human rights

Nightjohn takes place on a slave plantation. The main characters are Sarny and John. Sarny is and average african american girl who is interested in learning. One day John comes along and is brought into the plantation. When John asks for some chewing tobacco, Sarny makes a deal that John will teach her for the tobacco she gives him. So letter by letter John teaches Sarny how to sound out letters and then put words together. John was once free but returned to the south for this very reason. To teach other african americans how to read. Sarny's mom mammy sees John teaching Sarny and he hits him and tells him to stop. She says that she will get in trouble for trying to learn but John convinves mammy that it is the right thing to do.

Mascot is a story about a boy named Malcom X. Malcom first tries to be a boxer but after losing twice he was very embarassed. His actions got him sent to a reform school where he there became a mascot where he was not really of the other students. He did very well in this school getting good grades and having good relationships with some of his teachers. But he does not feel that they treat him like a person but a mascot.His half sister comes to visit him form Boston. He starts to look up to her. Then later has a chance to go visit her and when he does he feels a great sense of community with other black people that he has never felt before. He tells his teacher Mr. Ostrowski that he wants to be a lawyer and his teacher tells him to be realistic and that its not going to happen. Malcom  ends up moving to Boston with his half sister where he is happy.

The movie the great debaters, Nightjohn, and Mascot all relate because they deal with african americans and how they are treated unfairly. They are not recieving the human rights that they deserve. In Nightjohn and the great debaters they are trying to make a change to being treated so unfairly. In nightjohn John is trying to help out other african americans by teaching them how to read. In the great debaters they say how they are treated so unfairly in their debates. In Nightjohn there was slavery taking place but not in the other two. Extreme racism takes place in all three of these stories. The great debaters and Mascot both deal with Boston. Harvard is in Boston and that is where the final debate is at where they beat Harvard. In Mascot Malcom moves to Boston to live with his sister. These stories show that african americans did not recieve human rights.