The 15th amendment (1870) gave black men equal voting rights with white men. However they were threatened or physically stopped from voting. It was no good having rights which were not enforced. Yet inequality increased at the end of the 19th century and continued in the early 20th century through Southern states passing the ‘Jim Crow’ laws which increased segregation. WW1 did little in stopping the rising tide of segregation.
It poses the question of, why would any slaves or free blacks work towards a Southern victory when this war was seen as one to sustain blacks' enslavement and degradation? A person could understand and assume these points; however it has never been disproven that African Americans served in active combat roles. What has been proven and studied are the 90,000 African Americans that did work in the Confederate army as military laborers and body servants. Some would assume that these servants worked in the Confederacy against their will, but this was not always the case. Somebody servants were chosen from amongst all the slaves and were normally one of the oldest slaves or oldest families of slaves.
African Americans have long fought and struggled to gain equality and respect. Despite these struggles African Americans have also made many great strides towards equality. The Tuskegee Airmen are a great example of men that made history through their strides towards equality for African Americans. This paper will outline who the Tuskegee Airmen were, the struggles that they fought through and the outcome of this fight. Over the past 300 years African Americans have stood up against limited opportunities and prejudice and played a large role in the U.S military history.
Once allowed in the Civil War, African Americans actively supported the Union Army. It is rarely mentioned the part African Americans played in the Civil War. In order to participate in the war effort, African American soldiers were not always treated fairly. At times, they were devalued and underappreciated. However, African American played significant roles in the war effort in the Union Army during the Civil War.
The slaves were free, but all Southerners, black and white alike, had to make a whole new start. The Civil War wasted men and resources on a vast scale. The attempts that have been made to calculate the cost will seem both cold- blooded and artificial, but we need some figures to answer important questions about the war and subsequent economic development. Approximately 600,000 died on both sides, 9 percent of the male population age 15– 39 as reported in the 1860 census. The official numbers for the Union forces are that 140,000 troops died in battle, and an-other 224,000 died of other causes— 16.5 percent of the total men in uniform.
They have restricted legal and civil rights, and are usually subject to the effects of segregation and disenfranchisement. Before World War Two, in the south, only 2% of the black population voted in the election. After the war, this increased to 15%. The war opened up the eyes of both black and white people alike, that the war on discrimination they had fought and won in Europe, had not been won at home. Men and women saw the heroic feats of black soldiers in the war, and noticed that they had the same patriotism and dedication as the white soldiers.
This meant that the American workers left their jobs to join the army, which created many job opportunities for black Americans, which were needed especially in the defence industries, which now grew in importance as they had to make supplies for the Army such as guns and tanks. This resulted in a big movement of 6 million black southerners to Northern cities between 1910-1970, such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Detroit, which then became known as the Great Migration. However, Blacks were given the worst pay. Secondly, the Black Civil Rights organizations grew in membership after the great flow of Black Americans into the Northern cities. The organization of NAACP grew from 50,000 to 450,000 by the end of the war.
Additionally, Africans American created an impact on the Great Migration that led to Southern black to move to cities. Du Bois believed that blacks should support the war effort, along with African Americans to strengthen to calls for racial justice. The Great Migration impacted the first World War on African Americans lives by accelerating it, bringing hundreds to thousands blacks of the South to cities of the North. In World War I's outbreak and the drop of European's immigration became a success for blacks by increasing job opportunities, where they received jobs in steel mills, munition plants, and stock yards. Reveals that Southern blacks jumped on trains to move to the cities, hundreds to thousands moved to Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, in the 1915 to 1925.
The Great Depression created rapid increase in black unemployment. “The collapse of prices for cotton and other staple crops left some with no income at all”(Brinkley). More than half of the black population in the country was on some form of relief around the 1932. Even thought administration was not hostile to black aspiration “ The New Deal agencies did not challenge existing patterns of discrimination”(Brinkley). In example, the CCC creates separated camps between blacks and whites or the NRA was tolerating that blacks received less money than whites for the same jobs.
Nothing back then was black and white for former slaves and the white Southerners. The answers took time to get to each and every one of those citizens. Those answers came in the form of more blood being spilt and discrimination running rampant throughout the South. Over this course of time, civility finally became the norm through these struggles you are about to read about. Race Relations after the Civil War 3 The way white Southerners made it difficult on former slaves in the South was to create what was called “Black Codes”.