State of Siege Critique - Essay Example

Segregation existed in all kinds, forms, and shapes in the daily lives of the people mentioned in the documentary. As Foner said, “They had to fight for every inch of it. Nobody gave you anything. Nothing” (957). They were dealing with people who believed in some sort of religion, where “racial amalgamation is both illegal, immoral and a disgrace”.

As a foreigner who does not know American history well, I was stunned by the facts presented in the documentary. Watching the discussions of what occurred in the fight for human rights brought so much grief, sorrow, misery, and pain to me as a viewer so I can just imagine how the Blacks felt in their struggle to acquire the equal rights they have been fighting for. The Blacks wanted to get rid of racial segregation in the state because it has not been good for them, nor the state (Medgar Evers, during TV show). It made me rethink about non-violent resistances led by Martin Luther King Jr. and how difficult it has been for him to pursue his people’s desire for freedom through the extreme opposite of what most Blacks wanted and believed in. King told the Blacks who lost their beloved fathers and sons, who were despised and who lost their jobs and houses to the Whites, that they would never use violence in their protests. “There will be no White persons pulled out of their homes and taken out to some distant road and lynched” (King, the speech of the launching of the Montgomery bus boycott), was the philosophy that the reformer believed in. I think this was a noble act that fairly received its due when the Blacks were finally recognized as human beings, worthy of a life where they are treated as they should. Read More