Celebrating A Rich History Essay Contest Winners Honor Black History Month
February is Black History Month. Since 1926, it’s been a time when schools, churches and communities across the world make a special effort to remind people of the contributions people of African descent have made to society.
But why?
“It’s important for young people to recognize that we are always in constant struggle against injustice as we celebrate all aspects of humanity,” said Danielle Tillman, director of Black Studies for Eastern Washington University. “Black youth need to know they’ve helped build this country, and students of other races need to know, too, of our rich history.”
With that in mind, Our Generation is printing the winning essays from the junior high and high school divisions of EWU’s Black History Month Contest. The contest drew more than 100 entries about people from the writers’ life or history who used his or her education to advance the prosperity of black people.
Students wrote of everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Oprah Winfrey. Here, we feature Jacob Meltzer’s essay on Harriet Tubman, and Cheriya Scott’s essay on Frederick Douglass.
DOUGLASS DEVOTED LIFE TO FREEING SLAVES
Cheriya Scott/Mead, EWU
In 1818, one of America’s greatest abolitionist leaders was born. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born on an eventful day in Tuckahoe, Maryland. At the age of 8, he was sent to Baltimore to work for a new master. With the help of his new master’s wife, he began to educate himself. Frederick Bailey was an extremely intelligent young man with exceptional talents.
In 1838, this young man fled from his master in Baltimore to freedom in New Bedford, Mass. To help avoid being captured, Frederick Bailey changed his name to Frederick Douglass.
In trying to find a job, Douglass was quick to make a real observation: White men refused to offer jobs to blacks out of fear. A fear that blacks would undercut their wages and take their jobs and, somehow, would rise up to be a successful group of people.
Douglass finally landed a job as a caulker, but the other employees refused to work with him because he was black.
Douglass, being a very distinguished and outspoken man, expressed what freedom meant to him at a meeting of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1841. The society was so impressed by his steadfast and powerful voice that it hired him to lecture about his experiences as a slave. Douglass jumped at the opportunity to do something for his fellow brothers and sisters.
He became the leading spokesman of American blacks in the early to mid 1800s. He polished his speaking skills and soon became a well-known reformer and orator.
He decided to devote his life to the abolition of slavery and to fight for the rights of black Americans.
In the 1840s, Douglass protested against segregated seating on trains. He challenged such absurdity by sitting in sections reserved for whites only.
He had to be physically dragged out of a train many times for refusing to give up his seat. Douglass also felt it was important to protest against religious discrimination. He refused to be involved with church services that excluded blacks.
In 1847, Douglass founded an antislavery newspaper, the North Star, that stated his positions on slavery. He charged employers with hiring white immigrants ahead of black Americans.
He even accused some radical abolitionists of job discrimination. He once commented, “My son could more easily work in a lawyer’s office than in a blacksmith shop.”
Douglass led several successful attacks on segregated schools in Rochester, New York. He allowed his home to be used as a station in the “Underground Railroad,” a secret system of helping runaway slaves reach the sweet bells of freedom.
During the Civil War, he fought for the right of black Americans to enlist in the Union Army.
Douglass, like Martin Luther King, Jr., understood that the abolitionist movement had to be a nonviolent one. While equality for blacks was his goal, he realized it would never be accomplished under the present conditions. Therefore, he discussed the problem with President Abraham Lincoln several times.
He knew equality would only come after the Constitution discontinued to allow the corrupt practice of slavery.
Douglass opened the eyes of many ignorant people on the issues of slavery and how demoralizing it was. Until the day Frederick Douglass died, he was devoted to advancing the prosperity of people of African descent.
May we all strive to be half as bold as Douglass was in his fervor to help his fellow brother and sisters.
TUBMAN’S HEROIC DEEDS WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN
Jacob Meltzer, Medical Lake Middle School
Harriet Tubman played a significant part in the fight against slavery during the mid-1800s. Her influence gave hope to all the slaves that there was a way out. Even with an informal education, a person can change a lot in the world and in other people’s lives. Harriet proved this.
Harriet was a defiant child from the beginning of her life. When she was a young child, she fought against slavery as much as she could. For example, once when she was 10, her master told her to tie up another slave so he could be beaten. She told him no and he hit her on the front of her head with a rock. She suffered blackouts for the rest of her life. She decided then and there she would run away when she was older.
Harriet’s informal education was minimal. The only thing she learned was what her father and mother told her and what she could learn from the bad example of the whites. For example, her father taught her many things about the forest that would help her survive later, when she was freeing slaves. She also learned from her life as a slave that slavery was wrong and unjust, and blacks were just as good as whites.
When she was 29, she escaped from her master and, by using the information her father taught her, she got away quickly through the forest. She vowed to come back and help other slaves escape, too.
And she did just that. She came back and helped more than 3,000 other slaves go free, including her family. The most amazing thing was, out of the 18 trips she took to help slaves, not one of them was caught.
Things got harder when the Fugitive Slave Act came out. That law made it illegal to help runaway slaves, but she persevered and did not give up her vow. Whites were so concerned about what she was doing there was a $40,000 reward out for her capture.
When the war started, Harriet was right there to help. She acted as a nurse, as well as a spy for the Union. She even led a group of blacks into quick raids or attacks to get information that helped the Union generals decide what to do next.
I believe Harriet Tubman was a great person. She helped so many blacks earn their way to freedom. Harriet Tubman will never be forgotten for her heroic deeds and absolutely outstanding work.