african american leaders Essay -- essays research papers

Jesse Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B DuBois are all African American leaders. All of these men were leaders in their own time and their own sense, living in different eras with different views, but they all shared common ground. All four were African Americans trying to overcome obstacles and become influential leaders in their society. Jesse Jackson was an African American civil rights activist and political leader. He was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1941. Jackson overcame numerous childhood insecurities. He was shunned and taunted my classmates and neighbors. However, instead of letting this adversity defeat him, Jackson developed his exceptional drive and understanding for the oppressed. He worked hard in school, finishing 10th in his class while actively involved in sports. His academic and athletic background earned Jackson a football scholarship at the University of Illinois in Chicago. It was here Jackson realized discrimination was inescapable. After 3 years he left the University and attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, an institution for African-American students. He proved himself to be scholar athlete. Soon after college Jesse Jackson began his civil rights quest. He founded two groups, the PUSH operation and the rainbow coalition, in order to promote racial and economic justice in the United States. Then, in 1984 and 1988 Jackson campaigned as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Even today, Jackson is renowned spokesman and continues to work for racial and economic justice. Mumia Abu-Jamal was a radio journalist in Philadelphia, known as "the voice of the voiceless". He was born in Philadelphia on April 24, 1954. Mumia Abu Jamal was the Minister of Information for the Philadelphia Black Panthers at a very early age. By the age of 15 he had attracted much attention through his protests and thus, the FBI began keeping a file on him. He worked as a print and radio journalist who had aired on National Public Radio and National Black Network. He had also served as president of the Philadelphia Society of Black Journalists. Jamal's style of journalism allowed the voices of ordinary people to be broadcast. He was an African American that was put on trial for a murder charge. However, Jamal's case has been much publicized for reasons t... ...can Americans, and believed strongly in integration. W.E.B DuBois eventually moved to Ghana and gave up his American citizenship. Martin Luther King wrote on W.E.B DuBois by saying, "History cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man." Although DuBois was labeled a â€Å"radical† his ideas and literary works live on today. All these men, although from different times and situations, changed the world in influential ways. Not only did they overcome a great deal of adversity, but they made countless lives better from their ideas, courage and strength. If not for the influential dreams and actions of men such as this, the lives of so many may have been altered but these men had the courage and conviction to stand up for what they believed in, and the world will forever be a better place for it.

Christmas Time

Christmas Time Everyone knows that there’s no better feeling than the night before Christmas, as you gather around at Grandma’s house and exchange gifts with the family. The warm smell of a freshly baked batch of sugar cookies flowing through your nose, and the excitement inside as you stare at your gift trying to guess what’s inside. I can hear the sharp ripping of wrapping paper as all the children around me rush through the paper to find what they have received and the laughter of the adults around as the child forms a giant grin of their face after seeing what they’ve gotten.I can feel the heat coming from the fire place as the fire crackles and sparks. After everyone finishes opening their gifts and visiting with family, we all go our separate ways on our way home to get to bed. I can feel the excitement rushing through me as I hug everyone goodbye and hear the words â€Å"Merry Christmas† in my ear. On the drive home I observe the bright color ful Christmas lights draped over every house we pass, and the creative snowmen and snow angels made by small children. The sound of cheerful Christmas songs playing on the radio while we all sing along travels through my ears.When I get home I hurry up and put my pajamas on so I can help my mom frost and decorate the cookies before heading to bed. The taste of the leftover frosting melts on my tongue when I lick it off of my fingers. I can hear the sprinkle of the various colors of sprinkles hit the counter as I sprinkle them on the cookie. When finishing the cookies, the warm feeling inside grows rapidly and I take the next step towards Christmas morning, pouring the glass of milk and leaving a few cookies out on the counter on a plate for ‘Santa’.I take a leap into my bed and pull the covers up to my neck as the excitement is hard to bare. The next morning I wake up bright and early and jump out of bed running to every room waking up the family to open the gifts. I qu ickly run into the living room, and take a glance at the tree to see a large amount of presents of all different sizes under it. My parents drag themselves out of bed, grab the video camera and take a seat on the couch. My sister and I rush through the presents, screaming and laughing at what we find inside.As you sit next to the tree and take a better look at everything you’ve opened, you catch a quick whiff of the pine. You look up and stare at the tree, its lights, and the many ornaments of all shapes and sizes. I give hugs and kisses to my parents and thank them for everything they’ve bought me this Christmas. I take a look out the window and see the big white fluffy snowflakes falling and I get one last spark of excitement as I think about how Christmas really is the happiest time of the year.

Short Story - 806 Words

My face is pressed up against the cool glass. Beads of sweat collect on the back of my neck and on the palms of my hands, from excitement and nervousness. I stare out at the billions of stars in the galaxy, but Im only looking for one. A heavy sigh, escapes from my lips. I can vividly remember the forbidden photos, of the mysterious planet. The greens and blues are what I remember the most. There was white and brown too. Others of the photos showed the land, green and blue, pink, and purple. The photos are so very precise, you could see the droplets of water on the leafs of trees, and yellow, brown sap trickling down the body of a tree or the slight flutter of a butterfly wing. The colors are bright, the flowers are glistening, everything†¦show more content†¦There was nothing they could do about her blindness. When Mother and Father took her home for the first time she explodes in screams and tears, they didnt know what to do to calm her down. In the mist of my parents head ache, they turned on some music, they turned on Beethoven most popular symphony, No.5. This calmed her down immediately, a so because an earthy man calmed down an alien child, she was named after him. Bee did eventually grow out of her blindness which was a miracle, and when she did she learned to play the piano. Bee and I always loved watching old Earthian movie like Clueless, Home Alone, and of course 1992, family comedy and drama movie Beethoven centered around a cute St. Bernard puppy. Come on everybody loves puppies. Except maybe, Bee and thats about it. Can’t, you wait till we get there she says with a dreamy sigh. No. I cant wait. I say with slight annoyance. Ive been waiting for this my whole life. Weve given up our lives for....... for this. I say with a smile as I turn my body towards her, where both laying on our side now staring at each other Im out of my mind ecstatic, right now! My smile widens as I speak Were going to see grass Bee! GRASS! I shout. Out of the ground! That so exciting! Im practically screaming now but I dont care. Just then Father comes in the room What going on in here he says, with a stern look on his face. It doesnt suit him at all. His strings of gray-streaked brown hair lay down onShow MoreRelatedshort story1018 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Short Stories:  Ã‚  Characteristics †¢Short  - Can usually be read in one sitting. †¢Concise:  Ã‚  Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told.  Ã‚  This is unlike a novel, where the story can diverge from the main plot †¢Usually tries to leave behind a  single impression  or effect.  Ã‚  Usually, though not always built around one character, place, idea, or act. †¢Because they are concise, writers depend on the reader bringing  personal experiences  and  prior knowledge  to the story. Four MajorRead MoreThe Short Stories Ideas For Writing A Short Story Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pageswriting a short story. Many a time, writers run out of these short story ideas upon exhausting their sources of short story ideas. If you are one of these writers, who have run out of short story ideas, and the deadline you have for coming up with a short story is running out, the short story writing prompts below will surely help you. Additionally, if you are being tormented by the blank Microsoft Word document staring at you because you are not able to come up with the best short story idea, youRead MoreShort Story1804 Words   |  8 PagesShort story: Definition and History. A  short story  like any other term does not have only one definition, it has many definitions, but all of them are similar in a general idea. According to The World Book Encyclopedia (1994, Vol. 12, L-354), â€Å"the short story is a short work of fiction that usually centers around a single incident. Because of its shorter length, the characters and situations are fewer and less complicated than those of a novel.† In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s DictionaryRead MoreShort Stories648 Words   |  3 Pageswhat the title to the short story is. The short story theme I am going conduct on is â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ by James Thurber (1973). In this short story the literary elements being used is plot and symbols and the theme being full of distractions and disruption. The narrator is giving a third person point of view in sharing the thoughts of the characters. Walter Mitty the daydreamer is very humorous in the different plots of his dr ifting off. In the start of the story the plot, symbols,Read MoreShort Stories1125 Words   |  5 PagesThe themes of short stories are often relevant to real life? To what extent do you agree with this view? In the short stories â€Å"Miss Brill† and â€Å"Frau Brechenmacher attends a wedding† written by Katherine Mansfield, the themes which are relevant to real life in Miss Brill are isolation and appearance versus reality. Likewise Frau Brechenmacher suffers through isolation throughout the story and also male dominance is one of the major themes that are highlighted in the story. These themes areRead MoreShort Story and People1473 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Title: Story Of An Hour Author: Kate Chopin I. On The Elements / Literary Concepts The short story Story Of An Hour is all about the series of emotions that the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard showed to the readers. With the kind of plot of this short story, it actually refers to the moments that Mrs. Mallard knew that all this time, her husband was alive. For the symbol, I like the title of this short story because it actually symbolizes the time where Mrs. Mallard died with joy. And with thatRead MoreShort Story Essay1294 Words   |  6 PagesA short story concentrates on creating a single dynamic effect and is limited in character and situation. It is a language of maximum yet economical effect. Every word must do a job, sometimes several jobs. Short stories are filled with numerous language and sound devices. These language and sound devices create a stronger image of the scenario or the characters within the text, which contribute to the overall pre-designed effect.As it is shown in the metaphor lipstick bleeding gently in CinnamonRead MoreRacism in the Short Stor ies1837 Words   |  7 PagesOften we read stories that tell stories of mixing the grouping may not always be what is legal or what people consider moral at the time. The things that you can learn from someone who is not like you is amazing if people took the time to consider this before judging someone the world as we know it would be a completely different place. The notion to overlook someone because they are not the same race, gender, creed, religion seems to be the way of the world for a long time. Racism is so prevalentRead MoreThe Idol Short Story1728 Words   |  7 PagesThe short stories â€Å"The Idol† by Adolfo Bioy Casares and â€Å"Axolotl† by Julio Cortà ¡zar address the notion of obsession, and the resulting harm that can come from it. Like all addictions, obsession makes one feel overwhelmed, as a single thought comes to continuously intruding our mind, causing the individual to not be able to ignore these thoughts. In â€Å"Axolotl†, the narr ator is drawn upon the axolotls at the Jardin des Plantes aquarium and his fascination towards the axolotls becomes an obsession. InRead MoreGothic Short Story1447 Words   |  6 Pages The End. In the short story, â€Å"Emma Barrett,† the reader follows a search party group searching for a missing girl named Emma deep in a forest in Oregon. The story follows through first person narration by a group member named Holden. This story would be considered a gothic short story because of its use of setting, theme, symbolism, and literary devices used to portray the horror of a missing six-year-old girl. Plot is the literal chronological development of the story, the sequence of events