In the Heat Reflection

 

The movie "In the Heat of the Night" is about a black Philadelphia homicide
detective falsely accused of murder who is forced to collaborate with a chief
and solve the mystery.

My First Thoughts

I thought the film "In the Heat" was an overall enjoyable movie to watch. I thought it was very suspenseful, fun, and exciting to watch. I never really got bored watching it and I usually do when I watch movies. I thought this movie related to our class because it showed American racism. It was interesting to see a murder mystery set in a segregated town during the time of racism. 

'Separate but Equal'

I thought the movie did a really good job on showing how segregation was never about equality. In the movie, when it shows Virgil Tibbs walking into the police station, you could just see on everyone's faces, the whole town was jealous and hated that he was somehow smart and more professional than all of them. It was so obvious seeing the hatred coming from the town around him. I could tell that the town really wasn't a calm utopia like everyone wanted.

 I feel like the movie made it obvious to the viewers that it was actually just a town with horrible racism that no one could escape. The movie made it clear that the term 'separate but equal' just makes no sense. In the town, it was obvious that the white people were treated like they held some sort of high power, while everyone else was treated like nothing. I believe the movie did a really good job in showing how badly people were treated during this time and how our system just overall made life depressing for them.

EOTO Reaction

 

The Reconstruction era was the post-Civil War period from 1865 to 1877.

Reconstruction: A Promise Made, a Promise Tested

When the Civil War ended in 1865, about four million people were free, but freedom was only the beginning. Reconstruction was a period of real progress, and also of fierce resistance.

Legal milestones

The 13th Amendment (December 1865) abolished slavery nationwide, making emancipation permanent law. The 14th Amendment (1868) established birthright citizenship, equal protection, and due process, overturning Dred Scott (1857). The 15th Amendment (1870) barred states from denying the vote based on race. Black men entered Congress, about 2,000 Black officeholders were elected, and new public schools followed. Joseph H. Rainey, born enslaved, became the first Black U.S. representative, representing South Carolina.

Building a new life

Freedom also meant resources. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 (January 1865) set aside coastal land for formerly enslaved families, the origin of “40 acres and a mule,” though it was only a temporary

wartime measure. Education became a symbol of independence. Black communities raised money for teachers and supplies, with help from the Freedmen’s Bureau and Northern missionaries. In 1881, Tuskegee University was founded in Alabama to train Black teachers and provide higher education.

The backlash

 Almost immediately, the Black Codes appeared. Starting in Mississippi in 1865, nearly every Southern state had its own version by 1866. Vagrancy laws let authorities arrest unemployed Black people and sell their labor, while labor contracts and apprenticeship laws tied workers and children to white employers. It was slavery in everything but name. The 1877 withdrawal of federal troops weakened protection further, bringing more violence from white supremacist groups and a loss of Black political influence.

Organizing for justice

Activists kept pushing. The National Equal Rights League formed in 1864, the Niagara Movement in 1905, and after the 1908 Springfield violence, the National Negro Committee brought Black activists and white allies together. It became the NAACP.

Reconstruction’s story is one of gains won, and how fragile they were without enforcement.

AI DISCLOSURE: AI was used during this assignment. I took notes during class while the EOTO teams presented their slides. I then put my notes into Claude AI and asked it to form a blogpost using just the notes I gave it. Then, I went in and added pictures, captions, and links.