Continuous education to live up to a legacy: The Rhetoric of Legacy Just a two years ago when it was 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, our current first lady of the United States made a commencement speech at Bowie State University in Maryland. She gave a speech to the graduates of Bowie State University, which started giving education to black community two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. At that time, the school education was held in a small African Baptist church in Baltimore. However, because of such brave inspirited and qualified students who came to learn to become leaders in Maryland and throughout the country, a small church school started to flourish its education environment. So on this majestic …show more content…
Michelle Obama’s argument was to continue to strengthen the legacy that people that inherited. She had cited the historical analogies and historical leaders of the civil rights movements to urge the importance of education. She started with the history of how Bowie State University started to offer its education in black community and continues with civil rights icons such as Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King who kept on fighting despite of hate from many citizens in the United States during the period. By deriving historical facts in the speech, Michelle Obama demonstrated a strong sense of logos. Furthermore, she cited statistics that education is as important or if not more important than it was back when the Bowie State University was founded (291). Then, she constructed a logical argument that “a recent study” had found “African American women with a college degree live average age of six-and-a-half-years longer than those without.” Legacy is also described as something such as property or money that is received from someone who has died. Michelle Obama had linked education to legacy and that education is necessary in living a longer life (291). So, “carry that legacy forward”
In America, we are told that it is the land where everything and anything is possible. For many years, it wasn’t like that for African American. With many hard work, strength, and courage African American manage to earn the right to an education. To the African American community education became more of a need than a want. We’ve learn that education is such a powerful asset that with it you are unstoppable. You can do so much if you put your time and energy to it. Having an education to African American is the one hope for a brighter and better
President Barack Obama spoke his remarks at Howard University commencement ceremony for the class of 2016. This special moment in the speech is honoring people of color, especially African Americans and made history at this University, having the president to present his speech (Donnella). Obama explained how America was different when he graduated college and society is now accepting new cultures and backgrounds within today’s workforce and education. Obama wants the audience to take opportunities and learning new skills to expand their education.
“The Black Studies Program: Strategy and Structure” was published Fall of 1972 in The Jounal of Negro Education. It’s contents are a relection on the years before when colleges and universitys were allowing African Americans to attend , but did not provide curriculum about or for African Americans.
Segregation. Denial of service. Cruel comments. Just a few of the tame acts to name that African Americans dealt with on a daily basis. Many have risen up and fought for justice, desperately looking for a lifestyle of equality. Though, one truly stood out and screamed for freedom and equality. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, an African American born into slavery who was determined to become educated. To get an education while being of African descent was no easy task; she longed for others like her to have a learning environment that remained unrestricted to them. Mary’s determination blossomed into something much greater from there – the determination to educate others. She started a private school for African American students in Daytona Beach,
Blacks in the United States have had to persistently fight against torture, racism, and segregation and still do. For years, in the United States people of color were not given the same rights as white men. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., “Graduation” by Maya Angelou and “A Homemade Education” by Malcolm X, the authors discuss their experiences and fight against inequality. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Maya Angelou were just a few of the hundreds of thousands of blacks who restlessly fought for civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Maya Angelou showed that in the face of adversity to persevere you must always remain strong and steadfast if you wish to succeed. Even with Malcolm X and Maya
The time has come again to celebrate the achievements of all black men and women who have chipped in to form the Black society. There are television programs about the African Queens and Kings who never set sail for America, but are acknowledged as the pillars of our identity. In addition, our black school children finally get to hear about the history of their ancestors instead of hearing about Columbus and the founding of America. The great founding of America briefly includes the slavery period and the Antebellum south, but readily excludes both black men and women, such as George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, and Mary Bethune. These men and women have contributed greatly to American society.
Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The
While attending a Virginia Union University, I am able to further my education while gaining a better understanding of my history. HBCU’s emerged at the conclusion of the Civil War. The constant debate on the importance of educating African Americans was at its peak. Whether it was industrial or liberal education, former slaves knew that it was a vital skill to obtain. Although the government passed the Morrill Act in 1862, providing each state with a facility for higher learning, African Americans were not able to attend these white facilities. It was
For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that
It was not until during the Civil War that Vincent Colyer, army chaplain, established the first school for freed people on July 23, 1863. Furthermore, in 1896 the United States’ Supreme Court established the “separate but equal” doctrine regarding the education between blacks and whites. This consisted of three main principles. The first stipulated that as long as the state provided education for whites, it must for blacks as well. The second stated that the treatment of black students must be the same as that of the white students. The third demanded that the educational building centers of the whites and blacks must be in the exact same quality. These requirements seem to be an automatic necessity now, yet then it was not. The educational system has changed so much, along with society
The speech was held by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, at the DC High School as an educational event for the sophomores. The overriding subject of the speech is education which is an area Michelle Obama and her husband, Barack Obama, has spent a lot of time and resources on. After the introduction of the speech she speaks of a goal that her husband has set for America. She tells that it should be the goal of the entire country to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world in 2020. She explains that it is very important because America was number one in college graduates a generation ago and now they are
It is now over a century and a half since President Abraham Lincoln took the courageous step of issuing the emancipation proclamation that essentially laid the foundation for the freeing of African-Americans from slavery. Since then, African-Americans have been engaged in a never-ending struggle to effectively appropriate this hard fought freedom. The election of Barack Obama into the highest office of the United States is perhaps a significant enough achievement that speaks volumes of just how far African-Americans have come. However, a closer look at Americas social, economic and political fabric reveals a grim truth – that close to two centuries after gaining their freedom, African-Americans are still discriminated based on their racial identity. Of course the amount and form of discrimination is quite different from the total oppression of the slavery years, but still, for many African-Americans, it appears as though very little has changed. From housing to education to employment, African-Americans face numerous challenges that further taint the sacred values contemplated by the founding fathers of America. This essay takes a critical view at racial discrimination in schools with respect to African-American students.
Education has unequivocally remained one of the most important and ever-changing aspects of society. With the advent of new decades and time periods, educating our youth has remained one of the most important tasks to undertake. The changing needs of students and the modernisation of classic teaching methods have caused quite a shift in terms of pedagogy. Throughout the civil rights movement, especially, there was much conversation about education in terms of how black youth were taught and about equality in terms of tutelage. The civil rights movement evoked a glut of strong feelings concerning the flawed and contradictory educational system in America. During the whole of the 20th century (and late 19th century), it seems, a lot was written about in regards to how the youth-black youth especially-were being educated; many called upon the idea that blacks and whites weren’t being educated the same and that there was a significant imbalance in terms of equality. One of the most important citations in the matter of education is one by Jacob Bronowski, “It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.” The redolent outlook this quote brings to education rings true to this time period of the 20th century in which education was being drastically changed and reworked.
During the age of reconstruction, the freedman’s bureau launched the opening of up to 1000 schools for African American children presiding in the south. An assortment of north- sponsored colleges made for African
A legacy can be describe as many things. Some people leave good legacy but also bad ones. A legacy is the only thing many people remember you by. Many people have the legacy of being a great doctor or a fantastic husband. I would like mine to be about the positive things I did in life. Even when I made mistakes I want people to remember I always tried to fix what I did wrong. Well for me I would like my legacy to be good. I want to be remember as the friend who was there for any one at anytime. The lovely mother and friend who was always there.