The race riots in this country were very bad during the time that one of my relatives was living in New York. Some of the worst riots however were in 1964, my grandmother said when interviewed her. She said it was one of the craziest things that she had ever heard about. She lived in Trumansburg, New York, which is about four hours and 15 minuets away from where they first started. Even though she was far away she still felt what was going on during that time. There is a lot of things that are a part of the civil rights movement that happened all across the United States.
The first and main piece that was being challenged during the civil rights movement was race. A racial group was being put down and basically bullied around because of the color of their skin. This to grandmother was something that just blew her mind. She said that God put these breathing human beings on the planet and made them beautiful and we as humans are just going to basically “spit” on them for no reason. According to our text book there are 35,000 genes in the body that make up a person’s skin color. That is an insane amount just to make up the color of their skin. Just because people didn’t have the same genes as someone else they were put down and treated differently. To my grandmother this made her very angry. She said she tried to do everything thing she could to help out but never felt like she did enough, she said if she could go back she would do more.
The next part that is involve in the cilvil rights movement is the ethnics of the people that were being treated poorly because of their darker skin color. Ethnics is basically just what people indentify with and what their traditions, heritage, and pretty much whatever else they do is. This can lead directly to some racial tension. My grandmother said she saw this all over the place. She said there weren’t very many African americans living in her town at the time but she could tell that people would talk about the way they acted, what they did and what they ate. She told me this, there is no reason for someone to talk bad about someone else because of how they act or what they eat. It’s the same thing as me liking tomatoes and you not liking them. Theres no need for you to make fun of me for liking them but you do anyway. This to her just made very little sense. It finally got to the point of where she had to act out and do something.
The race riots in 1964, she said, was one of the craziest things that she has ever been a part of. During this time in Harlem, New York a 15 year old African American was shot by an off duty white cop in july. This set off the people of Harlem as about 8,000 of the residents took to the streets and started a full scale riot on the city. Now my grandmother wasn’t apart of these riots but she said she felt for the people down in Harlem that something needed to be done. The people of Harlem basically took the whole city down she said. This went on for about six days.
This is where my grandmother finally decided to step in, take some actions, and stand up for what she believed in. She took action as another riot broke out closer to where she lived. As the riot in harlem cooled off another riot broke out in Rochester, New York. Her and two of her friends, one of them being African American took off once they heard the news about the riot. She said it was the wildest thing that she has ever done. She said that buildings were in flames, cars were being over turned, and stores were being broken into and robbed. She said she was amazed that she didn’t get hurt or arrested. Once the national guard showed up however, she left Rochester and went home. I had no idea that my grandmother was that involved in what was going on during the civil right movement in New York even from a same town like Trumansburg. My grandmother took affirmative action during the Rochester race riot. This means that she favored the side of the group that was being put down for the color of their skin. She didn’t care what the color of her friends were, she just took action and did what she thought was right.
The civil rights movement changed this country around for the rest of history, because of this schools were integrated and many more people began to accept what was going on in the world around them. The race riots were in the middle of the civil rights movement