FINAL I Scream for Rights
The civil rights movement in the US occurred in the 1950s to 1960s. However, before that time period, a later renowned civil rights activist from Iowa was hailed as the Rosa Parks of Iowa. Her name was Edna M. Griffin and she became known for her case against the Katz Drug Store that heralded the later civil rights movement for the years to come. In this article, the document described Edna M. Griffin’s civil rights impact. As Noah Lawrence (2008) puts it, “The story of Edna Griffin and the Katz desegregation fight enriches the picture of the national civil rights struggle”(p. 299). It also compared her actions to Rosa Parks, another similar civil rights activist. The first paragraph was an explanation of what Griffin was known for: the court case State v. Katz. The second paragraph described other civil rights actions she was involved or was a prominent figure in. This document was created in ord er to highlig ht the key moment in Edna M. Griffin’s life relating to civil rights, because the African-American Civil Rights Movement was just beginning to emerge in the United States.
The African-American Civil Rights Movement happened between 1954 and 1968. It was forwarded by many people, most notably people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. They, and many others like them, fought for african-american rights through different means. Some protested the inequality in race violently while some followed Martin Luther king Jr. and protested in a nonviolent way. This was also a time of the Second Red Scare. The Second Red Scare was when communist paranoia was at its highest since World War 2. As Doxey A. Wilkerson said, “In its struggle for the working class of our country, the Communist Party has always understood that the achievement of Negro rights is fundamental to the welfare of the people as a whole” (Pecinovsky, 2010, P. 5). This threat of communism and the organized rallying of a group of people made it so that african-americans were seen as the enemy.
Edna M. Griffin was born in Kentucky but raised in New Hampshire, where she claimed that she had never experienced any discrimination there. She later got an English degree from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Later in her life, she moved to Massachusetts, where she said that there was much more discrimination. On July 7, 1948, Edna M. Griffin, her infant daughter, and her husband went inside Katz Drug Store to buy some things. One of those things was ice cream. However, after the waitress took their orders, the manager told her to not serve colored people. Edna M. Griffin decided to boycott, picket, and sit-in against Katz Drug Store. There was support from people who helped her and also participated in the boycotting and picketing. Edna M. Griffin and others who were also at the scene of the discrimination filed a civil lawsuit against Katz. The 1884 Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations. Through this, Maurice Katz, the prosecuted, was found guilty by a jury of all-white people and was fined $50. This trial, known as State of Iowa v. Katz, made it so that denying service based on race was made illegal in Iowa.
This event forwarded Edna M. Griffin to become active in the civil rights agenda. In 1963, she persuaded people to go to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march and speech into Washington D.C. One important social group founded by her was CORE, or the Congress for Racial Equality. This group was one of the big four civil rights group that influenced the Civil Rights Movement, another famous one being the NAACP.
One persuasive technique used is disinterest. Disinterest, in Heinrichs’s (2007) words, means, “… not a lack of interest but lack of bias; you seem to be impartial, caring only about the audience’s interests rather than your own” (p. 57). However, the way in this technique was used was different from most. Since the author wasn’t Edna M. Griffin herself, the author, while making the document an almost heroic story for Edna, made Edna seem like the one who was disinterested. This is interesting because of the way this was used so many times in the document. Literally every paragraph has an example of this disinterest that was shifted onto another person. From the second paragraph’s first sentence, the author states that, “The Fisk University graduate has devoted her life to the civil rights movement” (1998, p.1).
Another technique used in the document is practical wisdom, or craft. In Heinrichs (2007), he states that craft is where, “you appear to know the right thing to do on every occasion” (p.57). Again, this was used on Edna M. Griffin by the author and not onto herself/himself. Keywords that were used to show craft are usually leadership words. Many sentences about her have this, such as, “In 1963, she organized Iowans to join Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous march on Washington, D.C.” (1998, p.1). Another example where the author writes leadership words is in the next few sentences, where it’s stated that Edna M. Griffin began a chapter in CORE, one of the big four civil rights groups in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. This form of persuasion presented Griffin as more trustworthy as this was coupled along with disinterest.
This document about Edna M. Griffin was about her contribution to the African-American Civil Rights Movement through her court case and actions later in life. most notably the African-American Civil Rights Movement that was just beginning to appear. Through the article’s use of ethos and the technique of highlight Edna M. Griffin’s selflessness, it tried to depict an image of her that could be compared to well-known social activists.
Works Cited
Heinrichs, J. (2013). Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Lawrence, N. (2008). Since it is my right, I would like to have it: Edna Griffin and the Katz Drug Store Desegregation Movement. State Historical Society of Iowa, 67. Retrieved from http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=annals-of-iowa
Pecinovsky, T. (2010). Communist Party and African American equality – a focus unequaled in U.S. history. Retrieved from http://www.peoplesworld.org/communist-party-and-african-american-equality-a-focus-unequaled-in-u-s-history/
