Ramirez 1

Leslie Ramirez
My role as a black woman
March 2,1955
Today I received a frantic phone call from my friend. As she cried, she
told me that her sixteen-year-old daughter had been arrested for refusing to
give up her seat to a white man on the bus. Her daughter, Claudette Colvin,
had done nothing wrong, she was sitting in the negro-section of the bus! I
was infuriated. This was not the first, nor last, time I had heard about
discrimination in Montgomerys buses. I myself was a victim of these
demeaning acts. A couple of months ago, I had planned to take the bus back
home after work, but things didnt go as planned. As soon as I step foot onto
the bus, the bastard bus driver told me that the bus was full and didnt have
anymore available seats. I looked into the bus and spotted at least five open
seats! I became extremely frustrated when, even after informing the bus
driver of the open seats, he refused to let me in. I told him about what a long
day I had, and when I did so, he yanked me by the hair and threw me out of
the bus. He then proceeded on without me. I was humiliated, all of the white
people on the bus yelled out, thats what you get for being an ugly nigger. I
began to cry; I had never cried more in life than in that moment. I was forced
to walk the five miles home, feet aching and all.
I am tired of this all. We need change, I need change. I cant keep
dealing with the neglect, insults, and denial. I am as much of a woman as the
white women next to me. I work, I have kids, I bleed the same blood for god-

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sakes! We need change! The only problem is, if I speak up, who will listen?
After all I am just a black woman.

If I was a negro-man, this probably wouldnt have happened to me, but

because I am a negro-women, I am forced to deal with it. Yes, negro-men
also get kicked off buses, but most of the people who get kicked off the bus
are women. If negro-men are found weak, we are found even weaker. Thats
why, in a way, I am kind of glad Claudette stood up to the bus driver. Us
negro-women need to fight back to earn equality and overall respect from
not only whites, but also men.
August 28, 1955
Yesterday, I was cooking dinner for my family when my husband
walked in. On his way in, he slammed the door with the utmost anger. When I
asked, Honey, whats wrong?, he threw a chair and began yelling about
what a terrible day he had. He said that the bus was extremely full and that
all the Negros were forced to get out so that all the white passengers could
take their seats. The group that was kicked out had to walk up to ten miles to
get to their destination.
My husband has been known to have a very strong temper. With this
being said, he began to hit me to relieve his frustrations, but what did I have
to do with this? What hurt me most was not that he was hitting me, but that
my children had to watch their mother get beat. They were used to seeing
this. My husband often comes home angry and beats me. I am afraid that my

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children will grow up and think that beating a woman is okay. I feel trapped, I
dont know what to do. I have no one to run to for help. Nobody cares about
a black woman like me. I am forced to deal with the violence both inside and
outside my house. For me, there is no escape.
December 1, 1955
I havent written in a while, so much has been going on. A woman that
I know was arrested on the same charges as Claudette today. Her name is
Rosa Parks. Rosa is an extremely kind and independent women. I truly felt for
her after hearing about her arrest. She does not deserve it, nobody does! We
dont do any harm to the whites around us, why do they continue to
discriminate us? Ive had enough of this, weve had enough!
A boycott is said to start tomorrow. Both black men and women will
boycott the buses until we end bus segregation. The womens political
council is arranging pick-ups so that most of us wont have to walk long
distances. I am extremely grateful for everyone contributing to this
movement because maybe my husband wont come home angry anymore,
maybe I wont get beat, and maybe I will no longer live in fear.
January 2, 1955
It has been a month since the boycott has started and nothing has
changed. My husband still comes home angry, were still not being treated
equally, and no law has been passed to end bus segregation. Ive become
extremely frustrated but there is nothing I can do. I have tried to go to the
church meetings that the Montgomery Improvement association holds, but

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most of the people there are men and educated black women. What about
the woman like me? When is our voice heard? When do we get to contribute
or at least get acknowledged? I am not just a mother. I am worth much more
than the two dollars I earn. I have a voice; it needs to be heard!
December 21, 1956
The boycott is over. It has been over a year since it first began. I am so
proud of the African-American community for sticking together throughout
the entire boycott. It was tough, there were days when I just wanted to get
on the bus so that I could get home quicker. Instead, I would wait in the cold
and sometimes hot weather for someone to pick my group up.
Although we did accomplish to integrate buses, I feel like I didnt do
anything. The only thing I felt like I was allowed to do was not ride the bus. I
tried to engage in meetings, but they would just give me the run around. The
only ones that were heard were the men. What about the womens dilemmas
and ideas, are they not as important?
August 28,1963
Today, The March on Washington for jobs and freedom took place.
Although thousands of us women joined the march, we do not have the same
opportunity to obtain a job. Most of the women I know depend on their
husbands financially because nobody wants to hire black women. Instead,
they try to make money by selling food or ironing others clothes, but that
brings little to no money.

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I am one of the very few black women who obtain a job. On a good
day, I get paid two dollars, at most. On a regular day, my salary will range
from seventy-five cents to a dollar. The work is not easy. I go in at eight a.m.
and come out at five p.m. Those ten hours of work consist of all hard labor. I
work in a black diner, so I am expected to cook, clean, serve, and host. By
the end of the day, I am dead! My feet get swollen and filled with blisters
because I cant afford to buy good shoes. With the five dollars I make a week,
I have to buy groceries, do the laundry, and make sure my kids have
everything they need.
Jobs are essential for women. We cant keep depending on our
husbands for money. We need to have the opportunity to get ahead
ourselves, but how? No one ever listens to us. No jobs are available to us. We
are seen as the weaker bunch. They expect us to stay home, take care of our
children, cook and clean. I am tired of these mentalities. Us women need to
unite and create change for ourselves because who else is going to stick up
for the black women?
July 2, 1964
Today, the Civil Rights Act was passed. I am super excited about it
being passed, but also very doubtful about the effectiveness of it. The civil
rights act banned employment discrimination and ended segregation on the
basis of color, religion, sex, or national origin (The Civil Rights Act of 1964).
Although it claims all these marvelous things, the sad truth is that men will

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still be chosen over women. They are chosen over a woman, not because
they are stronger or smarter, but because they are men.
March 21, 1965
I feel like I am raising my children on my own. Their father hasnt been
around for a while now. Hell come home for a couple of days, but then leave
again to be a part of another civil rights movement. I understand that hes
out fighting for a good cause, but my children need their father. They need
his guidance and fatherly affection. It is really tough doing things on my own.
They need him, I need him. Some nights, I stay up crying and pray that my
husband will come back safe. Things went really bad in the last march that
he took part in. He was brutally attacked by the police with wielding clubs
and he was also tear gassed.
Today, he left again in a second attempt to march from Selma to
Montgomery. My children and I begged him not to go, but he insisted on
going. Although he has not been the best husband, I still love him. It breaks
my heart every time I see him go, but its something that I am forced to deal
with.
June 1,1966
It has been almost two years since the civil rights act was enacted, but
nothing has changed for black women. The sad truth is that it probably never
will. Well always be thought of as the weaker bunch. We will never truly earn
equality. This is just something that were going to have to live with. It makes

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me so angry that all of our hard work was for nothing, but I was born a black
women and change is just another one of my fantasies.

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Work cited
"The Civil Rights Act of 1964." Teaching with Documents. National
Archives, n.d. Web.
How Women Led and Won the Montgomery Bus Boycott. How
Women Led and Won the Montgomery Bus Boycott. N.p. 13 Feb. 2005.
Web. 7 Apr. 2016
Staff, History.com. "Montgomery Bus Boycott." History. A+E Networks,
2010. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.

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Representing Histories Summary
For my Representing Histories creative essay, I chose to write about
The Civil Rights Movement. I chose to write about this movement because it
is something that I am familiar with. I also chose to write about it because it
is an event that helped shape the United States into the country that we
know and love today. Without The Civil Rights Movement, people of color
would be mistreated till this day.
During this time period, a lot of things took place. I knew that if I chose
to write about The Civil Rights Movement, I would have a lot to talk about. At
first, I honestly had a different time period in mind. After about five hours of
research, I realized that I wasnt thoroughly familiar with that topic, so I then
chose to write about The Civil Rights Movement. I am very glad that I
changed topics because I learned so many new things about The Civil Rights
Movement that I didnt know before. Also, there was a lot more information
about the movement rather than the topic that I had previously chosen.
When I first wrote my Representing Histories essay, I had written it in
an essay format, with a thesis and body paragraphs. I realized that I was
having a lot of trouble writing the essay, but I kept writing it like an essay
because I did not know what other format to use. After I reviewed my essay
and received feed back on it, I decided to switch my genre from an essay to
a creative text, which was probably the best decision Ive ever made! It
made writing about The Civil Rights Movement so much easier because I
could include myself into the text and I was able to express myself more

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thoroughly. I did not have as much trouble writing this prompt once I
switched. My tone, audience, and purpose felt smoother.
I wrote my creative text like if I was writing a diary. The text was in first
person, so that the audience could really get a feel of what was going on and
how my character was feeling. I made my character sound like she was in
the middle of almost every major event that took place during The Civil
Rights Movement. Then, I would have her express her feelings about the
event, what went on, and who was there. My character was just a regular
person. She wasnt rich, nor educated, nor famous. She was just a regular
person, going through The Civil Rights Movement. In order to imply this, I
didnt use educated language, I just used simple words. I also used
vocabulary that African Americans used. I would never say the word negro,
but I know the women writing the diary would (the pretend one).
In order to give my text a diary format, I wrote about a different
subject for each day. I never wrote about two different subjects on the same
day. For example, I would say it was December 14, 1995 and then say Today
my friend was arrested. Then I would say it was January 1 1966 and say
Today the boycott ended. Another rhetorical move that I used was putting
all the dates on the top right corner to indicate a new page and a new day, it
also made my text look more like a diary.
In my creative text, I made sure to express how my character was
feeling. It is a diary and diaries are meant for a person to write their feelings
in. My character was a lower-class, African American woman, fighting

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through common struggles that other African-American women went through
during The Civil Rights Movement. During this time period, African Americans
were fighting for equal rights. Most of the people whose cries were being
heard were those of men. Women made up a big part of The Civil Rights
Movement, but they werent being heard.
I wrote this diary to show readers the side that history books never
showed us. The history books failed to mention the struggle females went
through, even after The Civil Rights Movement ended. They failed to mention
what women went through during that time period and how much harder it
was for them to overcome inequality. I wrote this for the unheard voices who
had it twice as bad as everyone else. I wrote it so that their struggle wouldnt
go unnoticed.