Homework for May 19,2008

Autobiography Essay

Hi, my name is James Randall and I am 14 years old. I was born on December 9, 1993 to Sonya and James Randall. I am an only child but a have a family of five generations on my mother's side of the family. Life in Philadelphia was great when I was little. My parents always said I was smart compared to the other children in the neighborhood. That is why I attended school early starting at Triumph Baptists Christian School. I stayed there until I was in second grade and achieved Perfect Attendance, Honor Roll, etc. From third to fourth grade I went to Logan Elementary School. There I received the same awards from my previous years of school. During that summer I learned how to ride a bike at age 91/2. Of course I fell and injured my leg but that was the only time. That same summer I took my first out-of-state trip to the state of Virginia. I had a great time there with just me and my mom. We went to Water Country U.S.A., Kings Dominion and Virginia Beach. When we came back it was time for me to start a new school year again. I attended Germantown Settlement Charter School for 5th-7th. Those years were very hard for me because my mom was unemployed for a while. Everything changed soon as I went to Renaissance Charter School. My mother find the right job that fitted her lifestyle and I graduated from the 8th grade and moved on to high school. Now I am 14 in the 9th grade and go to New Media Technology Charter School. My mom works for the state of Pennsylvania and my father continues to work for SEPTA. I am very thankful for my family and all the friends around me and I am looking forward to see what life has in store for me in the future.

Lens of the Living Project:

Cesar Chavez: organized farm workers to demand higher wages, health insurance, and other benefits for migrant workers in California.

Shirley Chislom: first African-American women elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; ran for the office of President of the United States in 1972.

Patty Hearst: granddaughter of newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hearst, kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army, and subsequently participated with the SLA in an armed robbery of a San Francisco bank.

Jesse Jackson: a leader in the civil rights movement who founded PUSH(People United to Save Humanity) in 1971.

George McGovern: the senator from South Dakota who was the Democratic Party nominee for President in 1972.

Karen Silkwood: an employee of the Kerr-Mcgee nuclear processing plant who was killed in a car crash on the way to a meeting with a New York Times reporter to reveal evidence of unsafe and illegal practices at the nuclear plant.

Benjamin Spock: a pediatrician, author, and social reformer whose permissive philosophy in his influential book, The Common Sense of Baby Care, was blamed for a wide range of social problems in the 1970's.

George Wallace: Governor of Alabama; shot and paralyzed from the waist down while campaigning for the presidency in 1972 on an anti-bussing, law and order platform.

Andrew Young: first African-American voted into the U.S. House of Representatives from the deep South since 1898.

Facts About The 1970's:

Population: 204,879 000

People Unemployed in 1970: 4,088,000

National Debt: $382 billion

Average Salary: $7,564

Food Prices:milk: 33 cents a qt.; bread: 24 cents a loaf; round steak: $1.30 a pound.

Life Expectancy: Male: 67.1, Female: 74.8