For many years, even decades, there has been racism all around the world. There have been injuries, fights, riots, protests, killings, and even major events, like bus boycotts,  that have led us to where we are today. Racism is still happening to this day, and most likely won’t end for many more decades, if even at all. One of the issues about racism is that there are a lot of people in the world that don’t even know some things that have happened in the past. Some schools will teach it to their students, but there are some that don’t. In this research paper, there will be a few events explained, Like what happened to Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and George Floyd. It is also going to talk about what the outcome of those events were, and how they have led us to where we are today, like parts of the civil rights movement, protests and riots.

Racism is a very big thing in the world, and it has been around since the 1930’s.  Over the years there have been killings, and certain events that have left a huge impact on the world. Some people that are included in that are Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and George Floyd. Emmett Till and George Floyd were both killed, and Rosa Parks started an event that sparked something even bigger in the end. Emmett Till and George Floyd did the smallest things that you could think of, and they were murdered for it. Rosa Parks was just so tired of following rules and being treated so differently because of the color of her skin, so she did something small that led to a much bigger issue and caused more trouble than it should have. Throughout the years, there have been so many unnecessary things that have happened because of the racist people in the world. There have also been so many racist things that people don’t know about, but should be talked about much more and explained to everyone. Just because some people have different colored skin, that doesn’t mean you should treat them differently, or even hurt them in any way. Maybe hearing about some of the people that have been hurt from racist people, can help others realize that they should stop being racist and treat everyone equally.

How many people truly know about the world's racial history?

Although racism has predominantly come to light with recent actions by authority, the problem stems back to the 1930’s.. Racism actually started long before that, but the 1930s is when the term was created. Since then, there have been some pretty big events that happened because of racism, like murders, protests, and even bus boycotts. Some have even had really big impacts on the world, which has led us to where we are today. Some of the bigger events included Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and George Floyd. Throughout the years there has been a lot happening, but there are also so many people that have no clue that they happened, it is important that we all know major history events, it can help us learn and grow. Learning and hearing about these people can show the world how terrible some people are, and how the little things in life can have such a big impact. Learning about the racist events of our past history, can help us see the bad in racism and learn from it to improve the future. The martyrdom of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and George Floyd is overshadowed by ignorance and miseducation of racism.

One of the first major events that happened because of racism was Emmett Till. He was a 14-year-old African American boy, who was such a kind person. Emmett Till lived with his family in Chicago, Illinois. In the summer of 1955, he went on vacation to visit some family in Money, Mississippi. His relatives were cotton sharecroppers out there. One day he went out with some of his peers to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market. Everyone was having fun and sitting outside at one of the tables. Emmett went inside the store and saw one of the workers, Carolyn Bryant, who was a 21 Caucasian woman who was running the store. He was accused of whistling at the store owner and the lines get blurred between stories if he was flirting or not. During this time Carolyn’s husband was out of town and when he got home and heard of Emmett Till's actions, he was not happy with what had happened. This anger drove him to act rashly. “Roy and his brother-in-law J.W. Milam had then kidnapped Emmett Till and brought him somewhere. Emmett was then pistol-whipped, beaten severely, stripped naked, cut with an axe, had one of his eyes gouged out, shot through the head, fastened by the neck to a large cotton gin fan, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River” (Tucker 2005). These cruel actions had destroyed Emmett’s face so much, no one could recognize it; the only way he was able to be identified was by the ring he had on. Once his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, had heard about everything, she was so devastated and angry that she decided that everyone needed to see what had happened to her son, so she had an open casket funeral. Aspeninstitute published an article where Timothy Tyson, the author of The Blood of Emmett Till, said that “Mamie was able to turn Emmett’s death into a movement that resurrected the democratic dreams of reconstruction towards full citizenship for African Americans”(Corea 2017). Something as small as an open casket sparked an outrage within society.  Later in the same article, Tyson claimed “Seeing Emmett’s mutilated features in Jet magazine forced the country to grapple with the brutality of American Racism” (Corea 2017). This was eye opening for many citizens and forced them to think about their own actions. In an interview that Timothy Tyson had with Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused Emmett, had said “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him” (Gorn 2019). Many people were revolted by the actions of the two men who killed Emmett,and because people felt so strongly about what had happened, an uprising occurred that sparked the movement known as Black Lives Matter.  A while after the killing, the two men, Roy and J.W. Milam, were offered to be paid money to say some information and have it put into a magazine. The men ended up confessing what they did and it was published into Look magazine. Roy and J.W. Milam even got paid a few thousand dollars for their confession. In the Chicago Tribune, and along with other people, they like to say “Emmett Till to America is what Anne Frank is to Germany, a child martyr to a national evil” (Gorn 2019).  People like to make this statement because it relates to something else really big that has happened in the past, and can possibly give others a better understanding of the importance of Emmett Till. The Chicago Tribune had also said that “African-Amercians saw the pictures of Emmett after his death, and it grave grim determination to what has been called as The Emmett Till Generation of the civil rights movement” (Gorn 2019). The images of Emmett’s face had spread among many citizens, and had shocked them all. It had woken many to the danger that was now there for those with darker skin, and because of that, many were afraid and upset and started what is now the history of the civil rights movement with Emmett Till. After Emmett Till was murdered, his face and his story was everywhere. His story and his name showed up in articles, newspapers, in reports, and continued to show up for a very long time. Emmett Till and his murder had become such a big thing in our racial history, and is caused a major awakening for those of his color, it was even a spark for the civil rights movement along with the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Less than a year later in Montgomery Alabama, Rosa parks sparked a bus boycott by not giving up her seat to white passengers on a bus. When Rosa Parks was younger she had a harder time in school from family and racial issues. Rosa has attended a school in Pine Level, Alabama, but was only able to stay there until sixth grade. Once she was no longer able to stay at the school in Pine Level, her mother had moved her to a school in Montgomery, where she stayed with some relatives. During her junior year of highschool Rosa had to drop out of school to take care of her family. Her grandmother was dying and later on her mother needed help. Once Rosa was 20 years old she was finally able to get her high school diploma. In a database it is said that in 1934 “Rosa had gotten married to Raymond Parks, who was a long time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP” (Batten 2010). Back in the 1900’s black citizens were forced to take a literacy test when they registered to vote, and Rosa had to do that just like all the others. Once Rosa had taken the test and done everything she had to, she was feeling confident but then found out she was denied twice.  In the same database it mentions that “In Montgomery, Alabama blacks had to follow certain rules when riding the bus. They had to step in the front door to pay their fare, then step off and go around to the back door and board the bus there. They were also acquired to sit at the back of the bus, even when the front section that was reserved for the whites was empty” (Batten 2010). This never really made the black citizens very happy, and is one of the main reasons why they got involved with the bus boycotts. At this point Rosa Parks was getting on the bus to go somewhere, but she didn’t follow the rules like usual. This time Rosa had got on the bus at the front, paid her fare, and then started walking towards the back of the bus. Once the bus driver realized what Rosa was doing, he got upset and told her that she had to get off and enter through the back door. Rosa didn’t listen to the bus driver, and that led him to grabbing her arm and telling her to get off his bus, which by that point she listened and got off. About twelve years later in 1955, Rosa was leaving work and had got on the bus to make her way home. She had followed all the rules that the black citizens had too, but then realized that the bus driver was the same guy from the bus that made her get off and leave. Rosa had just let it go and didn’t say anything to anyone and made her way to an empty seat in the front row of the black section. As she was making her way home the bus started to fill up more with passengers at each stop. Eventually all of the white section was filled up, but there was one white man standing with no seat. The bus driver noticed the white man and told the row that Rosa was in, to get up and let the man sit. In a database it’s mentioned that “ The three other black people got up and moved, but Rosa refused. The bus driver ended up calling the police, and then they arrested Rosa Parks and took her to the city jail. Rosa was then soon released on bail, and a trial date was set for the following week. That same evening, leaders of the Montgomery Women’s Political Caucus began to call for a bus boycott by the black community for December 5, to coincide with Rosa Park’s hearing” (Batten 2010). Rosa was tired of following the rules and wanted to stand up for what was right, and it upset many of those her color when she got arrested. It upset them so much to where they wanted to help her out and prove a point, so they are going to start a bus boycott. Once it came to December 5,  all of the cab companies that were owned by blacks ended up stopping by the bus stops and picking up passengers, and changed their fare to the same as the bus fare. On that same day, almost every one of the buses were full of white passengers, but hardly any black passengers. In the same database it said “The Montgomery buses were nearly empty of black passengers, which marked the black community’s first united protest against segregation” (Batten 2010).  This ended up causing the police to harass the black people who were waiting for cabs, and to threaten the cab drivers if they didn’t change their fare back to the normal amount. Once the bus boycott started, it continued for more than a year, and caused those who supported it, to lose their jobs. Rosa’s husband, Raymond, even ended up resigning from his job because his boss wanted there to be no words spoken about the bus boycott or about Rosa Parks. During the boycott, and even after, hate mail and threatening phone calls were sent over to Rosa and Raymond. A few years later Rosa and Raymond ended up moving to Detroit, and Rosa got the chance to travel and talk to people about the bus boycott and the civil rights movement, and she was having so much fun doing that. In that same database it also said that “In March of 1965, King called for a mass march in Alabama, from Selma to Montgomery, to protest the treatment of civil rights demonstrators in Selma. Rosa was also invited to join the march for the last eight miles to the capitol in Montgomery” (Batten 2010).  When trying to find out if the march was successful and if Rosa ended up joining, the information gets blurred. In 1977 Raymond Parks had passed away, and then in 2005 on October 24, Rosa Parks passed away. Everything that has been a part of the bus boycott, and even parts of Rosa’s history, it is still echoed into today and can be known from the civil rights movement and maybe even the Black Lives Matter movement. 

The last person that is going to be talked about in the paper is George Floyd. George Floyd was an African-American male, 46 years old, and had a daughter named Gianna Floyd. In 2020 an incident occurred, including 4 police officers and the death of George Floyd. In an article it says that “Around 8:00 p.m. on May 25, Minneapolis police officers responded to a call from a store clerk who had claimed that George Floyd had paid for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. In an initial statement, the police said that Geroge appeared to be under the influence and that he had appeared to be suffering from medical distress, after which they had called an ambulance” (Murphy 2020).  Sometimes in situations where people use fake money to buy things, the store clerk might just try to stop that person themselves, but in this situation the police were called, and because of the color of George’s skin, things got way out of hand. On the CNN website there are multiple videos that show what happened, and in one of the videos it is from one of the body cameras on one of the police officers. In that video it shows that one of the police officers was approaching George Floyd’s vehicle, in which he was sitting in the driver’s seat. In the footage it is shown that George was asked multiple times by one of the officers, Mr. Lane, and George finally opens the door and apologizes as he gets out of his car. In one of the articles from CNN it says that “About six seconds after the door is opens, Mr. Lane draws his gun, and points it at George Floyd while telling him to put his hands up instantly, and without any reason for explaining the stop, he pulls George out of the car” (Murphy 2020). All of this happened without any reason, the officers heard a complaint and saw the color of his skin, and without any hesitation began to put George in handcuffs. At this point, other people start to slowly walk up to the scene and watch what was going on. As the officers were walking George over to their squad car, George starts to refuse and repeatedly say he will not get in the back seat because it will make him feel super claustrophobic, but he is still pushed into the care by officers Mr. Lane and Mr. Kueng. George ends up pushing himself to the other side of the car, and gets out saying that he is going to lay on the ground. In the same article mentioned earlier it states that “ Three of the officers pin George to the ground, facedown. Mr. Chauvin was kneeling on his neck, Mr. Kueng was kneeling on his upper legs and holding his arms, Mr. Lane was holding his legs down, and the fourth officer, Mr. Thao, was watching and keeping bystanders away. George Floyd had started to say repeatedly that he could not breathe, but mr. Chauvin kept his knee on George's neck for over eight minutes” (Murphy 2020).  At this point the people watching had started recording, and the videos ended up being posted on the internet, and that created a widespread outrage along with nationwide protests against police brutality. After about six minutes of Mr. Chauvin’s knee was on George’s neck, it was starting to look like George wasn’t breathing, and the people watching insisted that one of the officers check for a pulse. Eventually Mr. Kueng checks for Goerge’s pulse, but wasn’t able to find one. Once Mr. Kueng told the officers that he couldn’t find a pulse, the three other officers had continued to keep George Floyd pinned to the ground, still restricting his ability to breath. That continued until an ambulance arrived and took George to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. After George’s death was official, the four officers involved got fired.in an article is says that “On May 29, Mr. Chauvin was arrested, and initially charged with third-degree murder, and within days he had agreed to plead guilty. The other three former police officers that were involved in George Floyd’s death were charge with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter” (The New York Times 2020). The fact that the former police officers dealt with their consequences had brought peace to some citizens, but not to all. Since not all people felt peace, people had poured into the streets of Minneapolis, riots and protests had started, and it wasn’t peaceful. In the New York Times article it said that “Officers ended up using tear gas and firing rubber bullets into the crowds of people. Images on television and on social media ahd captured businesses being lit on fire and people carrying out goods of vandalized stores. By May 29, protesters had overwhelmed the law enforcement. Minnesota’s top officials acknowledged on May 30 that they had underestimated the destruction that protesters were capable of inflicting” (The New York Times 2020). The people were so mad and wanted to get revenge, so they held riots and protests, destroying the community that people lived in. It went on like that for a little but then it all started to calm down and the riots were stopping and the protests turned into peaceful ones. George Floyd is one of the big people included in the Black Lives Matter movement, and people still honor him and spread awareness to this day. 

Over the years there have been many murders and protests because of the racism in our world. They have had really big outcomes and have sparked events in the civil rights movement, and created destruction in a few states from riots and protests. The stories of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, and George Floyd have been explained, but they still need to get around to more people.It is important that people are educated about racial crimes and the amount that is currently uneducated is shocking and concerning. Hearing the different stories about our racial history, could really change your view on things, or it might not. But if it makes you realize the bad in the world that has been caused by racism, you could try to improve yourself and encourage others to do better and to help get the world closer to the possibility of ending racism.

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