TERMINALE LLCE 2021-2022
S4 DOC 3 - 200 Years, Countless Stories | Loretta Lynch ’84 (Harvard Law School, 2018)
a. Her father was a minister and her mother a librarian. She grew up in North Carolina where her parents contributed to the civil rights movement by welcoming protesters in their church to organise sit-ins and by promoting education.
b. Her family's history and her time at law school is what drew her to a career in law. It was during her studies that she understood that the purpose of law was to order people's lives and set things right.
c. Law governs the lives of ordinary people, it should therefore meets their needs. She considers herself as a spokesperson for the voiceless and law as a means of empowerment.
S4 DOC 2 - The New Mississippi (Judge Carlton Reeve's speech)
S4 DOC 2 - The New Mississippi, Judge Carlton Reeve's speech
b. The judge denounces the persistence of racial violence in Mississippi.
c. He personifies the State of Mississippi by giving it human attributes to give a more vivid description of the historical events he refers to and to appeal to the three white men's emotion. Also, it emphasizes the idea that every inhabitants of the state are what makes Mississippi a fusty (réactionnaire) place
read mored. The judge's last sentence: there is a glimmer of hope in his words, and wisdom. One cannot reflect upon their emotions if sentences to death. Justice does not mean revenge. Those three young men can contribute to make the New Mississippi a better place to live in by finding ways to get rid of their hatred.
S4 - Understand the South
S4 - Billie Holiday, Strange fruit
*nb: the poplar tree is a symbolism of life...
Lyrics:
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
S4 - Billie Holiday lyrics
S4 To Kill a Mockingbird Official Trailer - Gregory Peck Movie (1962)
The book was first published in 1960.
The narrator is a little girl, Jean "Scout" Finch.
In the story, Tom Robinson is falsely accused of rape. His lawyer is Scout's father, Atticus, a white man. The latter moves heaven and earth to save him.
The story takes place in Alabama, in a city called Monroeville.
S4 Doc 1 Modern Atticus
a. Just Mercy is an autobiography, where the author, Bryan Stevenson, shares his memoirs.
b. To Kill a Mockingbird greatly influenced Stevenson as a lawyer. Indeed, while he obviously admires Atticus Finch ("bravely"), he nonetheless points out the white lawyer's failure to save the innocent black man ("not successfully defended"). He seems to be disgusted with the Americans' failure to learn Lee's (the author) messages about racial violence and presumption of innocence. He denounced the persistence of racial violence over time ("its harder truth did not take roots"). The "modern" Atticus would successfully defend Black Americans.
c. The scene takes place in a courtroom during Walter McMillian's new trial vs The State (l.23-24) after he had been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death (l.26). Stevenson is making his opening statement to discredit the witness, Myers, in the hope of clearing McMillian of all the charges brought against him.
d. He argued that the testimony of Ralph Myers was completely false.
e. He implicitly compares himself to Atticus Finch with one difference: he wants to be successful (1st excerpt).
In the second excerpt, he also wants to convince the judge and promote racial justice = Atticus and Stevenson are two lawyers fighting the unfairness of America's justice system.
The pseudoscience of Phrenology
Illustration of Walt Whitman, American phrenologist.