African American and Their Rights Essay

Since knuckle d admitry, African Americans lose bygone through a curing to r for each one their current state. In the early 20th century, African Americans faced favoritism, isolation, and were unintegrated according to their skin pretension. It started when Europeans brought the first Africans to America, and act through verboten the civilized War. The American government do some changes in policies. A variety of leaders shaped the sure-fire struggle to ward dense fittingity in America (Bowles, 2011). Ever since knuckle downry begun, African Americans hold in been determined to end separatism, discrimination, and isolation. processivists such(pre zero(prenominal)inal)(prenominal) as, Martin Luther pansy Jr. and Malcolm X, and opposites, joined in concert to put an end to separationism, discrimination, and isolation to puddle courteousized rights and pairity. Sla real had changed dramatically in the latish 1600s. About this era the slave trade to American col onies too began increase to meet the demand for cheap force back. Traders interchange slaves to the northern colonies, but English and new(prenominal) European immigrants satisfied the demand for advertize on that point (Echerd, 2009). Slaves in America came from western and central Africa.African tribes sometimes enslaved those disappointed in intertribal wars and sold their captives to European slave traders. The tribes raided villages to obtain slaves to trade for European goods. Slave traders had even offered the Africans guns and give out goods for the slaves. Slaves lived a rough, enceinte life. Cheap labor was a huge part of their lives. They had to work from break of day to sun practise. The work consisted of clearing land, tended to fields of tobacco, rice, and vegetables. They also per puzzle outed m each separate tasks that had helped make plantations just rough completely self-sufficient.No slaves saw either money for their tasks that they had per bluepri nted, but they did receive food, clothing, and shelter. The slaves had resided in small one-room huts, which had no windows and the floors were all dirt. well-nigh slaves complyed their living condition, however, they knew no other way of life (Koehler, 2009). However, ashen greyers regained swan of state governments in the sulfur during the late 1870s, however, and reversed most of the previous gains made by origin slaves. For example separatism. What is segregation?According to Websters Dictionary, to segregate is specify as to separate or set apart from others isolate or to require, oftentimes with force, the separation of a specific racial, religious, or other classify from the body of society. separationism has been a part of our American heritage, close to from the moment slaves arrived on the shores of the New solid ground (Bowles, 2011). In 17th century Virginia, the theocratic government fe ared that racial mixing among freed and enslaved threatenings and wh ite indentured servants would become a means to usurp government power.They giveed laws in which the color line was clearly delimit in every criminal punishments. By treating whites and blacks separately and unequally, these Virginian leaders set up a system of white mastery that would become an essential component of American slavery. Separation and segregation was the order of the day, with African Americans being forced to ride in separate railroad cars, bring forth their own hotels and solicitho usages, and even get water out of their own drinking fountains. Their children could not practise the same schools with the uncontaminating children.To further vitality the color-line, they then added in segregation with the Jim crow Laws. This is mainly because the dusters were considered to be superior, and because were conception to deserve weaken schools with better facilities. African Americans on the other hand were considered deficient, and hence their children atte nded low-quality schools that lacked adequate facilities (Sitkoff & Franklin, 2008). The Northern States, which had grew and prospered during the war, believed the occasion slaves to be equal as any other person.The Southern States, lock crazy over the loss of the war and their unshakable belief in White superiority, took a different approach. They created and enforced what were cognise as the Black Codes. These were legislations passed in Southern states to assert labor, migration and other activities of the freed slaves. Black Codes allowed juristic marriage, space ownership and limited assenting to the court systems. It prohibited them from testifying against whites, serving on juries or militias, voting and globely expressing any form of legal concerns ( www. history. com).Any actor slave that did not sign yearly labor contract with the plantation owners could be arrested and chartered out. The Black codes in utterly allowed for the proceed and legal discrimination against the former slaves (www. history. com). copulation quickly responded to these laws in 1866 and seized the initiative in remaking the reciprocal ohm. Republicans requiremented to ensure that with the remaking the south, freed blacks were made viable members of society. provided the cockeyed Confederate legislatures finally gave in in 1868 they repealed most of the laws that discriminated against blacks. Things were starting to look up.But by 1877 Democratic parties regained their power of the south and ended reconstruction. In 1882, southern states passed Jim wallow laws that enforced strict segregation between blacks and whites and limited Afro-American complaisant rights. This was ravage to the blacks. After all the strides they made were reversed. From safekeeping political offices, the right to vote, and participating as equal members of society was changed. The south bit by bit reinstated the racially discriminatory laws. The two main goals they wanted these laws to achieve disenfranchisement and segregation.To take forward the power that the blacks had gained, the Democratic Party began to menstruum Blacks from voting. There were many ways to renounce blacks from voting. Some of these things were poll tax, which were fees were charged at voting booths and were expensive for most blacks, and the literacy test. Since didactics blacks were illegal, most adult blacks were former slaves and illiterate. And the other goal, segregation, causes the democrats to create laws that segregated the schools and public facilities. The Northern States, which had grew and prospered during the war, believed the former slaves to be equal as any other person.The Southern States, appease angry over the loss of the war and their firm belief in White superiority, took a different approach. They created and enforced what were known as the Black Codes. These were legislations passed in Southern states to control labor, migration and other activities of th e freed slaves. Black Codes allowed legal marriage, property ownership and limited access to the court systems. It prohibited them from testifying against whites, serving on juries or militias, voting and publicly expressing any form of legal concerns.Any former slave that did not sign yearly labor contract with the plantation owners could be arrested and hired out. The Black codes in short allowed for the continued and legal discrimination against the former slaves. Just analogous some African Americans activists fought this segregation, some Whites had some groups of their own to reserve the segregation on and on. The Ku Klux Klan was one of them. The Ku Klux Klan, Knights of White Camellia, and other terrorists murdered thousands of blacks and some whites to hold on them from voting and participating in public life.The KKK was founded in 1865 to 1866. They directed their violence towards black landowners, politicians, and community leaders. They also did this to people who su pport Republicans or racial equalities (Anti-Defamation League, 2012). After the abolition of slavery in the U. S. the KKK formed. They hated blacks and would charge up crimes against them. Murders, suspension systems, and lynches are just some of the crimes against the blacks (www. kkk. bz, n. d. ). The Ku Klux Klan claims to be just defending their people same other races do. What is a kill? kill is a form of punishment with no legal permission. Most times lynching occurred against African Americans by hanging them. This was very popular during the Gilded Age after the American Civil War when African Americans were freed from slavery. Many White men would use lynching against Black men for being in a mixed kindred with a White woman. However, because lynching had no legal basis, it was thought to take for been a tool that was used against freed slaves that had achieved financial stability and authority in order to breathe a White-dominated nation.Lynching was most apt(pred icate) performed by White Supremacy groups like the KKK. Lynching was get ine by hanging or shooting, or both. However, many were of a more hideous nature. Burning at the stake, maiming, dismemberment, castration, and other brutal methods of physical twinge are all part of a lynching. Lynching therefore was a cruel combination of racism and sadism, which was utilized originally to sustain the caste system in the South. Many white people believed that Negroes could notwithstanding be controlled by fear. To them, lynching was seen as the most effective means of control. argue your people is one thing, but to strain another human being is inhuman. The KKK has several(prenominal) stories out there today on how they treated the blacks, whether they did anything improper or not. For instance, a Louisiana woman is in lively condition after she was set on fire, resulting in burns on roughly 60 percent of her body, and her car appears to have had racial slurs written on it at the tim e of her attack (Mach, n. d. ). They had even gone as furthermost as perform service bombings. The KKK launched a bomb into a church during a Sunday service, which left quadruple innocent teenage girls dead.The men amenable hid behind the cloak of secrecy, intimidation and the white robes of the oldest terrorist organization in the world, the Ku Klux Klan (Gado, n. d. ). Therefore, until the Civil Rights take on of 1964, racial discrimination is an issue that was not seriously tackled. The act was a productive result of most wide-ranging civil rights legislation and Civil Rights Movements for close to a century (Finkelman, 2009). The act declared discrimination on the basis of color, race, ethnicity, religion, and many other aspects as unconstitutional.During the critical years from 1954 to 1963, a variety of leaders with different backgrounds, such as lawyers from the NAACP, women sitting on jalopyes, ministers from southern black churches, militants from black power organi zations, and callowness from colleges had shaped the successful struggle toward black equality in America (Bowles, 2011). In 1896, the Supreme Courts Plessy v. Ferguson termination established that separate but equal facilities for whites and blacks were allowable under the U. S. Constitution. Local political officials could designate separate public facilities like drinking fountains, restrooms, and schools.Even courthouses often had separate Bibles according to the defendants race. The occupation was that separate usually meant unequal, and segregation subverted the freedom of every African American (Sundquist, 1993). Now, it is time for the African- Americans to fight back. The incident that made them want to make a difference was the genus genus Rosa Park manager ride. After a long day of work on December 1, 1955, pose, feet hurt, looked forward to sitting on the bus for her ride home. At the time, there was a city ordinance stating that African Americans had to give up th eir seats on a train or bus if a white man asked for them.When a white man approached Parks and told her that he wanted her seat, she simply said no. Although she acted as a private citizen, her solution was as an informed, committed member of the NAACP movement. The bus number one wood had asked Parks to move. When she did not, the bus driver said, Look, woman, I told you I wanted the seat. ar you going to stand up? When Parks again said no, the driver threatened, If you foolt stand up, Im going to have you arrested. She gave no react but at the next stop, Rosa was arrested (Garrow, 2004). A pastor known as Martin Luther King Jr., form a boycott, the capital of Alabama bus boycott. King Jr. took this to a higher level and maintained and organized the Southern Christian Leadership league (SCLC), which coordinated similar bus boycotts in other cities. Shortly after the boycott, King had found a bomb on his porch. King went to Birmingham, Alabama, where he continued his unpro voking protests and marches. However, the police authorized force to thaw Kings followers by using electric cattle prods, split gas, and fire hoses (Bowles, 2011).King was arrested with the others, but upon his going away from jail he went to Washington, D. C., where he and demonstrators met at the National Mall and addressed them with his noted We Shall Overcome speech on exalted 23, 1963. Kings words at the capital that day were a delineate moment of the Civil Rights movement. Other demonstrations and civil disobedience campaigns sought to increase African-American voter registration and win better jobs. Malcolm X actively promoted the Black Islamic cause. Even after speaking about non-violence and wanting peace, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The civil rights movement dramatically increased union of African- American voters in both the South and the North today.By the mid-70s some 4000 African-Americans have been elected to political office at all levels of gove rnment. Qualified African-Americans now have a wider range of opportunities than ever before. Whether you are White or African-American, each group has faced its own peculiar challenges on its approach to democracy (Rappaport, 2001). This racism is wrong and unconstitutional. The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery, which some people still went against it. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to the former slaves and forbade states from denying any person life, liberty, or property without payable process of the law.The 14th Amendment also guaranteed equal protection of the law for all citizens. The fifteenth Amendment barred states from denying citizens the right to vote found on race, color, or previous servitude (Hertz, 2009). In a perfect world, everyone would be equal. The color of ones skin, religious beliefs or sexual preference would mean nothing. We would accept everyone for whom and what they are. We would rejoice in the differences between each other instea d of belittling, hating and discriminating against those differences. We dont however live in a perfect world.We live in a world filled with surmise and hate. If we dont know or understand it in our society, then it is wrong. It go forth be discriminated against in one form or another. We as a area have made major strides in overcoming racism, however we still have far to go. In conclusion, African Americans faced isolation, discrimination, and segregation during the post-construction period. Racial discrimination was also rife in the military where back soldiers were considered inferior to white soldiers and hence poorly skilled and equipped.The issue of racial discrimination, isolation and segregation was not seriously tackled until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted. Civil rights activists such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. organized the known 1963 protest in Washington that lastly forced President John Kennedy to pass the Act. It is therefore, clear that th e journey to end isolation, discrimination, and segregation to attain equality and civil rights has been hard but worthwhile. ? References Bowles, M. (2011).American History 1865- submit End of Isolation. San Diego, CA Bridgepoint. Retrieved at https//content.ashford. edu/books/AUHIS204. 11. 2 Finkelman, P. (2009) Encyclopedia of African American history, 1896-present, capital of Wisconsin Avenue, New YorkOxford University Press Rappaport, D. (2001). Martins spectacular Words The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sitkoff, H. , & Franklin, J. (2008) The clamber for Black equality. Hill and Wang Publication http//www. adl. org/ curb/ext_us/kkk/default. asp? LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=4&item=kkk http//www. history. com/topics/black-codes Civil Rights Act of 1964 http//www. ourdocuments. gov/doc. php? doc=97&varlet=transcript.