Racism Past And Present Lots Of People example essay topic
504 words
Racism Past and Present Lots of people think racism was a thing of the past and that it no longer existed. But that is far from true. Racism was a problem in the past but is still is today. Everyone needs to realize it is there and try to stop it. In the past there was a lot of racism. It all started with slavery around 1750 (Klas h 1). White people would sail to Africa on cargo ships. They would take African males, females, and children right out of their home. Then they were crammed into the cargo holds on the ship. Only about 70% made it to their destination because of bad living conditions. If one person was sick there was a big chance of everyone getting sick. Then when they got back they were sold at auctions.
Teenage males went for the highest price because they were young and strong. After they were sold, they were put to work on a plantation. They were not payed and if they refused to work or ran away they were whipped or sometimes killed. The union states didn't agree with this so the civil war started. The union defeated the Confederacy on April 9, 1865 (Frank 2). Then a law was passed saying it was illegal to own slaves.
So all of the slaves were free. Most of the Confederate plantation owners didn't like that because they were there only laborers. That meant they had to hire people to work on their land. Lots of people had a hard time excepting this. They burned their houses, destroyed their crops, and refused to get along with them. A group was started called the Ku Klux Klan ( ).
They were a group of night riders who burned and tortured African Americans. One incident that happened was the murder of Emmett Till. In August 1955, a fourteen year old boy went to visit relatives near Money, Mississippi. Emmett went to a local store. When he left he said "bye baby" referring to the woman at the cash register. A few days later, two men came to the cabin of Mose Wright, Emmett's uncle, in the middle of the night.
Roy Bryant, the owner of the store, and J.W. Milam, his brother-in-law, drove off with Emmett. Three days later, Emmett Till's body was found in the Tallahatchie River. One eye was gouged out, and his crushed-in head had a bullet in it. The corpse was nearly unrecognizable; Mose Wright could only positively identify the body as Emmett's because it was wearing an initialed ring.
They took it to court but Roy and J.W. were found not guilty. Mamie Bradley, Emmett's mother, insisted on having an open casket funeral so "all the world could see what they did to my son!" (Cozens 2).
