About Segregation

Racial segregation is a belief that a race is superior to another race, and thus should be separated from the other races in services, facilities, and institutions. Racial segregation was a huge controversy between the white and colored, African Americans particularly, for many long years, caused by the Jim Crow Laws, a set of state and local laws practicing in the Southern United States for about one hundred years (1865~1968). Blacks children were not allowed to go to public schools with white children or blacks were not able to sit in a white public places. Cases like these were led up to break segregation and the blacks wanted their freedom, equal rights, and being treated like a human being. In white folks eyes, black people were not seen as equal citizens and they wanted to change that. However, the African Americans who wanted to rebel against this set of laws could have sentences to arrest, fines, jail, violence, and death. Recently I read two articles corresponding to this issue: “I Never Had It Made” and “Warriors Don’t Cry”. “I Never Had It Made” talks about Jackie Robinson joining the major baseball leagues while white fans were vexed with his presence. He did have some supporters, though, the other African Americans coming to sit in the audience. The white children who had no clue that he was African American also supported him, which inspired him to break segregation. “Warriors Don’t Cry” talks about Malba Pattillo Beals’s road to study in a white school. Some white mobs were angry with that, while some were friendly, and even crying openly to witness this matter. Can African Americans break segregation on their own? If so, how did they achieve that? Let me discuss and analyze these two articles via comparing and contrasting them.

Racism is inevitable and it applies to people of all races around the world, no matter what ages they are, what social status people are, or what career people do. Racism is the practice that actions and attitudes create inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based on race. Mr. Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, called Jackie Robison to join the Major Leagues Baseball (MLB) in 1947 season when he was 28, breaking baseball’s color barrier. “It would be the first time that a black man would be allowed to participate in a world series.” But fans shouted discriminating sounds and some teammates swore “ they would never play with a black man.” The white people have prejudice and biased feelings toward African American and they discriminate against them by giving them unfair treatment just because they are black. The white people would not accept African American, underestimate them, and "judge a book by its cover", rather than how great ability they have to the work or to the society. This is racism! Similarly, when 15-year-old Beals was going to a white public school, Little Rock Central High School, the white mobs were everywhere on the streets around the school and the soldiers had to do crowd control constantly to make sure she and other 8 African American school girls were safe toward school. “Some of the white people looked totally horrified, while others raised their fists to us. Others shouted ugly words.” The white mobs were unsatisfied with the decision of letting the black students study with the white. The “angry segregationist mobs had forbidden us to go.” because they think schools were made for white people only, even though Beals was just a young school girl with no harm. The white mobs didn't care whether Beals was young or not. They only cared about her race, African American. With racial segregation, the white completely opposed her and tried to prohibit her from going into the white school. When racism is there, it is always there, and they will never disappear. Racism is unbreakable. It happens to any kind of race, and it does not matter with the person's identity, age, or career.

Although African Americans were suppressed by the Jim Crow Laws and segregational mobs, they still bravely stood up for themselves and tried their best to peacefully break the segregation. African Americans were willing to risk their arrest for their freedom. They knew they would have no freedom and continue to be treated unfairly if they don’t break segregation. Jackie broke segregation by playing the MLB.Jackie broke segregation by playing the MLB. Even though Jackie had hate mails threatening to kill him, he held himself together, became a strong man with no fear toward segregation or racism. With the support from Mr. Rickey and many loyal black fans, he continued to play the best of him in MLB. Eventually, the white teammates accepted Jackie, “they started to give me tips on how to improve my games.” The white children viewed Jackie as a skillful baseball player rather than a black man, making him want to do more to break segregation, “It broke the tension and it made me feel I had to succeed.” Under the pressure and rebellion from his white teammates and audience, Jackie could have left the team or reacted violently toward the white mobs, but he did not do so. Jackie calmed down his temper and believed in himself. Eventually, Jackie broke segregation with his baseball ability. There is no need for Africa Americans to react angrily and violently for the discrimination or racism by the white. Colored people should believe in themselves and let the white folks see their ability and how they can contribute to the society, which in turn, could make the white folks see them as equal human beings. Gradually, the tension made by segregation between the white and the black would be decreasing and the integration would begin. Beals broke segregation by going to the white public school. On Beals’s way to the white school, soldiers holding rifles were “doing crowd control to keep the white mobs away”. The black minister led loggers to pray for the girls’ safety and Beals’s mom were having tears, hoping to “stay alive since the integration began.” Beals was very brave walking to the school, even though the white mobs “raised their fists to them and shouted ugly words.” Eventually, Beals “ walked on the concrete path toward the front door of the school.”, an action to symbolize breaking segregation. African Americans finally have the justice of having equal rights, but it is a long and dangerous road for them to practice such justice. During the early days of releasing segregation, African Americans could have run away and continued to be dominated by the white since they were used to the unfair treatments before and they don’t want to have any conflict or fights with the white. But some African Americans, like Beals, decided to bravely walk on this difficult road of integration. They let other African Americans know that each one of them could break segregation with bravery. Colored people have been suppressed and segregated for such a long time. It is not easy for them to break segregation but each one of them is trying his best to find ways to earn equal treatment, even though it is difficult and might take their lives.

African Americans take actions against segregation, and their actions work as a symbol to inspire other African Americans to break segregation. With more and more people involved in breaking segregation, the dream of integration among the white and black could possibly come true. Segregation is a major social problem, affecting every African American person and causing difficulties in every aspect. It gives African American no choice but being restricted into one or several dirty, low-quality services or buildings. Many of them were displeased with the quality, but they had no voice in the government, so they could not change the laws. To break segregation, some African American were very physical, like Beals was guarded by the soldiers to go to school while the white mobs were vexed. Others might be peaceful, like Jackie Robinson played baseball hard in MLB without rebelling violently toward the white mobs. These are some examples of the resolutions some people came up with. The most important thing is that both Jackie and Beals are the FIRST to do something that was not allowed previously in the society dominated by the white. The very FIRST black person to play in MLB and the very FIRST black girl going to the white school has a huge meaning for all the other African American. Just as Jackie said, “suppressed and repressed for so many years, they needed a victorious black man as a symbol, It would help them believe in themselves.” Although some people may not be the race of African Americans, they can still take action to help the African Americans break free from segregation, just like what Mr. Rickey and the white children did, seeing and trusting the ability of the African Americans rather than the skin of their color. Segregation could be broken and become integration among different races, but African Americans need to take the initial actions and demonstrate how to achieve it without violence in order to encourage other African Americans to follow the steps.

After reading these two articles, “I Never Had It Made” and “Warriors Don’t Cry”, I have a heavy but somewhat hopeful feeling. I feel heavy about how Jackie and Beals spend their life against racial segregation and trying to earn the right of equal treatment. At the same time, I have a hopeful feeling that eventually Jackie and Beals found their ways to break segregation no matter what. Racism can happen to people with any social status, age, or career. Of course the African Americans want to break this segregation, so they, like Jackie going to the MLB and Beals going to a white school, are brave to try new things, be the first one to do something for themselves, instead of remaining the same under white rule. We are now in the technology era, 2022 and discrimination is somewhat still existing in the society, raising the hatred among different races, like some people in America accuse Chinese Americans of bringing the Coronavirus here so they discriminated Chinese. This is unacceptable. How people could work together among different races and what they could do to win over racism and decrease discrimination would be the future focus for the society and then whole world.