St Louis& Merry-go-round

The document is composed of two text. On the one hand, there is St Louis, written by Marie Arana. It was published in 2001 and it's an extract from American Chica. The narrator is a young girl whose name is Marie and who's 7 years old. On the other hand, there is Merry-go-round, written by Langston Hughes. The two texts deal with segregation which at the time prevailed in the USA, and it's told by a child. First, I will quickly talk about the historical context, then I will focus on the two children's situation and finally I will study their reactions and feelings. In 1863, slavery was abolished in the USA thanks to the Civil War which began in 1861 and which was over in 1865. And during the reconstruction, the 14th Amendment gave blacks and whites the same rights. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court allowed blacks and whites to have separate facilities and services because of Souterners who didn't want black people to have the same rights as them. Consequently, black people were treated unequally and they were seperated from whites in schools, hospitals or waiting rooms. Segregation began. But in 1950's and 1960's, black people fought for their rights and thanks to that they managed to put an end to segregation. First, I will talk about Marie's situation in St Louis at the train station. In fact, Marie and her sister, Vicky, needeed the loo. So they went to the station toilets and they discovered that there were two doors : one for "coloured people" and one for "white people". But they were not used to seeing that. In fact, it's the first time they have heard of segregation because they have never seen such words before. That's why their mother tried to explain to them what segregation consists in. She says that blacks were not allowed to share the same facilities as white people. Yet at first, Vicky thought that the word "coloured" was for hair but her mother told her it had nothing to do with the colour of people's hair. She