Return to Hayneville - Essay Example

Greg Orr’s essay “Return to Hayneville” is filled with a lot of illusions. The following sections of the paper will highlight a few of Orr’s illusions in his struggle to fight for the civic rights of his people. The paper will highlight three main examples of how Orr’s beliefs are extinguished as several factors come into play. Three Illusions Gregory Orr’s dream in his younger days was to become a martyr celebrated for his accomplishments as a civil rights activist. This dream he had at the age of sixteen as a high school senior.

Orr’s passion for this cause is evident in his very words “I felt confused and thrilled and purposeful all at the same time” (Orr par 2). Gregory joined a civil activist group and experienced first hand the kind of violence that even hardened martyrs would think twice before making a choice to forge ahead with their activities. Initially, the group’s activities involved holding public demonstrations. At one point Orr admired Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner for being martyrs killed for standing firm for what they strongly believed in to their deaths.

Orr states that he “longed to sacrifice” himself too and would accept death if indeed it was the way to accessing “the grandeur of meaning” (Orr par 3). In spite of having these dreams, forty years later, Orr is not a martyr but, rather, is a professor and poet often reading his poems at various educational institutions (Orr par 5). Together with others, about 500 people in total, Orr assembled in Jackson on 14 June. The purpose of the assembly of the activists and volunteers was to demonstrate publicly against “serious political skulduggery” (Orr par 7).

The movement’s leaders had informed the demonstrators that they would be stopped by police officers and warned of their illegal parade. The demonstrators would defy orders to disperse and give themselves to be arrested. It was hoped that the demonstrators would be arrested and treated with relative calm as due to media presence. It was also expected that those arrested would fill the jails and the group would pressurize for their release citing the economics and public interest related to hosting such a large group in jail.

Bundled in trucks, instead of being taken to jail as earlier anticipated, those arrested were transported to the city fairegrounds where they were grossly buttered and manhandled (Orr par 8). Instead of emerging victorious in this and other terrifying experiences, Orr felt that the humiliation that he was experiencing was far serious than his physical pain (Orr par 8). After being beaten by some guards at night, a plainclothes police officer proclaimed the arrival of some FBI agents. The FBI agents were meant to record the complaints that those arrested had against their mistreatment.

Orr took the opportunity to report how he and others had been mistreated hoping that the perpetrators of the evil acts would be brought to book and punished. After narrating his experience, Orr was asked to somehow identify the guards who had mistreated them. At this point, Orr realised the vanity of his interview. He could not identify the perpetrators since he could not specify their eye color or badge numbers (Orr par 16). Furthermore, the guards had left the previous night and could not be traced.

From this experience, Orr