks in the struggle for civil rights. The SCLC responded positively and immediately went to plan the first series of protests. Its first attempt at non-violent direct actions aimed to put pressure on the city’

I can't believe that this was once a syllabus Assignment

I can't believe that this was once a syllabus - Assignment Example This particular curriculum design intended to evaluate the performance effectiveness in the educational system of America. Through his book, Ralph emphasized on the purpose of education in the life of children. Ralph focused on the factors such as what are the interests of the child, the problems he encountered in obtaining education through the traditional curriculum and the purpose of his study. Also to make the education system better, no particular source of information is adequate to provide a basis of wise and comprehensive decision. As Ralph suggested in his book, education system should be so formed that it would help to change the behavior of the people in the most righteous way. The feeling and thinking skills of the people influenced by the content derived from education was the key point highlighted in Ralph W Tyler’s principle. His basic principle was to understand learning of education and its effectiveness in the behavior of the people throughout the life (Tyler , 2013). Evaluation of Tyler’s Curriculum Tyler’s curriculum came into existence during his eight year study. The concentration point of the study was to understand whether students were actually getting educated through the learning delivered in the classes. While Ralph was working on his eight year study, he went to the Ohio State where the faculty wanted him to test the knowledge of the students. The instructor would give emphasis on taking tests, but Ralph suggested that tests would quantify the memorizing power of the student and not their understanding on the subject matter, which certainly became a major turning point in today’s contemporary education process. Ralph coined the term â€Å"Evaluation† to investigate the real leanings of the students through the education system (Tyler, 2013). The evaluation was to understand the effectiveness of education and learning on the people’s behavioral characteristics and their life in future. The une mployment rate in the organization was increasing due to the lack of learning in the specific subject matter. The curriculum theory of Ralph dealt with the real sense of understanding of education. The theory emphasized not on the dull sensing of meaning of the subject matter but focused on the inner meaning, emotions and continuous exploration of the study in the life of the student (Tyler, 2013). The curriculum theory also gave emphasis to few principles, which were required to be followed for a better education system. The principle of the curriculum was to explore the knowledge of the learning, the interest of the students in the given subject and most importantly, the purpose the child has in his mind regarding the study. It was observed through his curriculum theory that every student had different interests and hence, 30 schools were developed to try the new education system suggested by Ralph. The evaluation of students, were further suggested by Ralph, to be done by the rec ords of the performance of the students throughout. Appraisal system would be introduced every year to check the knowledge and to understand whether they are learning the expected skills, which would help them in future. The theory also stated that the evaluation of the people after completion of studies, which meant how the people are dealing in the real

Impact of Lincolns Assassination

Impact of Lincolns Assassination Marley AyoSHR A house divided against itself cannot standI believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. America will become all one thing, or all the other. This is a famous quote spoken by Abraham Lincoln in 1858 to describe one of the reasons for fighting in the Civil War. During the war, the United States was bitterly divided between the North and the South. When the war ended in 1865, many leaders were unsure about the future course of our nation. But, not Lincoln. He had a plan and the leadership skills to reunite the nation. This process of rebuilding became known as Reconstruction. Most battles and destruction took place on southern soil. Which made living conditions hard to overcome, especially agricultural lands used for crops and plantation. Reconstructing the nation was important in order to keep the nation running smoothly instead of it falling apart. To begin with the nations failures were the fact that all fighting took place in the South. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865. In those four years, the Union, which is the North, lost 370,000 troops, and the Confederacy, the South, lost 260,000. In addition to lives lost, there were 375,000 soldiers injured or maimed from both sides. Many soldiers were killed in battle, but the majority of them died as a result of illness. Several civilians, non-military people, died in the South because food was scarce. More American lives were lost in the Civil War than in all other American wars combined. Owing more than $2 billion dollars, the southern states were severely crippled after the war. Most battles and destruction took place on southern soil. In fact, one reason the Union won was because it engaged in total war. Total war is the military practice of destroying the enemys ability to fight by attacking civilian and economic targets as well as military targets. Southerners daily live s came to a halt since the fighting occurred near their towns and communities. Also, the economy of the South was based on agriculture, so they had more difficulty recovering and manufacturing needed supplies. The North was also hit hard, but the effects were not as long-lasting as the Souths. War costs for the Union totaled more than $3.2 billion. Since the northern economy was already based on industrialization, trade, and banking, it was able to recover more quickly than the southern economy. Also, fighting was removed from northerners daily lives, except for those living in areas bordering Confederate states. In Addition, to the negative aspects were the successful ones. In that it restored the United States as a unified nation: by 1877, all of the former Confederate states had drafted new constitutions, acknowledged the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and pledged their loyalty to the U.S. government. Reconstruction also finally settled the states rights vs. federalism debate that had been an issue since the 1790s. However, Reconstruction failed by most other measures: the sharecropping system-essentially a legal form of slavery that kept blacks tied to land owned by rich white farmers-became widespread in the South. With little economic power, blacks ended up having to fight for civil rights on their own, as northern whites lost interest in Reconstruction by the mid-1870s. By 1877, northerners were tired of Reconstruction, scandals, radicals, and the fight for blacks rights. Reconstruction thus came to a close with many of its goals left unaccomplished. As well as, Radi cal Republican legislation ultimately failed to protect former slaves from white persecution and failed to engender fundamental changes to the social fabric of the South. When President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from the South in 1877, former Confederate officials and slave owners almost immediately returned to power. With the support of a conservative Supreme Court, these newly empowered white southern politicians passed black codes, voter qualifications, and other anti-progressive legislation to reverse the rights that blacks had gained during Radical Reconstruction. The U.S. Supreme Court bolstered this anti-progressive movement with decisions in the Slaughterhouse Cases, the Civil Rights Cases, and United States v. Cruikshank that effectively repealed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In conclusion, while some historians have suggested that had Lincoln not been assassinated, Radical Republicans in the House might have impeached him instead of Andrew Johnson. After the Civil War, many Bureaus were underfunded and cut short, leaving the vast majority of free slaves uneducated and still in the South. There was no land reform, meaning slaves were forced into a sharecropping system and did not own their own farms, which might have made them more independent, equal, and successful. The Black Codes and other laws restricting former slaves, though clearly unconstitutional, were not challenged in court or struck down by local military authorities, leaving African-Americans virtually unprotected and subject once again to working for whites involuntarily. And finally, the effort of Reconstruction was cut off after only 12 years, leaving the economy of the South still in ruins and its population largely in poverty.

Of Mice And Men :: essays research papers

OF MICE AND MEN Should George have shot his friend Lennie? George probably did the right thing by shooting Lennie. How can we condemn George for sparing his friend Lennie the pain and fear of being killed by someone else? He did something society sees as wrong, but he did it for a good reason. Lennie didn’t deserve to die, but there was no other alternative. Curley wanted to kill Lennie, and since George cared for Lennie, he figured the best thing would be for him to put Lennie out of his misery.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lennie deserved to be punished for what he did, but not to be killed. Lennie was a handicapped person with below average intelligence. He didn’t really understand what he had done, but he didn’t really fit into society either.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Curley and the others were looking for Lennie and wanted to exterminate him; they were angry and hated Lennie. If Curley would have found Lennie, he would have shot him. But that way, Lennie would have died afraid and sad. His death would have been very violent. George knew this and that’s why he did what he did. George also knew that Lennie had dug a hole for himself and could never get out. He knew they were looking for Lennie and wouldn’t stop until they killed him. He decided to do it himself in the kindest way he could. It’s like when Candy said about his dog, “I should of shot that dog myself.'; meaning it would have been kinder to the dog. Lennie was lying down, facing away from George and didn’t know he was going to be shot. He didn’t know what was going to happen, just like Candy’s dog.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Murder is never the right answer, but George didn’t really commit murder.

Belief in Black Magic and Witchcraft

The sources of magic are to be found in passion and ignorance – which make up the greater part of man. Desire, ever reborn, never capable of being sated in the ordinary conditions of life, inspires in the mind the dream of an irresistible power whereby every appetite may be satisfied; and ignorance of the inflexible laws which govern nature suffers one to believe that she can be mastered and modified in conformity with that dream, which, when it has reached a certain degree of intensity, tends spontaneously to transform itself into action.Love, hatred, the desire for health, for riches, for power, for knowledge itself, are the causes which produce magic, and they are its perpetual incentives; whence it comes that we see magic practiced wherever men are found; in the most remote antiquity, during the Middle Ages, and at the present time; not only among barbarian or savage peoples, but also among those races which call themselves civilized. Magic is, therefore, a social phenomen on. This work will show what place black magic and witchcraft holds among the other social phenomena, for example religion.The ideas related to a concept of the sacred, as the basis of magic and witchcraft, will be considered. Why do people believe in the powers of black magic and the fearful power of Satan in black magic? How are these practices performed? Here is nothing else that can give so adequate answer as does the history of the witches and black magic and their place in Holy Mother Church. Witchcraft is a complex subject, and has evoked complex responses from many disciplines (Glucklich 391).There are theological, historical, philosophical, anthropological, legal, literary, pharmacological, and psychological theories of witchcraft, to name some of the major ones. That is the reason why few people today can agree on what witchcraft really is, or was, or what witches really did, or what they do. During the height of the witchcraft scare in Europe, the sixteenth and seventeent h centuries, almost anything strange and fearful was attributed to witchcraft. A good example is the phenomenon called the poltergeist.Witchcraft would seem to be a European term of opprobrium which has been used in scattergun fashion for all sorts of threatening manifestations, whether at home or abroad. It is appropriate, and inevitable, that our inquiry should have brought us to the Bible. For while it is false to say, as some writers have, that the witch persecutions were carried on solely by the church, it is nevertheless undeniable that historical witchcraft received its definition from the church. In a sense it may be said that witchcraft as a system was created by the church.Convenience may be cited: it was convenient for the church to lump its own heresies, rival systems of faith, inexplicable spiritual phenomena – in fact, almost all the threats to its own primacy – into a single opposition, which in the slow course of many centuries took on the shape of a ho stile conspiracy and the name of witchcraft. The church had, after all, ready to hand the Supreme Enemy of Man, Satan, acknowledged as the father of all error, the prince of the world's vanities, and arch rebel against God (Butler 96). There was no fault of logic involved in placing him at the source of trouble.This is the classical definition of witchcraft: a literally diabolic plot against mankind. For long ages it was almost universally accepted. Running concurrently with it was what we may identify as the skeptical position: that the whole thing was nonsense, and an outrageous calumny on the loving nature of the Deity. This is an honorable and attractive position, and one which is still dominant today. It can trace its origins to a tiny handful of brave men during the Renaissance, men like Reginald Scot and Johan Weyer, who were in considerable danger for their beliefs.These ideas however gradually won out, by the eighteenth century, and were elevated almost beyond argument by t he busy and progressive nineteenth. Today they are coming under renewed question. There are then at present at least seven major schools of witchcraft thought, some of them frankly hostile to the others: the orthodox, skeptical, anthropological, psychological, pharmacological, transcendental, and occultist. The image is to the object as the part is to the whole.In other words, a simple object, outside all direct contact and all communication, is able to represent the whole. This is the formula which is apparently used in black magic. The image, the doll or the drawing is a very schematic representation, a poorly executed ideogram. Any resemblance is purely theoretical or abstract. Black magic is essentially an individualistic affair. It finds regular and constant use by men and women who work deliberately, by means of the spells they utter, the charms they manipulate, and the rites they perform, to bring misfortunes upon their fellows.So used it may be licit, reputable, and even pra iseworthy, for instance, if the same magical arts that have slain a man are resorted to by an avenger of blood against the slayer. As a rule, however, sorcery is carried on more or less secretly, in defiance of public opinion, and those who practice it are objects of constant suspicion, fear, and enmity. In spite of this radical monotheism, Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, makes allusions to other supernatural entities.In the case of Islam, these entities are known as jinns and angels (Glucklich 136). Satan also plays an important role in Islam, but is counted among the angels, albeit the most disobedient. The jinns, according to the Qur'an, are not quite angels, but a form of consciousness between human and angels that are also especially prone to disobedience. Given that a basic idea of Islam is â€Å"submission† or â€Å"obedience† to God, the very act of disobedience is taken very seriously in Muslim teaching as a major form of bad, even sacrilegious, behavior (Brain 241).The jinn are genii, made out of fire; unlike the angels, they eat, drink, copulate, and die; some are good, and listen to the Koran; most are bad, and spend their time getting human beings into mischief. The leader of the evil jinn is Iblis, who was once a great angel, but was condemned for refusing to pay homage to Adam. The success of Islam in propagating itself, particularly in its Sufic and maraboutic versions, in regions where a direct assault by conquest was impracticable was largely due to its truly catholic recognition of the multiplicity of mystical power.In the voluminous Quranic store-house of angels, jinns and devils, whose number is legion, many of these traditional powers find a hospitable home; and passages from the Quran are cited to justify their existence as real phenomena. So long as Allah's lofty pre-eminence was not compromised, many local cults could be accommodated within the realm of alghaib, the ‘unseen' or ‘hidden' world (Brain 258) . The supreme deities which exist in many pagan traditions could be assimilated to Allah. Lesser local deities could be Islamicized or explained away as vernacular terms for God's attributes, or as the jinns or spirits of Quranic folklore.Orders of devils are spoken of in the so-called Book of Enoch, which antedates Christianity; and they are spoken of, later, in the New Testament. Saint Thomas makes express mention of higher and of lower devils, and of systematically established ranks among them; without, however, entering into details on the subject (Waite 356). But such reserve, though it might well become theologians in general, did not at all suit those who were especially classed as demonographers or those who gave attention to the study and practice of magic.For all these, it was of the utmost importance to become thoroughly acquainted with the diabolic hierarchy and, at the same time, with the condition and the activities of each rank included therein, – nay, as far a s might be possible, with those of each individual demon. Furthermore, the principles of their organization were not understood in the same way by all; and while some of the Fathers thought that their rank was determined according to the various kinds of sins that the demons fostered, others believed that this was done according to their degree of power and method of action.Those who made pacts with the Devil very often did so in order to be able to practice the forbidden arts of magic; but the pact did not always imply this power and the power might be exercised without a pact. There were cases where the Devil voluntarily obligated himself to do whatever the magician should demand of him, on condition that the latter give him his soul in exchange; there were also cases where the magician by virtue of his own art forced the Devil to do what the fiend, of himself, would have been neither obliged nor willing to do.There were then, as we see, two kinds of magic, which have not been suf ficiently distinguished by writers on the subject, but which in their origins, if not in their effects, were entirely distinct; the one produced by a voluntary subjection of the diabolic power to the will of a human being, the other springing from an actual mastery acquired over that power by the human being, and acquired not through divine permission, but through a science and an art which had their own canons, which were learned through a sort of apprenticeship, and which could be more or less fully possessed – the science and the art of black magic.The theologians and the doctors declare, it is true, that the inventor of this wicked and deceptive science, of this pernicious art, was none other than Satan himself, who was wont to make use of them for the attainment of his own ends; but we begin to suspect that there is some error in this opinion of theirs, when we see this science and this art employed against their supposed inventor in such fashion that he cannot keep from obeying any one who commands him through them (Stave 196).A great part of magic presupposes the existence in nature, and the knowledge on the part of man, of hidden forces which have power to move the demons and to bind them. But in whatever way the magician had acquired his formidable power, the exercise of it was sinful and unlawful and brought the transgressors in the end to Hell. Speaking generally, and observing the results they produced, we may consider magicians and witches as allies and coadjutors of Satan.The first of the magical operations, which opens the way for all the others, is evocation, whereby Satan or one of his subordinate devils is compelled to appear – not a difficult operation if one understood the method, but dangerous to any who undertook it carelessly and without having observed all due precautions. This operation is more commonly performed at night, at the exact hour of midnight; but it could also be performed at high noon, this being the hour at w hich the noonday demon possesses the greatest vigor.It takes place where two, three, or four roads meet; in the depths of gloomy forests; on deserted heaths; amid ancient ruins. The evocator seat himself inside a circle (or, for greater safety, three circles) traced on the ground with the point of a sword; and he has to exercise the greatest care not to let the slightest portion of himself project beyond this limit and not to agree to any bargain the Devil might seek to make with him. Many and strange are the formulas of evocation, some very lengthy; some more, some less efficacious; nor are all of them addressed to all the devils.The slightest omission might suffice to render them entirely ineffective if the demon happened to be tired or in a bad humor. An observation is not out of place here. The Devil presents himself willingly and without much importuning, even to one who summons him informally and in every-day language, and that he often presents himself when one has not even t hought of calling him. Magicians and witches are not all of equal cleverness or equal might; as in every other condition of men, in theirs also there existed disparities of power and of rank (Dickie 325).Notwithstanding this, there is no sorceress so insignificant, no wizard so discredited, that with the aid of their art they could not accomplish marvelous things, of a sort far beyond all human power and all human knowledge. Should one care to make a list of all the varied operations of the magic art, he would need to produce a volume; and even then he would not succeed in telling everything, for by this art could almost anything be done that might suggest itself to the imagination or become an object of desire.With potent philters or by employing the aid of clever demons, the magician could awaken love, transform love into hatred, snatch the loved one from her lover, or cause her to fly by night through the air to her lover's arms. He avenged himself on his enemies, or on such as b etook themselves to him for help, causing fire to consume their houses, bringing down the storm-wind on their fields, sinking their ships in the sea; or he brought about their death, by thrusting into waxen figures made to resemble them a needle.Now we turn to the last portion of our study, the new witchcraft cult. Two characteristics seem to identify modern British witches: their love of ceremony and their inherent schismatic tendencies. Both points hold true for witches in America and elsewhere. There seem to be hundreds of contending cults, most of which sooner or later make their professions in print, under such titles as The Real Witchcraft, The Truth About Witchcraft, and Witchcraft From the Inside. Indeed, witches, deprived of the unifying force of persecution, are fighting among themselves as never before.Meanwhile there are as many different kinds of witchcraft in this country, apparently, as there are covens. All these groups publish industriously. One of the partisans of the modern witchcraft cult is Hans Holzer, the well-known psychic investigator. His book The Truth About Witchcraft was brought forward with much din of publicity. And certainly he has penetrated to the heart of the contemporary cult; he has eye-witnesses' accounts of initiation ceremonies, rites, celebrations, dress, incantations, and every other detail of witchcraft as it is presently practiced, especially in England and the United States.With the growth and strengthening of the belief in Satan, magic was destined to acquire new credit and new vigor. Everything that was known or thought to be known about the Devil, about his habits and his purposes, naturally tended to produce this result. He was the ever-living, ever-restless force that surrounded and penetrated all things; the prince of this world; the dominator of perverted nature; he was in every place; he had under his orders an innumerable host, always ready for any undertaking.With the help of his power, there was no task s o hard that it could not be accomplished, no miracle that could not be performed; and this help he rendered without excessive solicitation. It was a well known fact that he would cheerfully join forces with a human being in order to reach more easily the fulfillment of his own designs. The majority became wizards or witches merely by entering his flock and enjoying those benefits and powers in which he was willing to make them sharers. Beside this lower magic, the result of a kind of delegation of power, the

Islam and Islamic Fundamentalism Essay

the lingering fear of terrorist attacks and threats to US homeland security. Indeed, the prejudice against Muslims and Islam adherents has become more pervasive in a post-9/11 America, where the racial stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists or suicide bombers endanger not only those who are cast in such a negative light but also those whose paranoia renders them insensitive and unable to fully grasp the roots of the conflicts based on faith. In his analysis of the roots of Islamic fundamentalism, Hashemi (2004) asserts that there is nothing particularly Islamic about Islamic fundamentalism. Instead, Islamic or any other form of religious fundamentalism for that matter should be examined not from the context of the religious ideology per se but from the social, political, and economic factors that shape and continue to affect the history and current events in Muslim societies. Indeed, Hashemi points to the ongoing social transformation and transition of Islamic societies from the traditional to modern that have been characterized by growing restlessness among the lower ranks of society especially with the connivance between the elite and foreign interests. To be able to understand how and why Islamic fundamentalism thrives and flourishes in a world that is supposedly dominantly democratic therefore requires an examination not only of the inherent characteristics of Islam as a religion and the entire cultural and economic spheres of Muslim life but also the influence of foreign policies of powerful nations on the development of these countries. It also entails an examination of the role of gender and class in the creation of socially acceptable standards for religious adherence and how attitudes and preconceived notions of religiosity affect the individual and collective decision to engage in hostile and violent religious activities. Thus, while religious fundamentalism may superficially appear to be the product of Islam’s teaching, Hashemi argues that it is the general tendency of extremists to take things literally; referring to the latter’s justification of violent actions as the â€Å"holy war† or jihad. Likewise, the rapid urbanization and modernization of these societies owing to the intervention of highly-industrialized economies and the subsequent imposition of foreign development paradigms on their own culture and way of life promotes the feeling of being threatened by the West’s tendency to homogenize cultures, ideologies, and economies, which give rise to the perceived need to defend Islam and the Muslim world in general. It could be, as Hashemi posits, that many individuals in the Muslim countries are attracted to the highly messianic premise of fundamentalist beliefs especially at a time when most of these countries are under attack from neo-liberal interests and the developed world is keen on its pursuit of strategic business interests in these regions. In the end, the motivations and driving force of Islamic Fundamentalism, as Hashemi says, may be likened to the very same social forces that have sparked the conflicts, upheavals, and revolutions at the eve of the birth of every new social order. Only this time, these forces happen to be bonded by their common allegiance to the Islamic faith and their pursuit for self-determination.