History Repeating Itself

History Repeating Itself

During the Civil Rights Movement there were a myriad of frustrations African American faced from not being able to drink from the same water fountains as whites, to not being able to exercise the right to vote in government. Discrimination has been around for a long time, even before prehistory. Someone always thinks that they are better than others because of his or her skin color, sex, race, etc. Racism and slavery are just two examples of discrimination. Throughout all the trails and hardships African American's faced, we continue to overcome the harsh treatments of racism. Even though our Constitution is based on freedom, our own Constitution allowed discrimination towards African Americans for around 100 years.

The Civil Rights Movement began with Rosa Parks, a black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white person on the public bus. By refusing to move from her seat, she ended up being jailed. Standing firm to her word and not giving into what she believed caused the bus boycott. We know this movement as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

In Flannery O' Connor's "The Artificial Nigger" the conflict between Mr. Head and African Americans are his non-exposure to blacks and how he was raised. Mr. Head tells his grandson Nelson they are going to take a trip to the city. Nelson is ten years old and has never been around or even seen a black person in his entire life. Little does Nelson know, but Mr. Head is almost in the same situation as him. The two guys live in the country and have to take a train to get into the city. Nelson respects his grandfather's views as most young kids do, because that is the southern and that is how he was taught. Mr. Head was about sixty years old and had not been to the city since he was born, but he insisted that the town was still familiar to him. Not thinking that the scenery had changed much since he last visited Mr. Head thought he would show Nelson the city. When they got on the train the grandfather wanted to give young Nelson a tour of the train, pointing out every person of color. African American people come in many shades and poor nelson was confused.

The conflict between the grandmother and Mr. Head are somewhat similar in many ways. The grandmother and Mr. Head are deceitful people. How can you show someone a city that you have not visited in over forty years? Well you really can not, not without getting lost. Mr. Head tries to be macho and show his grandson that blacks were beneath them. The grandmother tries to persuade her son and his family to not go on a family trip to Florida because she really wanted to visit Tennessee. The grandfather was sure he knew his way around town until his arrived but still played the part and did not want to ask for help. The grandmother also neglected to tell the truth to her family, which was one of the reasons why they ended up on the side of the road. Bailey's mom snuck her cat in the car and the cat caused an accident to occur which led the family to a path of hell.

After encountering blacks and coming into contact