ipl-logo

A Brief Summary Of Picking Cotton

1620 Words7 Pages

Picking Cotton Picking Cotton is a story that entails two individuals’ trials in forgiveness and finding peace. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton are the two individuals whose lives were changed forever by the events that occurred on that unfortunate night in 1984. Case Events It took place in Burlington, North Carolina 1984, at 3:00am Jennifer was woken up by a noise in her room, in the apartment she rented in a college district. She called out into the dark of her room thinking it might be Paul, her boyfriend who had caused the noise. When a man jumped up from the darkness and leapt at Jennifer placing a knife to her throat. He threatened her saying “Shut up or I’ll cut you!” (Thompson 12). As he sat on top of her, Jennifer started …show more content…

The eyewitness was Kenny an inmate in prison with Ronald, who unfortunately choked on the stand when questioned about what he knew. So unfortunately for Ronald, Kenny wasn’t his key to being released from prison for the crime he hadn’t committed. Ronald got new lawyers in 1992 A man by the name or Mr. Rich, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, who was interested in looking into Ronald’s case, Ronald weighed the pros and cons and in the end agreed to let someone else taking a chance at handling his case. It wasn’t until 1994 that the most significant piece of evidence came into play. It was in 1994 that the OJ Simpson case started it was also one of the first instances of DNA being used as evidence in a case. “On the radio, the news talked a lot about the blood that had been found and some kind of scientific test that was more accurate than anything else. Ninety-nine percent accurate. It was called DNA. I tried to learn everything I could about it before I brought it up with Rich” (Thompson, 171). They had to get Jennifer to consent to the DNA testing or get a warrant to test her DNA. They had already tested Mary’s rape kit and the DNA results showed that the suspect was Bobby Poole and not Ronald Cotton. The police had interrogated Bobby Poole for hours where he denied being the rapist. But after they told him that they had evidence …show more content…

"Chapter 1." Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. New York: St. Martin's, 2009. 12. Print. Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo. "Chapter 1." Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. New York: St. Martin's, 2009. 23. Print. Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo. "Chapter 10." Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. New York: St. Martin's, 2009. 171. Print. Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo. "Afterword." Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. New York: St. Martin's, 2009. 284. Print. Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo. "Afterword." Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. New York: St. Martin's, 2009.286.

Show More
Related
92 Words | 1 Pages

Clemmie Sue Jarvis, sixty-three has spent her entire life on the eastern seaboard of Virginia in the rural community of Wrongberight. For years, she raised mules until the last one past two seasons ago. She told one neighbor that she had a mind to become a grit farmer but her eyesight was failing and she would have a difficult time harvesting the crop and she wanted to save what sight she had for reading the bible, making quits and painting by numbers. Her vivacious individuality keeps her from being down and

Read More
1185 Words | 5 Pages

Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North by Thomas J. Sugrue is a comprehensive description of the civil rights movement in the North. Sugrue shows Northern African Americans who assembled against racial inequality, but were excluded from postwar affluence. Through fine detail and eloquent style, Sugrue has explained the growth and hardships integral in the struggles for liberties of black Americans in the North. The author explores the many civil rights victories—such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Act of 1965—but also takes the reader on a journey of many lesser known issues that occurred throughout states in the North and Mid-west United States. Sugrue illustrates the struggles of black

Read More
131 Words | 1 Pages

William Dusinberre’s book Them Dark Days concentrates on the Gowrie plantation, the Butler Island plantation and, the Chicora Wood plantation as examples of the dark reality slavery had in the U.S. South. All three of these plantations are described by Dusinberre as “rice kingdoms”. He theorized that in the U.S. South these types of plantations were the most lucrative for planters and the most cruelly demanding to slaves. First and foremost in Dusinberre’s mind, gentleman planters such as Charles Manigualt, Pierce Butler and Robert Allston were capitalists driven to make profits not benevolent Southern patriarchs. In slave historiography, Dusinberre’s study of rice plantations brings forth a revisionist view that challenges the idea of Southern

Read More
244 Words | 1 Pages

Lucy Terry was a person that did not take no as an answer in her fight for equal opportunity, qualifying her as a perfect candidate for the Council for Change. Lucy Terry is the first known African American woman poet, as well as argued a case in front of the Vermont Supreme Court. The case was a disagreement about some land in which she is said to have won against false accusations by Colonel Eli Bronson. Terry has also Appealed to the Governor and his council for protection against familial threats by neighbors as a given a three hour speech in front of the Board of Trustees at Williams college for the rights of her son to attend Williams College in Williamstown Massachusetts. After reading Lucy Terry’s “Bars Fight” I would have to say the

Read More
100 Words | 1 Pages

Before the war of the rebellion, in Jefferson County, events of everyday life were documented in the personal diary of a local woman, Mrs. Susan Sillers Darden. Much of the diary was written about the Darden and Sillers family members and their day-to-day life. But stories of the white citizens of Jefferson County and their actions and reactions to events of the time are included. The importance of the Darden diary to this family is the relevance that it had to the slaveholder, Samuel Scott his family, the slaves of the Poplar Hill Plantation, and the events which impacted both.

Read More
519 Words | 3 Pages

In the primary source document “Wealth and Its Uses” the author Andrew Carnegie explains the problem of proper administration of wealth. He believes that the bind between the rich and the poor to create a harmonious relationship is still possible but the distribution of surplus wealth needs to be addressed and fixed. Andrew Carnegie explains that one of the duties of the man of wealth is to consider all of his extra wealth as a trust fund. That in which he should give back in a manner that he thinks is the best way to benefit the community. This document was written because Andrew Carnegie noticed the problem with the distribution of surplus wealth and wanted to see a progressive change.

Read More
1238 Words | 5 Pages

The author reflects on what happened in the long history of racism as she returns to the South she utters her feelings about things relating to what occurred during the civil war as they go into detail of what it must have been like within her surroundings. The speaker uses imagery to convey the theme of slavery by things Trethewey states “left sacks and fields of cotton”( ). The narrator used strong figurative language such as metaphors indicating slavery using negative connotations, as this is illustrated in the quote, the author writes “marking and vanquished land I returned to a field of the cotton hallowed ground” (15). As their legacy and memories are exclaimed as they talk about how the south was a consistent reminder of slavery given that this is the location in which everything occurred. Based on the connotative meaning of the words used in the text such as “old field ”imagining a war” it expresses how living In the South will always stick with them as their memories have a wired connection attached, as Mississippi will always be a constant reminder for

Read More
1051 Words | 5 Pages

Santana Janis was by no means an atypical young teenager. Others described her as a “bright [and] outgoing” girl who liked horseback riding. Her community’s characteristics, however, were very different from that of a typical American town. The median household income in her hometown, Manderson, South Dakota, is less than half the U.S. average, and almost four-fifths of the town’s population live below the poverty line. This dysfunction affected Santana: she lived with as many as a dozen siblings and her grandfather in a dilapidated trailer.

Read More
1549 Words | 7 Pages

In Search of the Promised Land: Book Review Franklin, John Hope, and Loren Schweninger. In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. The narrative In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South, by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, was a real page-turner and a pleasure to read. The narrative chronicles the fascinating life of Sally Thomas and her three sons John Rapier, Sr., Henry Thomas, and James Thomas who were fathered by white men.

Read More
320 Words | 2 Pages

The life of a slave in the Southern colonies was not a pleasant one. According to document 6: "[The slaves] plant peas, garden peas, transplant or prune trees, and plant cabbage... They ["Negroes"] are given as much land as they can handle. On it they plant for themselves corn, potatoes, tobacco, peanuts, water and sugar melons, pumpkins, bottle pumpkins... They plant for themselves also on Sundays. For if they do not work they make mischief and do damage...".

Read More
626 Words | 3 Pages

Frenchman Napoleon Bonaparte stated, “The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.” Bonaparte’s quote illustrates that many of those who fall into the pit of poverty are not there because they live dishonestly, cheat, and exploit others, rather they are there because they did quite the opposite. In fact, it is usually the few at the top of the ladder who acted in such a way. John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is the story of the Joad family, who like many others from that era and region, lost their farm due to drought and economic ruin. They got word that California had plenty of jobs, and therefore, they headed west.

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

Social Condition of Kevin Powell In the spirit of Piri Thomas ' Down These Mean Streets and Maya Angelou 's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, this effective diary by author and lobbyist Kevin Powell strikingly relates the horrendous neediness of his childhood, his battles to conquer a legacy of annoyance, roughness, and self-loathing, and his adventure to take care of business and a voice for others. Driven by his single parent 's fantasies for his survival and achievement, Kevin Powell turned into the first in his family to go to a college, where he turned into an understudy pioneer acutely mindful of far-reaching social foul play. In any case, the battle to characterize himself and break out of destitution proceeded into adulthood, with traumatic times of vagrancy and sadness.

Read More
397 Words | 2 Pages

Across time, Okies faced hardships and difficulties like discrimination. This problem comes along for Okies in Jerry Stanley's Children of the Dust Bowl. This book extends with Okies traveling to California which was described as a paradise but instead was greeted with hostility and prejudice. Despite all that, the Okies worked together with Leo hart to build Weedpatch school. Jerry Stanley tries to inform the reader about how the Okies worked together to change their hardships into hope.

Read More
651 Words | 3 Pages

Racial issues and injustices in the United States are examined in both of Oden’s anthologies, “California Politics” and “Rivers of Struggle and Resistance.” The introduction in “California Politics” mainly discusses current political issues and how they have influenced the underrepresented ethnic minorities in California. On the other hand, “Rivers of Struggle and Resistance” focuses on the history of discrimination and oppression that haunt the African American society for several decades. Although both anthologies explores and examine similar themes, the introduction in “Rivers of Struggle and Resistance” related more to Michael Goldfield’s “The Color of Politics” excerpt.

Read More
625 Words | 3 Pages

While I haven’t known many Annas in my life, my surname has always seemed crucial in identifying me. Apparently, pairing “Anna” with “Rader” has a nice ring to it, yet it lacks an overtone integral to my identity. Inserted between my palindromic first name and a term associated with Indiana Jones and a lost ark (as if my name wasn’t nerdy enough), my middle name Maisen is an acronym. As a composition of my grandmothers’ and great-grandmothers’ initials, this acrostic shoulders the most meaning and insight in its presence, spelling out my genealogy and character.

Read More

More about A Brief Summary Of Picking Cotton

Open Document