Understanding the Real Cost of Civil Rights

Hearing these real life stories presented as interconnected events rather than isolated incidents completely changed my perspective. Today's lesson wasn't just about history – it was about understanding the systematic nature of oppression and the incredible courage required to fight it.
The lesson started with the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, and I immediately felt sick to my stomach. Four little girls – Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley – were just getting ready for Sunday school when a KKK bomb ended their lives on September 15, 1963. What really got to me was learning that over 8,000 people attended their funeral. These weren't just statistics; they were children whose deaths sparked national outrage that helped push through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The fact that progress came at such a horrific cost still bothers me hours later.
Then we moved to the Mississippi murders during Freedom Summer 1964, and I realized how naive I'd been about law enforcement. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner weren't killed by random racists – they were murdered with the active participation of Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Learning that local law enforcement was orchestrating violence against people trying to register voters completely shattered my faith in the idea that police are automatically the "good guys." The 44-day search and the FBI's massive investigation showed how deep this corruption ran.
When our professor described Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I could almost feel the tension. Six hundred peaceful marchers led by John Lewis, beaten with nightsticks and attacked with tear gas just for demanding their constitutional right to vote. What struck me most was how John Lewis suffered a fractured skull but kept helping others. The images broadcast on television were so shocking that they led directly to the Voting Rights Act just five months later. Sometimes I think about how different things might be if ABC hadn't interrupted their Sunday movie to show that brutality live.
The discussion of George Wallace's "stand in the schoolhouse door" showed me how political theater can backfire spectacularly. His dramatic blocking of Vivian Malone and James Hood from entering the University of Alabama was meant to boost his political career, but it ended up exposing segregation's moral bankruptcy to the entire nation. Malone's perseverance in becoming the university's first Black graduate in 1965 demonstrated incredible strength in the face of constant harassment and death threats.
Learning about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave me hope, especially seeing the dramatic statistics: Black voter registration in Mississippi jumped from 6.7% to 59.8% in just two years. But then we talked about the Poor People's Campaign in 1968, and I realized legal equality didn't solve everything. Even after civil rights laws passed, economic inequality remained crushing. Three thousand people living in "Resurrection City" on the National Mall for 42 days, demanding jobs and decent wages, showed me that the fight for true equality was far from over.
What really hit home was learning about Shirley Chisholm – "unbought and unbossed" – becoming the first Black woman in Congress in 1968 and running for president in 1972. Her campaign slogan said everything about refusing to be limited by others' expectations.
Walking out of class today, I'm overwhelmed by how much courage these individuals showed and how their sacrifices directly created the rights I take for granted. These weren't distant historical figures – they were real people who bled and died so I could sit in an integrated classroom and write about their stories freely.

Ai disclaimer: I used Claude.ai to organize my notes that I took during the Presentations.