This is a rough draft so please be harsh:
2011 Human Rights Theme - Freedom Riders: Then & Now
The purpose of the Tampa/Hillsborough County High School Essay Contest is to challenge area youth/students to consider the importance of Human Rights and how they influence our community. The content of the essay should reflect the Theme for this year's event. Essay must be 600 words or less (need to cut out 11 words).
It was May 4th, 1961. James Farmer and thirteen others boarded Greyhound and Trailway buses headed towards the capital, somewhat aware of the upcoming inferno they would soon face. These brave revolutionaries were the first of various people to become "Freedom Riders." Their mission? To test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling banning racial segregation without utilizing violence.
For centuries, a plethora of people had been deprived of their basic human rights solely due to their skin pigmentation. Infamous "Jim Crow" laws had transformed ideas previously deemed horrific into every-day happenings; it wasn't even uncommon for states to outlaw intermarriage between races. Therefore, when the Freedom Riders protested against the outrageous laws, the waves of retaliation they received weren't unexpected. Most of them were violently assaulted and incarcerated by white extremists that trembled at the thought of a united nation. Since officers couldn't charge the riders of breaking segregation laws, they charged them with "breach of peace". Fortunately, news of this unfair treatment spread like wildfire, inspiring protests throughout the nation. The heroic actions of the riders led to the Interstate Commerce Commission issuing stringent laws prohibiting segregated transportation facilities.
Fast forward to the 21st century. Schools are packed with children of every color and ethnicity; interracial couples take walks in public parks, and African-American business-owners employ Caucasians. On the surface, it seems like discrimination is extinct. However, it is still lurking among its new victims -undocumented immigrants. These humble, hardworking people have suffered through unfathomable trials not because they're criminals, but because they were born in the "incorrect" country. They often go by unnoticed in our community out of fear of being discovered and deported from this "Land of the Free". For example, just as a friend of mine was graduating from high school, his mother was deported, leaving him behind to raise his pre-teen sister and his disabled brother. The burden of maintaining an entire household on a minimum-wage salary was suddenly on his teenage shoulders. But like his mother, he was undocumented too. Not surprisingly, he now resides in Orient Road Jail. Who knows what became of his siblings! Unfortunately, there are countless people under similar situations as his-people whose basic rights have been abolished similarly to how the rights of African Americans were abolished centuries ago. Immigrants in jail considered "civil" detainees have fewer rights than criminal detainees. They're exempt from the law that dictates that everyone that can't afford a lawyer will be appointed one free of charge; they're even exempt from the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Fortunately, for every unjust law, there'll always be "Freedom Riders" to protest it. In this case, literally. Inspired by the freedom rides of the 1960's, activists organized the "Immigrant Worker's Freedom Ride" in 200, traveling through nine cities before reaching their final stop: D.C. While the new "Freedom Riders" weren't treated as harshly as their predecessors, two of their buses were detained by the U.S. Border Patrol in Texas. Despite this; they didn't quit, eventually inspiring people with government positions to radically change their previously negative opinions of immigrants.
No matter what century we're in, valiant people will always exist in our community -people wise enough to act against the infringement of human rights without utilizing violence. Our community can become an epitome of peace and ethnic equality, as long as we follow the path carved out by our Freedom Riders- old and new. As Congressman John Lewis - the first original Freedom Rider to be assaulted - stated, "Martin Luther King would be very proud. We are white, Black, Hispanic, Native American - we are one family, in one house, and we are not going to let anybody turn us around."
2011 Human Rights Theme - Freedom Riders: Then & Now
The purpose of the Tampa/Hillsborough County High School Essay Contest is to challenge area youth/students to consider the importance of Human Rights and how they influence our community. The content of the essay should reflect the Theme for this year's event. Essay must be 600 words or less (need to cut out 11 words).
It was May 4th, 1961. James Farmer and thirteen others boarded Greyhound and Trailway buses headed towards the capital, somewhat aware of the upcoming inferno they would soon face. These brave revolutionaries were the first of various people to become "Freedom Riders." Their mission? To test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling banning racial segregation without utilizing violence.
For centuries, a plethora of people had been deprived of their basic human rights solely due to their skin pigmentation. Infamous "Jim Crow" laws had transformed ideas previously deemed horrific into every-day happenings; it wasn't even uncommon for states to outlaw intermarriage between races. Therefore, when the Freedom Riders protested against the outrageous laws, the waves of retaliation they received weren't unexpected. Most of them were violently assaulted and incarcerated by white extremists that trembled at the thought of a united nation. Since officers couldn't charge the riders of breaking segregation laws, they charged them with "breach of peace". Fortunately, news of this unfair treatment spread like wildfire, inspiring protests throughout the nation. The heroic actions of the riders led to the Interstate Commerce Commission issuing stringent laws prohibiting segregated transportation facilities.
Fast forward to the 21st century. Schools are packed with children of every color and ethnicity; interracial couples take walks in public parks, and African-American business-owners employ Caucasians. On the surface, it seems like discrimination is extinct. However, it is still lurking among its new victims -undocumented immigrants. These humble, hardworking people have suffered through unfathomable trials not because they're criminals, but because they were born in the "incorrect" country. They often go by unnoticed in our community out of fear of being discovered and deported from this "Land of the Free". For example, just as a friend of mine was graduating from high school, his mother was deported, leaving him behind to raise his pre-teen sister and his disabled brother. The burden of maintaining an entire household on a minimum-wage salary was suddenly on his teenage shoulders. But like his mother, he was undocumented too. Not surprisingly, he now resides in Orient Road Jail. Who knows what became of his siblings! Unfortunately, there are countless people under similar situations as his-people whose basic rights have been abolished similarly to how the rights of African Americans were abolished centuries ago. Immigrants in jail considered "civil" detainees have fewer rights than criminal detainees. They're exempt from the law that dictates that everyone that can't afford a lawyer will be appointed one free of charge; they're even exempt from the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Fortunately, for every unjust law, there'll always be "Freedom Riders" to protest it. In this case, literally. Inspired by the freedom rides of the 1960's, activists organized the "Immigrant Worker's Freedom Ride" in 200, traveling through nine cities before reaching their final stop: D.C. While the new "Freedom Riders" weren't treated as harshly as their predecessors, two of their buses were detained by the U.S. Border Patrol in Texas. Despite this; they didn't quit, eventually inspiring people with government positions to radically change their previously negative opinions of immigrants.
No matter what century we're in, valiant people will always exist in our community -people wise enough to act against the infringement of human rights without utilizing violence. Our community can become an epitome of peace and ethnic equality, as long as we follow the path carved out by our Freedom Riders- old and new. As Congressman John Lewis - the first original Freedom Rider to be assaulted - stated, "Martin Luther King would be very proud. We are white, Black, Hispanic, Native American - we are one family, in one house, and we are not going to let anybody turn us around."