Emmett Till’s murder

by Jeremy Martinez

Emmett Till was murdered on August 28th, 1955. The young Emmett was always a great child, even since he was very young; but segregation was very hard for a child like Emmett to grow up in, especially in the south, where black people were treated like they weren’t even people.

In the south, it was hard for black people to walk on the street without a white person screaming at them. If a black person (they were also called “colored” at that time) person and a white person were walking on the same sidewalk, the colored person would have to get off the sidewalk and let the white person walk by. If the colored person didn’t move, the white person often could slap him or her. During his life, Emmett Till would always try to stay out of trouble.

A brutal murder.

One time, as Emmett was going to the store to get gum, he saw a white woman and he was accused of whistling at her. Her husband heard about this, and he decided to take care of this situation himself. Emmett got to his house and he and his family all went to bed, and two white men showed up at Emmett’s door.

The white men took Emmett with him to a barn yard, and abused him and hit him with 49. magnum pistol. He was then shot, wrapped with barbed wire, and thrown into a river with a fan from a cotton gin tied to his body. His body was found at the end of the Mississippi River, bloated up with bullet wounds his body and blood and scratches all over him. His mother had an open casket at his funeral, and many people showed up–but because of how badly he was mutilated, many people fainted. Emmett’s mother moved to the north; she was still sad, but she was safer from all the troubles of the south.

After Till’s death, people fought political battles to stop the taking of colored lives. Sometimes  it would not turn out well, and many of them would be killed because of their protests. But eventually, after all these crises, people have started getting along. They started to rebuild and forgive for all that has happened, and African American people started to live freer happier lives in many places. Many found jobs that helped them pay for their new homes.

Emmett’s murder inspired people to stand up against racism. People used to be free to kill African Americans whenever they felt like it, but now people can go to jail for this kind of violence. Even though much of the old racism is still going on, African Americans can now become doctors, lawyers, and politicians, and this shows how society has grown over the years.

9/11: a tragic event

by Jeremy Martinez

Tragic.

September 11, 2001, also known as 9/11. It was a tragic day.

Many people were shocked by this event, where 2,996 people died, including 19 hijackers, 246 on the planes, and 2,606 in the World Trade Center, and 125 at the Pentagon.

The attack began when two large passenger planes hit the World Trade Center towers. The first plane hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m and the second plane hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. At first, people thought that only two planes attacked the towers, but there were more than two planes–there were four.  One headed for the Pentagon, two headed for the Twin Towers, and the last one was headed for the White House but it was taken down in Pennsylvania by the civilians on the plane. The plane that hit the Pentagon struck at 9:37 am.

When the first plane hit, there was a big hole in the tower. Parts of the plane fell into the street and many people from other buildings and places in the city were looking at people jumping out of the building. Many were crying at the situation. When the second plane hit, people did not believe what they just saw. People in both buildings started to jump out, because they really knew that they where not going to make it and they did not want to burn to death slowly. Later, the towers started to fall and people still couldn’t believe it. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 and at 10:28 the North Tower fell.

That day was one of the most tragic days of our American history. We still remember it today, and they even have a memorial for the people that died.

Student Government Report: first impressions

By Miles Graham

I went to one of the Bronx Eagle Academy student government meetings, and it was very interesting. The were good things and questionable things.

Lets start with the questionable things. They seem to be having time management problems, and some people don’t come or are late to the meetings. Another problem I see is that they have trouble keeping track of the minutes. The minutes are notes that say what they did in each meeting, and without the minutes they don’t know what they did and that can affect them big time. They also need to do a better time of scheduling house meetings.

Now let’s talk about the good things. They cooperate really well as a group, and they help each other with not only problems in the school but personal problems too. They communicate well and support each other, and they also are great problem solvers. I can see they will work out their problems and help the school, and have a bright future.