Watson Going To Birmingham Research Paper

The Emmett Till murder shined a light on the horrors of segregation and racism on the United States. Emmett Till, a young Chicago teenager, was visiting family in Mississippi during the month of August in 1955, but he was entering a state that was far more different than his hometown. Dominated by segregation, Mississippi enforced a strict leash on its African American population. After apparently flirting with a white woman, which was deeply frowned upon at this time in history, young Till was brutally murdered. Emmett Till’s murder became an icon for the Civil Rights Movement, and it helped start the demand of equal rights for all nationalities and races in the United States.

In the novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis, Kenny has a curiosity of why Byron treats people so rudely. Kenny treats people better than Byron by, sharing his lunch with a boy named Rufus and Rufus’ brother, Cody. Another reason Kenny treats people better is, Kenny does not like to see people getting beat up, he just walks away. Also, L.J. (Kenny’s “friend”) started stealing from Kenny but, he kept playing with him.

In The Watsons Go To Birmingham the movie and the book have many similarities and differences when talking about what scenes/phrases were in both the book and the movie, also scenes/phrases that weren't in both. One of the many similarities between the book and the movie is in the beginning Byron seems to get his lips stuck to the car by kissing his own reflection on the mirror on the Brown Bomber (the Watson’s car). In the book it says “I moved closer. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Byron’s mouth was frozen on the mirror! He was as stuck as a fly on flypaper!” (13, paragraph 2). Although there are many similarities between the book and the movie, there are also many differences one of them being stated in the book that Grandma Sands was a small

The Watsons go to Birmingham was an amazing book and movie, but I personally think that the novel was better. The novel is better because it has more character depth, it shows theme better, and you can get your own understanding. The movie lacked many things including character depth.

What character changed the most? Do you ever get surprised when a character changes drastically? In “The Watsons Go To Birmingham” there are many characters. The two that changed more than others are Byron and Kenny.

From the nineteen twenties to even the two thousands African Americans were treated as outcasts in America’s everyday society. During the sixties several African Americans stood up against the altered laws that allowed segregation in their neighborhoods, providing them with more freedom and privileges. With these privileges came violence and hate from angry whites that went as far as attacking children in a religious setting. The poem, “Birmingham 1963” by Raymond R. Patterson explains how African American children were killed in the crossfire of this hate. The poem starts off with a mother preparing her young daughter for her day at Sunday school.

Additionally, Birmingham and other southern urban areas had been the scenes of bombings coordinated at African Americans and social equality nonconformists. “One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto (Carmichael).” One of the tragedies of the battle against bigotry is that up to now there has been no national association which could address the developing militancy of youthful dark individuals in the urban ghetto. This shows how even today things have curved in a good way because of leaders who stood ground and believed that this was not the right way.

The death of a young African American male in 1955 haunted the south and the African American society. Images of Emmett Till hanging in a tree were plastered on television and in newspapers for Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, and David Richmond to see while attending North Carolina A & T College in 1960. These four African American men would soon become known as the Greensboro Four after instigating a sit-in at a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their courage and determination ignited a movement to end segregation not only in their state but across the nation. History was being made that day as the young men sat at the counter, customers inside watching as the events unfolded, and the impact of this incident permeating across American’s eyes.

In chapter 9, Daniel Watson, the dad, said that they were in the south and colored folks can’t just go anywhere and expect to get service. This shows how racist people were, they couldn’t even go certain places and expect to get service. In paragraph 14, it states that someone told Byron that someone dropped a bomb on the church Joetta, the little sister, was attending at the time and later in the book, chapter 15, it states that the police think two white men planted the bomb at the church that killed 4 little black girls. That takes some serious hatred for the race to drop a bomb on CHILDREN who are trying to

The South was considered the homeland for racial discrimination and prejudice through the use of Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation. Dad Watson sheds light on this social issue in the south with a joke: "Oh yeah," Dad interrupted, "they're a laugh a minute down there. Let's see, where was that 'Coloreds Only' bathroom downtown? (5). While on their journey to Birmingham, the Watson’s stop at a rest stop in Tennessee at night. Every single one of them is afraid of “crackers and rednecks up here that ain’t never seen no Negroes before. If they caught your ass out here like this they’d hang you now, then eat you later” (146).The boys slowly begin to the extent of hate, violence and discrimination in the world around them. They realize that the church in Birmingham is bombed because, “Two grown men hate Negroes so much that they’d kill some kids just to stop them from going to school” (203). Byron objects to his mother’s explanation of the motives of these men. When she says that they did it because they were sick, Byron retorts that he thinks that the men “just let hate eat them up and turn them into monsters” (200). This explanation is not only applicable to the entirety of the Civil Rights Movement violence, but it also remains applicable to hate and violence that exists

It has often said that “A child become an adult not only when he is right, but when he is wrong.” This is evident in the historical fiction novel, The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis when he talks about coming of age. The author uses symbolism to convey the message that growing up means facing reality.

Martin Luther King Jr. also seeks to further his point logically by explaining to the people of Birmingham that most places in the United States aren’t segregated to the extent that Birmingham is. He also makes a point to say Birmingham’s “ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of the country” and that “it’s unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality“ (King 233). King also states “there have been more unsolved bombings in Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than any city in this nation” (King 233). By making the statements that no other city treats African Americans as badly as Birmingham and that the injustice that is taking place in Birmingham is a reality that everyone throughout the country is aware of, King

The time period was used in The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963 through setting, plot, theme, and Characterization. The time period was in 1963 a time of racism in the south. The setting starts in Michigan way in the north and the main plot take place in Alabama deep in the south. This influences the plot and characterization deeply due to the fact that the Watsons were an African American family. The time period was used in the plot by showing the racism and violence that was directed toward African American with the time period in the south.

Published in 1995 by Christopher Paul Curtis, The Watsons Go to Birmingham is a story of an African- American family living in a town of Flint, Michigan, having a journey to Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The movie came out in 2013, similar to the original novel. This loving family consists of five members: Byron Watson, an official juvenile delinquent, Kenneth Bernard Watson, ten years old boy with a lazy eye, Joetta Watson, an obedient youngest Watson, Wilona Sands Watson, Momma who always look after her kids, and lastly, David Watson, a thoughtful reliable dad. In fact, the movie is quite different from the novel, because the plot events don’t match with the movie, there is fused resolution, there is some missing and different characters, and the focus of the theme are slightly different.

The author, Dudley Randall, illustrates the conflict and irony between the mother and her child. The mother only wants to protect her child from the dangers that await her, but the child on the other hand, only wants to be a part of the Freedom March in Birmingham, Alabama. “The Ballad of Birmingham” was written about the real life events of the bombing that took place in Birmingham, Alabama at the church of Martin Luther King, Jr by white terrorists. Though the bombing was tragic and resulted in the death of four innocent African American girls and injuring fourteen