The NAACP and SCLC welcomed black and white members arguing that the cooperation between the two would make the movement stronger. However the more radical groups felts that black people should work alone. Furthermore, groups in America during this period such as; SNCC and CORE, were both protest groups which aimed at improving working and living conditions for black people, and to make them equal to other races in the USA. These had been quite moderate organisations which were linked to Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. This was the first time that black organisations had really tried to improve conditions in the cities.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been the most effective legal tool at eliminating private-sector discrimination. Over time, the act has gained broad public support, and I think defines for many Americans what is the government role in eliminating discrimination. Firstly the act was important to bring a better day for African Americans because the Amendment didn't protect black people from their civil rights that were being violated by individuals. This was a start for the civil rights movement, Blacks had wanted to be equal like everyone else for over 100 years. They were suffering from social inequalities.
A report was produced called “To Secure These Rights” which underlined the problems that African Americans faced during this period. It said that the USA could not claim to lead the free world if Blacks were not equal. This proved that the Federal Government did play a part in changing the status for Black Americans as a previously racist President was motivated to change the way Blacks were treated which was a big step towards social equality. Moreover, in 1948, Truman ended segregation in the armed forces by signing the Executive Order 9981 which guarantied equality and opportunity for all persons ion the armed forces
The Voting Rights Act 1965 was a significant law that changed the status of blacks. The act outlawed any test that prevented an American citizen from voting. Although blacks could technically vote under the 15th amendment, they were still prevented from voting by grandfather clauses and literacy tests. But now this act outlawed any of them and now blacks could vote, changing their status and allowing them to vote. This was a significant victory too.
The Second World War did improve the status of Black Americans, in the sense that it empowered many and encouraged them to fight for change, however it did nothing to address racial segregation or its legal foundation - Plessey v. Ferguson. On the one hand, black soldiers returned as heroes and 500,000 black workers who moved to the North were paid better, and therefore in both senses the position of Black Americans improved . The densely populated black communities which formed as a result of the migration also lead to a heightened consciousness of the inequalities which existed and lead to the formation of civil rights groups such as CORE. On the other hand, black soldiers returned to a country where segregation was still considered legal across the south. Overall, while the Second World War did improve the position of African Americans to a certain extent, there were still significant problems that were not addressed.
The amount of civil rights protesters at the time and evidence of racially provoked violence and hatred leads us to believe they were very unequal. However things were slightly better than they had been long before when they were slaves. In this essay I shall explain to what extent the African Americans were unequal by 1945 and the consequences this had on the African American society mainly within the South. Many African Americans, after slavery was abolished, felt as if the USA was their home. They knew no different and expected as a citizen of that country to be treated the same as any other, black or white.
They did anything possible to stop African Americans from having rights in the south. “African American community as an economic, political or social equal and were determined to resist any change in the status quo antebellum.... whites instituted the systematic abridgement of black rights through fraud ,terror, intimidation , and the perversion of electoral ,legislative, and judicial systems. The federal government simultaneously failed to protect and defend black rights.” As time passed, economically black people started to improve their lives little by little. African Americans joined the freedmen's bureau; which provided food, clothing, shelter, healthcare and education. “The program was administered by the Department of War and was first headed by General Oliver Otis Howard who was appointed the
Very few had an education or even knew how to read or write. Even though African Americans were free American citizens they were discouraged to joining the Union's Army as stated in the purple packet . But in 1962 when President Lincoln announce The Emancipation Proclamation it had changed the way African Americans lived in the Union. It stated that the African Americans could be treated equally, that they could now get jobs in the North without being discriminated against. The major change that the E.P.
It is easy to say that equality was achieved among our African American citizens by looking around in today's America. Today we may pay no mind to the struggles and hardships African Americans endured throughout our history as a nation. However, we know that many wars were fought and many people stood up for what's right; they stood up for liberty and justice for all. There are many ways African Americans stood united to fight discrimination, end segregation and isolation, and finally attain full equality and civil rights (Bowles 2011). It was a long process that began way before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s (Bowles 2011).
Civil Rights Movement: Struggle for Equality The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was the first challenge by the African-Americans to end the racism, racial inequality and racial segregation that was inflicted on their community. The American Civil Rights consisted of nonviolent struggles to bring full civil rights and equality to American citizens, regardless of race. Though the Civil Rights movement’s beginning has been debated and believed to have started in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and ended in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Reconstruction Era’s unresolved issues in 1863 echoed into the Educational Period and the Social Movement. Many tactical procedures to achieve racial equality during the Civil Rights movement