Segregation After the civil war in the USA, the African Americans gain “equal” rights. But the 14th amendment in 1868 (Absolute equality of the two races before the law) didn’t include “social rights” which meant that they didn’t get much choices in society, like choosing where you wanted to sit on a bus. This still made the African Americans feel inferior, knowing that within their home town the “whites” had the choices, and actual freedom. Blacks responded to their situation in 4 ways as their situation began to worsen from 1877. They would co-operate with any willing whites, migrate to the North or West, protest politically and would follow accommodationism.
The Constitution, until recently, did not apply to blacks; blacks feel they deserve payments from 310 years of slavery, destruction to their minds and culture. Dr. Martin Luther King's dilemma in the United States was of a different kind. He was torn between his identity as a Black man of African descent and his identity as an American. He urged Americans to judge based on the content of the character not by skin color and also believed in non-violent protests. Martin Luther King Jr’s main perspective during the fight on racism was equality.
According to Madison’s notes it’s because “the delegates thought it wrong to admit in the constitution the idea that there could be property in men (Spalding, pg. 463). Washington a slave holder was even against slavery, he wrote “there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery” (Spalding, pg. 461). America was not the only country of course that practiced slavery; there were many countries that had practiced slavery before.
Many of these facilities were, education, healthcare, transport, cinemas, restaurants and churches and even housing and estates were segregated. This shows the extent white went to separate them from the ‘inferior’ race. Jim Crow laws limited black Americans from having a better way of life as they were made poorer, didn’t have the opportunity to managerial roles as they were only allowed the low paying jobs and weren’t equal to white people increasing poor conditions, also, led to unequal or no voting rights in coloured communities. Under the Fifteenth Amendment black people had legal rights to vote across America. However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations.
Abraham Lincoln Came into presidency with a lot on his plate, he wanted to reunite the north and the south and to put in place the emancipation proclamation. He knew what was good for the union and had his own opinion on slavery which was against it. Lincoln was fighting for a new birth of freedom not just reuniting the union. The south depended on slaves on the plantation, that’s how they were maintaining since they did not have to pay the slaves. The North with all the industrial business had a total different way of life and can see how they totally disagreed with the way slaves were being used and treated.
In example, the CCC creates separated camps between blacks and whites or the NRA was tolerating that blacks received less money than whites for the same jobs. Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins were enforcing racial justice, the president created the “Black cabinet” offering position to numbers of blacks into his administration. African-Americans were employed in the New Deal agencies and more were appointed to jobs with the federal government than ever before. But most important problems were not solved. For instance “In Atlanta, Georgia, a Klan-like group called the Black Shirts paraded carrying signs that read, "No jobs for niggers until every white man has a job"(Jim Crow).
From birth, slave owners started the tactic of keeping slaves oblivious to the world around them by keeping basic facts like their birth date or paternity away from them. “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (Douglass 21). In this quote Douglass is reiterating the fact that by keeping the age from the slaves, they lose a sense of personal identity causing them to feel less important. As the slaves grew older, the masters would keep them from learning other things like how to read or write. If the slaves were literate, they would begin to learn things.
The comparison on Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass's views on slavery and prejudice are quite similar. They both were black slaves who hoped for a better future for blacks that did not include slavery. They both detested slavery and the prejudice of the whites and believed that everyone was equal. Booker T. Washington's book Up From Slavery is an excellent view of what he went through as a slave and how he views slavery and prejudice. Frederick Douglass also wrote a book "The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass" which is also a great example of what slaves had to go through every day, confined to slavery.
Thus, they were officially denied every opportunity for an education in the slave states, while in the free states they were largely excluded from the schools for whites and were given only that training deemed suitable for their inferior status. Indeed, in many places in the North their exclusion from educational opportunities was as complete as it was in the South.”(pg. 78,79) Clearly blacks were deeply encouraged to forgo any hopes of a education in America. The second point of inequality John speaks of is the one in the law. John states “Inequality in the administration of justice and the enforcement of the laws was apparent to any who cared to look.
Slavery was the main reason why the North and South divided and went to war. In the North they did not rely upon slavery economically where the South did through farming. Another factor to why the South lost was because of their lack of industrial capabilities to aid them during war. The North had factories and mills where weapons and supplies could have been built easily whereas the South could not keep up as there industry was very weak. The following essay will discuss these issues in detail plus other factors such as the leaderships on both sides and the aid of foreign support.