They returned home to find that racism was part of everyday life. Between 1915-1922 more than 430 black Africans where lynched. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965 .These where laws discriminating the black Americans. The laws segregated blacks in schools, parks, hospitals, swimming pools, libraries and other public places, Black found it extremely hard to get fair treatment. They were also denied access to good jobs and a reasonable education and where even banned from voting.
Oh, and lets not forget the KKK (if that falls into this category; I think it does) who harassed, intimidated, and killed black people. They basically couldn’t escape being tormented. During this period, the south was suffering pretty badly economically. When cotton production slowed significantly during the Civil War, countries that had been deprived of cotton began to grow their own and market prices were cut in half. Banks that loaned to the Confederate government could not collect their debts.
The war produced more than 970,000 casualties, and 620,000 soldiers died. Even though all these soldiers died, “260,000 from the South and 360,000 from the North”9 were worth it, because four million slaves freed by the war. On January 1, 1863, the emancipation proclamation order issued by President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the freedom of slaves; however, the thirteenth amendment of the constitution end slavery completely in the United States.10 In the end, the civil war was very devastating. Many citizens died in this war than any other war in American history. The two causes of the civil war were slavery and Abraham Lincoln.
However, racial discrimination continued after the war. The Southern legislatures, former confederates, passed laws known as the black codes, which severely limited the rights of blacks and segregated them from whites. They were separated in schools, theaters, taverns, and other public places. Congress quickly responded to these laws in 1866 and seized the initiative in remaking the south. Republicans wanted to ensure that while remaking the south, freed blacks were made viable members of society.
Slavery in America was abolished in 1865 after the Southern States had surrendered to the Northern States in the Civil War. Racial segregation, however, did not end with the conclusion of slavery. African Americans endured years of racial inequality because of Jim Crow Laws that were passed, legally separating blacks from whites in areas and activities (Jim Crow Law ). White people, as a result of these laws, continued treating African Americans as inferior people. An example of this is evident when Phoenix Jackson meets the white hunter in the forest.
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.
This continued until the civil war erupted in which slavery was a reason the war was fought. The North ended up winning the war and Lincoln abolished slavery. The era of reconstruction followed , as did the 14th and 15th amendments. Theses amendments gave African Americans the right to vote and basic civil rights. You would think life would get better for African Americans with these achievements however it did anything but that.
Cultural Studies: African American history: Rosa Parks For many centuries the African American people had been forced to suffer barbaric suffering and gross inhumanities by the hands of their white leaders based on the colour of their skin. Many were brought to America as slaves and forced to work on plantations under terrible conditions. The punishments for resisting this treatment would involve brutal whippings and many times this behaviour would result in death. Few African Americans spoke up against this treatment especially in the 19th century as they had no rights at all and were consider inferior beings. However some men and women did stand up against this treatment and fought for their civil rights and for this they are preserved in history for their bravery.
After the Civil War the abolishment of slaved black Americans had an uphill battle that would, and in many ways, continue to this day. At the earliest period of time the rise of the KKK and Jim Crow laws attempted to marginalize the newly freed black population with open violence and little justice coming from the law. A sense of hopelessness griped many in the black
He called for the end of slavery in his Emancipation Proclamination. Many states did not agree, which encountered from a massive number of threats. He crafted the thirteenth amendment which ended slavery. Slavery was having blacks basically owed as the whites. African Americans were being sold like properties and treated worse than animals.