Man´s Unalienable Rights

 

“…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”  

American Declaration of Independence . 

July 4, 1776

      Thomas Jefferson spoke about these last three primordial rights in the Declaration of Independence.                                                                                       

Human beings are all born equal and gifted with these unalienable rights.  They cannot be legitimately denied to any person.

The majority of the world´s population knows about the existence of Human Rights.  As students, we started wondering about the topic: 

Have human rights always been respected?

After the Second World War it was clear that the conflict had caused serious damage to the people involved and had had a great impact on the  whole world.  Therefore, it was necessary to protect human rights.

On December 10, 1948, a United Nations commision  summoned in Paris, France, wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is based on the basic principles that respect of human rights is inseparable from the dignity of each person.

Click here and you will be redirected into the Preamble and the Declaration of Human Rights.

We watched a really interesting movie that shows  how Black and White people lived together in a society divided by discrimination and segregation. The movie is called ´´The Help´´ and the story takes place in the 60´s, in the United States. 

Click here to watch the movie  

This is a simple but touching story that will make you think about everything related to Human Rights and will encourage you to continue investigating about this topic.

Let´s share some interesting images from the movie:

                                                                         

Aibeleen and Minny  share their sad life experiences with Skeeter in a secret way. She will publish them later in an annonymous book.  

These are the words Aibeleen, one of the black maids, always repeats to little Mae Moebley, the white little girl she looks after.

One by one, the maids meet to discuss and share their experiences working at White women´s houses.

Celia joins Minny and shares lunchtime with her. Despite their social and racial differences they laugh and have a great time together. 

All the maids gather at church to congratulate Minny and Aibeleen for their bravery.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

JIM CROW LAWS

Throughout the 1830s and '40s, the white entertainer Thomas Dartmouth Rice (1808-1860) performed a popular song-and-dance act supposedly modeled after a slave. He named the character Jim Crow. Rice darkened his face, acted like a buffoon, and spoke with an exaggerated and distorted imitation of African American Vernacular English. In his Jim Crow persona, he also sang "Negro ditties" such as "Jump Jim Crow." Rice was not the first white comic to perform in blackface, but he was the most popular of his time, touring both the United States and England. As a result of Rice's success, "Jim Crow" became a common stage persona for white comedians' blackface portrayals of African Americans.

   Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws. It was a way of life.  

  Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism. The Jim Crow system was formed by the following beliefs: whites were superior to blacks in all important ways, including their intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior. Under Jim Crow any and all sexual interactions between black and white people was illegal.

These are some of rules that Jim Crow laws stated.

“It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.”

—Birmingham, Alabama, 1930

“It shall be unlawful for any white prisoner to be handcuffed or otherwise chained or tied to a negro prisoner.”

—Arkansas, 1903

“No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls.”

—Atlanta, Georgia, 1926

“Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.”

—Missouri, 1929

“Any white woman who shall suffer or permit herself to be got with child by a negro or mulatto...shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than eighteen months.”

—Maryland, 1924

What is your opinion?

How would you have felt if you had suffered the same humilliations?

Do you think this could have been stopped earlier?

Medgar Willie Evers

Medgar Wiley Evers

Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi. Evers got his high school diploma by walking twelve miles to school and twelve miles back each week day. During World War Two, he joined the American Army and was honourably discharged from it in 1946. He married classmate Myrlie Beasley on December 24, 1951, and completed work on his degree the following year.

Despite fighting for his country as part of the Battle of Normandy, Evers soon found that his skin color gave him no freedom when he and five friends were forced away at gunpoint from voting in a local election.

When his application was rejected, Evers became the focus of an NAACP campaign to desegregate the school, a case aided by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education 347 US 483 that segregation was unconstitutional. In December of that year, Evers became the NAACP's first field officer in Mississippi.

Despite several warnings from local white racist groups, Evers continued to organize protests against Jim Crow laws in Mississippi. On 11th June 1963 Lena Horne arranged to speak on the same platform as Medgar Evers. That night he was murdered in the driveway of his home. Horne said: "Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

Evers was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council. As a veteran, Evers was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. His murder and the resulting trials inspired civil rights protests, as well as numerous works of art, music, and film.

The gifts of God should be enjoyed by all citizens in Mississippi.

 

"If we don't like what the Republicans do, we need to get in there and change it."

Our only hope is to control the vote.

 

You can kill a man but you can't kill an idea

I'd see the bus pass every day... But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world."  Rosa Parks

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. “ Martin Luther King Jr.