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Notion: political heroes

From Martin Luther King

…to Barack Obama

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How can the smallest actions of an ordinary man turn him into a hero ?

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A few historical facts

The American Constitution says that :

« All men are created equal »…

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1. Slavery

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2. The Civil War

A. Lincoln

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Th African

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1865: Amendments to the Constitution

  • The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal
  • The 14th Amendment gave equal protection to all persons

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1865: The Ku Klux Klan

A fierce resistance among southern whites ensued: A secret society terrorized blacks, organizing racial lynchings and burnings while local authorities looked the other way.

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3. The Jim Crow Laws (« separate but equal »): The Supreme Court declared segregation constitutional

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yJA7LdJNwU

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2Iwa9LeuFM&fbclid=IwAR2H3mrzoiPYMoxOJAs2UMGJN7ZX_PnBAhSRAhimkfA7eh66mZkLWAQ9uQA

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1954: Brown vs Board of education

  • Linda Brown is refused the right to enroll at a white-only school in Topeka, Kansas
  • Her parents sued the administration and they won: the Supreme Court declared school segregation illegal

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Bus boycott

It lasted a year. Black taxi drivers lowered their fare to the same price as a bus ticket. Finally the protest ended in victory when the US Supreme Court decision outlawed racial segregation on public transport.

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4. The movements against discrimination started in the mid-1950s:

Pacifists organised:

  • sit-ins (for example at

"whites-only" lunch counters)

  • Freedom marches/rides
  • Used legal actions

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ6mXKpiVs8

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=3ank52Zi_S0&feature=emb_logo

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MLK’s speech

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MLK’s methods:

  • He went to India to study Gandhi’s methods of non-violent protests
  • He wanted equal rights for all, he was against segregation
  • He wanted more tolerance, more faith (he was a Baptist pastor) & more peace

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The Little Rock Nine: a group of black students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. President Eisenhower had to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the 9 students.

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1960: Ruby Bridges

  • She was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the South (New Orleans)
  • She had to be escorted to school by 4 marshals

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« The Problem We All Live With »,

painted by Norman Rockwell

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5. Segregation becomes illegal :�Civil Right Acts

  • 1964: The Civil Right Act (it made racial segregation illegal)
  • 1965: The Voting Right Act (it prohibited racial discrimination in voting)

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1965: « Bloody Sunday » in Alabama

  • 600 black protesters were attacked by the police

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The Black Power Movement & the Black Panthers

  • They resorted to violent actions
  • Malcolm X indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans

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They demanded full employment, better education for the Blacks.

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6. The Affirmative Action: granting preference to minority people in education, employment, scholarship, financial aid & gvt contracts

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April 4, 1968

MLK was shot & killed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis

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Martin Luther King Day

People spend the day volunteering their time to help other people who are less fortunate, such as the homeless or poor, as they practice what Martin Luther King, Jr. preached.

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7. 2008: Election of Obama, the first African American president: « we are the change that we seek »!

The American Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWkoGlwESNk&feature=emb_logo

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Economy

  • He signed a recovery plan that he said helped save millions of jobs.
  • He wanted to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans & use that money to help create new jobs.

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Health care

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  • He signed the Affordable Care Act (also called the Obamacare). The 2010 law gave millions more Americans access to affordable health care
  • Before the law was passed, insurance companies could deny coverage to people who were sick. That is illegal now.

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The war

  • Under Obama command, US troops killed Osama Bin Laden (the leader of the terrorist group that attacked the US on September 11, 2011)
  • Obama planned to bring all US troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2014

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Education

  • He wanted to increase the amount of government aid to US schools – especially to help fix those that were performing poorly
  • Obama said that he’d helped make college more affordable by increasing federal aid to millions of deserving students

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2014: The Black Lives Matter movement

  • It was created after an unarmed black teenager (Michael Brown) was shot by the police in Missouri

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2017 in Charlottesville: a rally is organised by a white supremacist group. They opposed the removal of the statue of General Lee (commander of the Confederate State Army during the civil war.)

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Luther King/Obama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRHh_cjLa1c&feature=player_embedded

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The unauthorized biography

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