Exploration 7 by Allison Clark

Ain't Scared of Your Jails

Big Picture

     From this documentary I learned a lot about not how segregation played out in history but I learned something deeper. I learned how segregation made people feel, it didn't just affect one type of person, but all different types of people, and made them feel a lot of different emotions. Segregation not only affected people, but it affected the places that those people inhabit.

    You could connect this documentary in various different ways but the one that I found most important was acceptance. Even to this day, we have problems as a society with accepting people for who they are. We continuously fight for equality for everyone from every single walk of life but there will always be people trying to tear that effort down. In the documentary, it shows the importance of fighting for something that is right and following your ambitions regardless of the difficulties that you will end up facing. The documentary brings to life the compassion that human beings can have for each other regardless of our tendencies to judge and create the "perfect" complex. In the film, Leo Lillard said in regards to the segregated water fountains, "They're just the same momma", even being a young boy he didn't understand why the color of someone's skin affected what they were allowed to do, he assumed it was unfair and unjust. This questioning is what leads to becoming someone that make changes in what they see wrong in the world around them. The drive and determination that it takes to make such changes are outstanding and not installed into everyone. An example of this would be the sit ins that were performed all over the south. On February 1, 1960, the first sit in was performed by 4 college students in Nashville. Jim Lawson had workshops to train these students in non violence so that they would still hold their dignity. While these sit ins went a few weeks without any outrage, it began to fester up in the city and the students were arrested, but they had definitely left a lasting impression on the city of Nashville, they got people to think morally. When in jail, John Lewis says in regards to making a stand for something right "I wore it like a badge of honor" Regardless of if he was in jail, he knew that he had done the right thing in progress of making a change in something that he believed in. They had started the change, the sit ins spread to everywhere in the south and triggered many more movements to come. 

     Its important that we take in the lessons from the past, and that we always fight for what we believe in. After all, it is what our country is built on. People come in all shapes, sizes etc, and that's alright. Its okay that everyone is different from one another. It is what makes things interesting, it keeps our society moving. We must adapt to change, because without it, one can never begin to improve. This is what this documentary has brought upon us.