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  • Essay / Sacrifice for Freedom's Sake: "Letter from Atlanta Jail" and "Opening Statement"

    As a community, we long for freedom. Freedom and equality are what we all want in our respective communities, and we have been fighting for it together for decades. However, we have not yet achieved equality and justice in the world, and especially in the United States. People have gone to prison for fighting for justice and equality and for expressing their political beliefs, including freedom fighters such as Marcus Garvey and Assata Shakur. Shakur gave a speech about the difficulties faced by the black community during his trials, called "Opening Statement." Likewise, Garvey wrote a letter to his community, speaking of the sacrifices he had made for them. Garvey's "Letter from Atlanta Prison" and Shakur's "Opening Statement" are both similar in that they speak to the unjustified treatment of people of color, particularly discrimination. While the focus of Shakur's statement is the political difficulty the black community faced during his time, Garvey speaks of his fight for equality and his personal sacrifice for the black community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essaySocial activist Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Jamaica, Ann's Bay. Historians consider him one of the founders of the black nationalist movement. Garvey was a public speaker for black nationalism and Pan-Africanism. Garvey believed that the black community would never achieve equality until it gained independence. In 1922, he was charged with mail fraud involving the Black Star Line. He was sentenced to five years in prison. In 1927 he was released from prison and deported to Jamaica. Garvey continued his political activism and UNIA work in Jamaica. As is evident, speaking of freedom and justice was discouraged in the politically charged context of the time, and people who dared to do so were arrested and incarcerated. While in prison, Garvey wrote a letter to his fellow black community members. He spoke of his sacrifice and the dangers he faced in the fight for equality. Assata Shakur is a New York-born freedom fighter and activist. She became a student activist and participated in rent strikes, anti-war demonstrations, and protesting racial inequality. As a black radical and member of the Black Liberation Army, Shakur was targeted by the U.S. government and charged with three bank robberies as well as the kidnapping and murder of two drug dealers. Due to mistreatment by the government, she fled political persecution and was granted refuge in Cuba. Due to the U.S. government's racism toward people of color, she was sentenced to prison due to her participation in the Black Liberation Movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the World War. Vietnam. The government has done everything in its power to criminalize it. She had been accused of a crime she did not commit. During her trial, she read an opening statement on behalf of those who spoke about the lack of justice and the hardships faced by the poor and the black community. To begin with, the similarities between “Assata Shakur’s Opening Statement” and Marcus Garvey’s “Letter from Atlanta Prison” both mention the prejudice and injustice that society treats people of color. In theShakur transcript, she mentions, sitting next to a pregnant woman while watching TV and seeing Nixon pardoned for the crime he committed. She said: “pardon a president who stole a million dollars and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of human beings. For what? For peace with honor? In other words, Nixon was pardoned without ever being imprisoned. Nixon had been pardoned by President Gerald Ford in order to leave behind a tragic and disruptive scandal. After all, what about those people who are behind bars doing nothing? Are they pardoned? No. If you have money and a connection to power you can do anything you can even buy people. Likewise, Garvey writes, "civilization today has become drunk and mad with its power and thus seeks, through injustice, fraud and lies, to crush the unfortunate." As an illustration, the people who hold state power are those who corrupt justice. They are the ones who broke the law, causing others to suffer. They commit crimes without even having to be tried. Both Garvey and Shakur state this in their statement and letter: the greater the power, the greater the crime, the greater the injustice, they corrupt the power of the people. Along the same lines they both tried to end discrimination and segregation against people of color, Shakur participated in the Black Liberation Movement and the student rights movement. Likewise, Garvey participated in the black nationalist movement. Both fought for what we call “equality”. Furthermore, another similarity between "Assata Shakur's Opening Statement" and Marcus Garvey's "Letter from Atlanta Prison" is that Garvey writes that he must never give up the fight for freedom and freedom of Black people, even though he was imprisoned. In the same way, Shakur spoke about the government's mistreatment and abuse against black communities that was against racism, even though she was in prison, she had never stopped fighting for equality. Garvey addressed his letter to all black people and vowed that after he was released from prison, he would always fight for freedom and equality, and that not even his enemy could stop him. Likewise, Shakur also mentioned how the government, the police, the FBI and the CIA all launched an all-out war against individuals they considered activists or dissidents and especially against individuals they considered activists . Countless numbers of people have been murdered or arrested. Similarly, Shakur's "Opening Statement" and Garvey's letter speak to what people think about black activism. For example, some believed that the Black Liberation Army was an extremist organization, even though that was not the case. The black liberation movement fought for equality and justice. People have lost their lives due to racism and treating people of color as inferior. Comparing Assata Shakur's “Opening Statement” and Marcus Garvey's “Letter from Atlanta Prison,” it becomes clear that Shakur is focusing on what black communities were experiencing. when they express their political ideals while Garvey focuses on the good deed he personally did for the black community. For example, Shakur believed that there was justice in this country even though there was none and she also spoke about throughout America's history, individuals have been detained in because of their political beliefs and accused of criminal acts. Those who challenged the injustice in this country are acting for the same reason the government put everyone who stood up for justice in jail. Until..