However, even after its abolishment, blacks were still kept in slavery and were treated poorly and unequal to other, white Americans. This abuse was much more common in the Southern states due to the more racist nature of the white people who lived there and the fact that the Southern states had originally fought to keep Black Slavery legal. Soon after the Civil War was won by the Northern States, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment were brought into congress. The thirteenth amendment stated that all Slavery must end in America; the fourteenth amendment stated that everyone living on American soil should gain citizenship and the fifteenth amendment stated that all citizens should gain the right to vote. These amendments could be considered as vital moves towards black equalities, if they had worked.
Many Southern states were segregated, they followed the supreme courts decision in 1896; 'Separate but equal' this meant that they were still segregated but blacks had equal rights. Segregation was the separation of white people from black, some states tried to keep control over black people's segregation by; 'Jim crow' laws which kept black people segregated/separated from white, this involved separate schools, toilets and drinking fountains. Desegregation had become a problem in the 1950's, largely because of the racial hatred of white southerners towards blacks, this racial hatred had originated from the attitudes of white people towards black people after slavery was abolished in 1864, many southern states had 'Jim crow' laws which discriminated against African Americans. However, in 1954 the Brown family challenged these laws by suing the city school board for forbidding their 8 year old daughter, who was black, from attending the white school which was nearby, instead Linda Brown was forced to attend the segregated school which was a long distance away. The Brown family's case was brought to the Supreme Court by the NAACP; they were an organisation which fought for the rights of coloured people.
In the South segregation was supported by the Jim Crow laws that made it legal. All public institutions in the South were separated according to skin colour, the ones for blacks being inferior in quality. In the north, where segregation wasn’t imposed by law, the blacks were forced to move into ghettos, because of discrimination by the whites. As well as that, there was also economic inequality. It was much harder for blacks to get a job, and there employment position could be described as ‘the last to be hired, the first to be fired’.
c.) The varying interpretations indicate the use of “presentism” throughout the periods in which the affair has been analyzed. During the civil rights movement, use of the term “blacks” to describe the slave population was seen as one of the main points of insensitivity, because African Americans of the time had such little cultural footing in America. After the 60s, students began to reflect on Jefferson’s unwillingness to see integration as an option, because African Americans were still struggling to integrate after the civil rights movements. Modern day, the concern lies in Jefferson’s blatant stereotyping of slaves as lesser and even as “musical”. These all reflect the current ideals of the time in
Craniologists, eugenicists, phrenologists, and Social Darwinists, at every educational level, buttressed the belief that blacks were innately intellectually and culturally inferior to whites. Pro-segregation politicians gave eloquent speeches on the great danger of integration: the mongrelization of the white race. Newspaper and magazine writers routinely referred to blacks as niggers, coons, and darkies; and worse, their articles reinforced anti-black stereotypes” (Pilgrim). The system of Jim Crow was reinforced with racial viewpoints and stereotypes: “whites were superior to blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior; sexual relations between blacks and whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy” (Pilgrim). “The Jim Crow laws and system of etiquette were
Throughout the years racism has been a common problem and is happening all around us. In earlier times black people were used as slaves and did have little to no rights at all, but now discrimination between blacks and whites is illeagal and we are all supposed to have equal rights. Although the discrimination is illeagal it has happened in the judical system in the past that juries and other people have made their decision based on the defendants race. Like in the case of Tom Robinson from the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and in the case of Stephen Lawrence the verdict seems to have been based mainly on their colors. So that leads me thinking if people of all races will ever be equal in the justice system and to the rest of the world.
That’s why I agree with the prosecuting argument of the American dream that Minorities, and women, were discriminated against. First off, minority men and women, like Book T. Washington, were oppressed daily by the majority. Slavery was once a very popular mindset of this country, however today we look upon it as cruelty. Book T. Washington was born into slavery and felt the white man oppressing him most of his life. He fought back and gave speeches against such oppression against him and his people.
Throughout history, African Americans have faced a great deal of adversity. They endured many years of slavery where they were forced into positions of servitude to the whites. After slavery had been abolished, African Americans were forced to deal with additional controversial matters such as the Jim Crow laws. These laws mandated the racial segregation in all public facilities in the southern states of the United States. These laws also created environments for African Americans that had a tendency to be inferior to those provided for white Americans.
The Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s was one of the most significant and pivotal periods for achieving equality of all African Americans since the abolition of slavery in 1863 – the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. There was an ongoing conflict between the races of people who lived in the United States, predominantly black versus white. Black people were seen as inferior to that of white people and rights were violated on a continuous basis, purely because of the colour of that person’s skin. The Civil Rights Movement’s ongoing struggle led to two distinct groups of black activists. One group was rather violent and radical, the Black Power movement led by Malcolm X who believed blacks should be self-reliant, due to the increasing
According to the U.S. census, nearly 4 million slaves were held in a total population of just 12 million in the 15 states. After the Union won the Civil War, the slave-labor system was abolished in the South, and even though the South lost they still found ways to try to keep African Americans behind them. In the late nineteenth century, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation. To prevent any racially motivated violence most African Americans followed the Jim Crow laws. In the last decade of the 1800s, racial violence and racially discriminated laws aimed directly at African Americans; such as racial segregation, voter suppression, and denial of economic opportunity or resources