Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 4 March 2004 — Page 25

The Muncie Times • March 4, 2004 • Page 25

continued from page 36. studied at Howard University Law School in Washington D. C. and graduated his first class in 1935. WhenThuigood moved on from Howard University, he joined the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. From 1939-1961, he was a director and chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. • After participating in many black organizations and clubs, he was appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court by Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the first Black person to sit on the high court. About fourteen years passed and while he was on the high court, he consistently supported Blacks who were discriminated against based on race and gender. In 1981 Thurgood found himself in an increasing minority as appointments by Nixon and Reagan changed the outlook of the courts. Things were beginning to change. Poor health forced Thurgood to retire from the Supreme Court in 1991. He died of heart failure in Washington D. C. in 1993. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Like most Supreme Court Justices; he let all of his personal papers to the Library of Congress. Thurgood Marshall was a good man who saved many black lives from lifetime imprisonment and even the death penalty. Let us not forget this noble man's good deeds and strong soul that kept him helping more and more people. Works Cited Afromation: 366 Days of American History. Ed. Michael D. Woods Atlanta,

Georgia: MYKCO .com, 1998. http://www.searcheb.com/bl ackhistory/micr/636/8.html. n.d A Salute to Civil Rights Leaders. Ed. Richard L. Green, n.p.: n.p., 1991.

“Sojourner Truth”

Joanna Payne 6th grade Wilson Middle School Mrs. Pam Dragoo Sojourner Truth. What do you know about her? I know that she had a very powerful impact on the civil rights struggle. In 1977, a young couple gave birth to a very strong baby girl. "Isabella Van Wagenen was bom into slavery in Hurley, New York.” “She had twelve brothers and sisters, but didn't get to know them very well because they were sold as slaves very quickly. In late 1843, she changed her name from Isabella Van Wagenen to Sojourner Truth. When she was about thirty years old she "was released as a free woman following the New York Anti Slavery Law of 1827.1 For the next few years, she lived with a quaker family who gave her a little education. She became "an outspoken advocate of the rights of the women, and also the rights of the black

people.” Wherever she spoke out she made an impression that would last forever. Sojourner Truth was very strong and physically healthy, and was very tall. Also she had a very powerful and booming loud voice. During the Civil War, Sojourner Truth supported black troops and helped get them land from the government. She was often compared to Frederick Douglass. She became a fluent preacher and abolitionist. She traveled and preached throughout her home state of Michigan. Most of Sojourner's speeches were based on the belief that people can show love towards GOD by loving and caring for each other. Sojourner Truth “gave her ever so popular speech “Ain’t I a Woman in the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.” “Ain’t I a Woman”, made an enormous impact at the Convention and has become a classic expression of women’s rights. A few ministers that attended the second day of the convention, were not shy to express their feelings about men’s domination or high power over women. One of the ministers spoke of “the manhood of Christ.” the other one claimed that it was the sin of the first woman on Earth (EVE) that made men have a power over women. “Well, children, where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter, I think between the Negroes of the South and the women of the North - all talking about rights - the white men will be in fix pretty soon. But what’s all this talking about?...Look at me. Look at my arm. I have plowed

and planted, and have even gathered into barns, and no man could evef Head me, but AIN’T I A WOMAN? I have bourrte children and have watched them be sold into slavery, but when I cried out none but JESUS heard me. AND AIN’T I A WOMAN? That little man in the back there said that women can't have as much rights as men, "Cause Christ wasn't a woman. Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!!!! Man had nothing to do with it. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right-side up again. And now that they are asking to do it, the men better let them do it. Sojourner Truth was all for equal rights, especially for women's rights. She was not shy and wanted every one to feel the way that she did about equal rights for women. Sojourner Truth had a major impact on the civil rights of black's and women. She devoted most of her life speaking and preaching for seminars and Conventions to try to change women's rights. Sojourner Truth lead a full like. No doubt about it, she had very interesting things happen in her life. ONE thing sticks out above all others. She changed women's rights forever. She passed away in battle Creek, Michigan, at the age of 86, in 1883. Bristow, Duane. Sojourner Truth. http://www.webcom.com/du ane/truth.html; 1995. Ellis, Veronica; Patrick, Diane; Wesley, Valery. Great Women of the Struggle. Just us books, Inc. Orange, New Jersey. 1991. Worldbook,Inc. Sojourner

Truth. Chicago,IL 1991

“A Small Step Towards Freedom”

January 12,2004 Sarah Williams 12th grade Muncie Southside High School . Mrs. Ayres Imagine you are a black women who just spent a tiring day at work and all you want to do is get on the bus and go home, but as you sit down to get on the bus you are told to move so a white man could sit. You refuse to move and are promptly taken off the bus and sent to jail. How would you feel if this happened to you? This injustice did happen to someone December 1, 1955. her name was Rosa Parks. Rosa parks was bom Rosa Louis McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on Febmary 4, 1913. She was raised by her mother on her grandparentfs farm. She attended a high school program at State Teachers College but dropped out when she was sixteen years old so she could take care of her dying grandmother and then later her sick mother. In December of 1932 she married long time NAACP activist, Raymond parks. After she officially joined the NAACP in 1943, she helped to mobilize a voter continue on page 26.