Brief Summary
This page has the journal entries about Ernest Green and a young filipino kid that was actually involved with the mongomery bus boycott. Then at the bottom the rest of it is a poem about how i feel and what happened during the whole civil rights movement. It clearly explains everything in a brief summary that will also make everything mor understanding.
The Journal Entries:
Civil Rights Movement Boycott
It is 8 in the morning and my arrival for Montgomery was 6 in the morning. I found out that I am not at the right place to be. The security at the train is very racist. He told me that I’m going to the wrong place at the wrong time. I was clueless, and I am a Filipino going to a community where it is ruled by only whites. The only thing I know is that the bus boycott is going on. When I heard about Rosa parks, imma tell her that she is my hero. She is a strong black sista. I can’t believe that she got put into jail for sittin somewhere where she wanted to sit. Rev. Martin Luther king, he is a strong black brotha that is willing to sacrifice many things to help his cuture. I am trying to be apart of this boycott to help out these true Americans that have not been getting what they really need. Martin is a true American and fights with love and care for others. He certainly doesn’t believe in violence. That’s one of the good things that he has in him. Everybody wants him to be a leader because he deserves to represent them. When I met rosa parks, she was telling me how she wanted to be Martins support and help him decide how we could do this. I was kind of like his assistant. He told me to spread the word and preach to other churches while he was working in the office. When I went to visit him, he told me that I was a strong Filipino kid with heart. I learned that all you have to do is put heart into what you want to achieve and you will reach your goal as long as you would stick to it.
Graduation at Little Rock High School
Dear journal,
I come from a wonderful family which my father died recently before I went to Central. But my mother and aunt were both school teachers. And my grandfather, a retired letter carrier, encouraged me to attend this school. I was really lucky and this is what I have to say for myself. There are only nine of us, and a thousand of them. A motivation is what I call this. I can’t believe that I actually made it in the Little Rock Central High school. It was an honor to be chosen to actually attend this school. Especially when these White people where filled with so much anger towards us. I thought that I would have not even made it to the door. I was the only black student in the 12th grade. And from so on there, I was getting so many remarks from these white people but I didn’t make a move but besides ignore them because I wanted to graduate from this High school. I want to prove to them that not all white people can get educated and graduate having equal knowledge a white person. I have heard about the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, about the cruel murder of a young black kid named Emmett Till, and about the first black athlete Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League baseball. And I was aware of the Supreme Court decision making school segregation illegal. So this was my opportunity to show what I could do to change the US a better place. And so I went on and continued my journey being the first Negro graduating from an All White School. Graduation felt like a tremendous accomplishment, as anyone’s high school graduation does. When I was about to graduate, my High school principal spoke to me saying that they would just send me my High School diploma to my house. I was shocked in such a mannered way, and I told him no way, I am going to get my diploma in front of everyone else with everyone else. I didn’t care about the rumors that I would be harmed at the graduation ceremony, and the principal didn’t want him to participate. The principal was white and I would expect that from everyone else also. I am black and I am proud of what I am doing because this will make a change in what they will see in me in the future. They can’t stop me just because I am the first African American to graduate from this school. Every day I would struggle from all these frustrations and all this bullshit that they yell to me, or throw at me, or even just be rude. Teachers didn’t want to teach me, but I kept my mouth shut and listened. I participated in my classes even more than all the white kids together. They all had their attention on me while I was getting educated. All I got to say is that, I am a strong black American that would do anything to be treated as everyone else. And I am going to graduate no matter what people say. I will reach my goal. As long as you will keep your head up and keep your head into the game, you will accomplish your desires.
First Ever Diploma Given to a African American in a white school
Civil Rights Poem
