African American Families example essay topic

377 words
Bridging the Gap "Equal means getting the same thing". These were the words of Thurgood Marshall, both Supreme Court justice, and legal director of the NAACP. On February 12, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded by a multiracial group of activists who initially called themselves the National Negro Committee. This group was built on the individual and collective courage of thousands of people. These people of all races, nationalities and religions, fought for one purpose: that all men and women are created equally. The NAACP has a network of more than 2,200 branches covering all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Japan and Germany.

These branches are divided into seven regions and are both managed and governed by a National Board of Directors. The headquarters of the NAACP is located in Baltimore, Maryland. Today, the total number of members in the NAACP is over 500,000 people. For 87 years, the NAACP through political pressure, marches, demonstrations and effective lobbying, has served as the voice, as well as the shield of minority Americans. As the nation's largest advocacy organization, the prolonged protest for peaceful change has been felt in every corner of American life. Not Without Laughter is story that provides an accurate picture of the life of an African American family in the early twentieth century.

It provided its readers with the struggles of racism that African American families faced through out the fight for equality. The NAACP, who's goal was to end these struggles and these brutal ideas of inequality, fought to ensure African Americans with a better life. Langston Hughes, who has many poems published by the NAACP, was also an active member of the fight for equality. His story portrayed a very important idea that was firmly established in both the black community as well as the white community.

This idea was that African Americans were not equal with the white community during the early twentieth century. He allows the readers to feel the hate that racism unleashes through Sandy's experiences as well as the hardships that Sandy and his family had to go through in a society dominated by whites.