These laws denied black Americans the equal rights of white citizens which re-imposed white supremacy and meant they remained as second-class citizens. It wasn’t only the Jim Crow laws but under the Fifteenth Amendment, black people had the legal right to vote throughout America. Nonetheless, the southern states found devious ways to disenfranchise the local black population. For example, some states introduced a grandfather clause, which meant that people could only vote if their grandfathers had been able to vote. Other states introduced literacy tests as criteria for voting.
Although the Supreme Court countered the advancements that were trying to be made through cases such as Plessy vs. Ferguson, and their slack enforcement of the southern states implementation of the Civil Rights Laws; as a whole a strong foundation was set for the development of black civil rights. Firstly the American Civil War helped the development of black civil rights as the external factor prompted government in a great chain of beneficial events that were to follow. It caused congress to pass the 13th amendment, the abolition of slavery which was the first step and was a large one as previous slaves now had freedom. This along the 1866 Civil Rights Act which soon became the 14th amendment gave African Americans legal US citizenship and equal protection under the law. This meant that a black man had just as much say as a white man in a court of law and was protected from prejudice and racial segregation as of the 1875 Civil Rights Act.
They were suffering from social inequalities. The Jim Crow laws down South that was similar to slavery setting. There were many events that led to the civil rights movement beginning in 1954 with Brown v Board of Education, defended by Thurgood Marshall, who later became a judge on the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities for blacks were unequal, but the desegregation didn't initially, completely stop in the nation because of this ruling. The Brown decision intended for black and white kids not to be forced to attend separate schools.
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.
There were many other civil right groups such as SNCC, who helped organise The Sit-ins of 1960; NAACP, who also aided The Montgomery Bus Boycott; and The Black Panthers, a more Militant group whose main cause was to empower Black people. It is my opinion that whilst Martin Luther King played a significant part in the black civil rights campaign, the other Civil Rights groups should not be ignored for the part they played. Martin Luther King was a key figurehead in the advancement of black Americans. He was known around the World for taking part in several Civil Rights campaigns. He was a highly intelligent man, coming from a higher-class background.
The time before the Jim Crow laws had been passed. Jim Crow Laws were laws that were established between 1874 and 1954 to separate the white and black races in the American South. In theory, it was to create "separate but equal" treatment, but in reality and in practice, Jim Crow Laws condemned and restricted black citizens to inferior treatment and facilities. The fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were ratified six to seven years before the Jim Crow laws were passed which means that African Americans were citizens and had the right to vote. However the Jim Crow laws were created after the ratification of these amendment for the sole purpose to restrict African Americans from the rights they had been granted.
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.
‘Federal government was the main obstacle to the achievements of African American civil rights between 1865 and 1945.’ How far do you agree? African Americans fight to gain civil rights was a long one; politically they aimed to get the right to vote and to exercise this right. Federal government allowed anti-civil rights groups to deter African Americans from utilising their vote and in 1866 ‘black codes’ were enforced which further prohibited Africa Americans from voting. Federal government allowed states to have control over passing their own laws which states manipulated to prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights won through the fifteenth amendment in 1869. After 1869 federal government remained an obstacle throughout this time period.
So it decided to identify the problems and sort them out some of the problems identified were that even though lynching was illegal in America at this time whites still did it to any blacks they saw fit. Plus the report finally stated that whites and blacks were definitely not equal showing how the ‘separate but equal act’ was all one big façade. Therefore, the American government took action to try and make the blacks equal, even though the current president, Truman, was known as a bit of a racist himself he still agreed that something needed to be done to help the African Americans. They decided to enforce reforms such as all lynching cases to be seen by state law enforcement officers to make sure all cases were given the correct punishment as they won’t be seen by all white local courts that would always let the whites get away with it, along with this reform they enforced federal anti-lynching laws to prosecute all who failed to
After slavery ended, African Americans enjoyed their freedom, but were never free from the discrimination that still existed in the hearts of many white people. He mentions police brutality towards colored men and other struggles that black men had to face. King insists that now is the time to take action on segregation and to continue on with this mindset was infectious to the people. He ends his speech with his American dream of equality that truly allowed the audience to connect with King and his goals of integration. analyze the speech's key parts and patterns (e.g., the use of ethos, pathos, logos), the speech's