For example, in the south, African Americans had little chance of being employed against white people, due to the discrimination of employers. This trapped blacks in a cycle of poverty; if they couldn’t get jobs, they couldn’t afford to pay poll tax so they could vote for someone who would improve their employment rights. Also, southern African Americans had few employment opportunities. For example, sharecropping and other agricultural jobs were the main opportunities. African American women were treated even worse than men.
Education was also a big factor resulting in limited progress of improving the status of African-Americans because they consistently received a lower standard of education. As mentioned earlier this was a result of the Separate But Equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson and Cunningham v. The Board of Education. Although, clearly stated in the doctrine it was far from equal, the white schools received more funding, better teachers and superior facilities than the schools for black children. This limited the status of African-Americans as they were never taught to the standard that was acceptable to go to university meaning that they could not go on to get a career in a highly skilled job. However, Sweet v. Painter in 1950 demonstrated that Separate But Equal was not being applied correctly but it was not until Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka in 1954 that
The African Americans were not able to vote because the whites and the government disenfranchised the African Americans; until the 15th Amendment. The African Americans were considered illiterate to the Whites. The 15th amendment states that they could no longer discriminate based on race. Even though this amendment sounded like good news, the Whites still made literacy test and poll taxes that the African Americans had to do even before voting. The African Americans couldn’t run for office either, they still had Democrats and Republicans.
Basically all of the South’s resources were going to hell. Uncertain economic times make it pretty hard to make a living. African Americans found themselves to be politically limited during this time as Southern states passed laws that limited their access to exercise their right to vote. Literacy tests were used to keep blacks away from ballot boxes, as some states limited the right to vote to those who could pass a literacy test; a large majority of slaves had never learned to read or write. Not surprisingly, white voters were often given easier passages than blacks.
Why did it take so long? African Americans wanted many things after being freed in 1865. They wanted better housing, better education for their children, they wanted to be equal members of the community, they wanted jobs, they wanted the vote and one of them most important issues was that they did not want to be judged by the colour of their skin. After the civil war there were several initiatives set up to help the African Americans. The freedman’s bureau was one of them, it was set up to provide emergency food and housing and jobs to former slaves.
Instead of the government allowing slavery, it looked like it found a loop hole to not treat people of color equally for anything whether it was sports, school or public facilities blacks were still treated as inferior. Thankfully the civil rights movement that occurred during the 1950’s and 1960’s would turn out successful after years of civil demonstrations (some which would become riots e.g. : Birmingham, Alabama), marches, and speeches. One might say that one of the most famous speeches of the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, would see fruition when looking at today’s society despite some traces of racism. Now we live in an era where different races can co-exist.
Furthermore in the Southern states of USA the abolition movement was resented. Plantation owners were unwilling to end slavery because it provided them with a free labour force. Many white Americans had justified slavery by thinking of slaves as racially inferior, as people without human needs, rights or dignity. The legal system had supported these racist views, and the rights of the plantation owners for many years. After 1890 many Southern governments passed a series of laws that set up a system of segregation that would last until the mid-twentieth century.
In short, indentured servants were mainly poor British people without jobs. This process included young men/women binding themselves to masters for a fixed term of servitude in return for passage to America, food, and shelter. Some indentured servants chose to come to the colonies willingly, often trying to escape troubles in England, but not all. Some were convicts shipped to America while others were prisoners from battles. Regardless, the system of indentured servitude proved to be very appealing to those able to employ them.
The failure of a common goal between African-American leaders did not help solve these issues, but it was not the main problem facing blacks and was not the most important factor preventing advancement of civil rights. Leaders like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B du Bois did have ideas about how to improve conditions for African Americans, but none of their ideas would have worked due to factors such as the lack of ambition from the Presidents during this period and how people in the South still were intolerant of blacks. The leadership towards equality was divided however, and at that time, it did make the idea of equality seem even more unreachable. The main example of division between the African-American leaders is with Booker T. Washington and W.E.B du Bois. They were both educated black men but came from very different social backgrounds.
In 1865 he managed to free all the slaves. Even after being free they were not accepted and had struggles with living normally. During the 1960’s they were still not allowed to the same schools, restaurants, parties, and even bathrooms. The government gave less money for their schools, the city was segregated. African Americans