Mock Trial/EOTO #3 Reax

EOTO #3 Reflection

This week's EOTO was on events related to the progression of segregation. This EOTO the class was instructed to try not using any words on the slides, which was influenced by my presentation from the last EOTO. At first I felt kind of bad about this, but everyone told me that it didn't make it any harder so it was fine. I will say the quality of these presentations was certainly better than last time, but I don't think we should stop the use of text outright. My last presentation actually did have multiple bits of text, and I think it can be great for this type of presentation. The key is to use the text sparingly, use it for the main ideas not all the ideas.

Events That Advanced Segregation

The first EOTO segment we heard was on events that advanced segregation. There were many segments that I found interesting and learned something new. One of these was Evan's segment on the forming of the second KKK. In the 1960's the KKK reformed into a much more organized group with even stricter beliefs; they now excluded jews, Catholics, and most Europeans. Their goal, of course, was to recoup white supremacy. Their methods were just as violent as ever. In fact, some of the other EOTO presenters' topics were caused by the KKK: Lindsay's presentation of the 16th street Baptist church bombing orchestrated by KKK members, and Kasen's presentation on the Mississippi burning also perpetrated by the KKK. The part that really stood out to me from Evan's presentation however was the new KKK's focus on nativism. The belief that people native to a land our superior. This is silly to me because if they believe in this then shouldn't they be treating Native Americans as superior? They want to claim ownership to a land they of which they weren't even the first inhabitants. This is just such a simple contradiction that seems so obvious. Sometimes I find it funny how stupid white supremacists can be, but it's also scary.

The other presentation that stood out to me was Ariel's on sundown towns. Sundown towns are white communities that banned blacks from their neighborhoods past sundown. This is interesting to me because I had never heard of this before Ariel's presentation, but according to her that were ten thousand of them between 1890-1960. What's even more striking is that they still exist today. That's baffling! How is this practice which is very clearly discriminatory not being shut down by local governments?

Events That Halted Segregation

(Clara's presentation, taken live at the EOTO!)

On the other side of the EOTO was the events that halted segregation. The first topic that caught my attention was Clara's presentation on the integration of the armed forces. This is also the topic I took a picture of, depicted above. No idea what happened to that picture by the way. My phone seemed to mess it up with all that blue light at the top, sorry about that. Anyway what was striking about this presentation is Isaac Woodard, a black WWII veteran who came home from the war just to be beaten to the point of permanent blindness. Researching more into this topic myself, the person who beat him was the police chief, and he was acquitted of his crimes by an all white jury. Every time I read about a racist attack from these unfortunate eras of American History, I am more and more saddened. This horrible injustice did lead to president Truman issuing an executive order to end racial discrimination in the armed forces though. It's nice to know something good came out of this.

The other presentation I found really interesting was Joey's presentation on the Harlem renaissance. I'm a huge fan of artistic works and it's really cool to me that this is where American black culture as we know it today has its roots. This period of artistic excellence also had the effect of bringing more attention to the civil rights cause. I'm a huge fan of people expressing their creativity and letting out these great works to be enjoyed by people forever, and the fact that it advanced the civil rights movement is amazing.

Sources:

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/baptist-street-church-bombing

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/sundown-towns/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/woodard-isaac-1919-1992/

https://www.archives.gov/calendar/event/the-blinding-of-isaac-woodard-0

Images:

https://marvel-b1-cdn.bc0a.com/f00000000296870/www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cover_image/public/upload/image/SundownTown_2.jpg?h=f5df90d3&itok=h4zBZB8L

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/harlem-renaissance-edjohnetta-miller.jpg