Ashley Miller
HIST 202B
Timothy Paynich
3/7/16
HUMAN Rights How much of history would change if African Americans never went through adversity? Between 1877 (End of Reconstruction) and the 1950’s (Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement) African Americans went through immense hardships. They had to fight numerous times in order to gain their rights and even be counted as “human”. During the Harlem Renaissance many African Americans arose and found ways to create and show what they were going through. A famous African American author and civil rights leader by the name of James Weldon Johnson “was deeply committed to exposing the injustice and brutality imposed on African Americans throughout the United States, especially in the Jim Crow South”
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Not only did they have to go through lynching but Jim Crow. Some of these rules included: “A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male. Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. Blacks were introduced to whites, never whites to blacks and if a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back” (Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia). African Americans were treated like animals. They had to follow rules and behave in a manner that wouldn’t get them in trouble, but more specifically lynching. Owing to Johnson for making such an impact during this time era. Johnson joined the “staff of the interracial National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was a key figure, perhaps the key figure, in making the NAACP a truly national organization capable of mounting the attack that eventually led to the dismantling of the system of segregation by law” (James Weldon Johnson’s Life and Career). Its hard to imagine how African Americans felt living with this around them all the time, to know if a white person had something against you. They could claim you did something you didn’t even do and you could pay the price with your life. What if there was never a time African Americans had to face the Jim Crow laws and lynching, how would it be now? How would history have changed? No one would be better than another, therefore allowing human rights for everyone. The tensions would disappear and each would respect the other, living in
Although slavery was declared over after the passing of the thirteenth amendment, African Americans were not being treated with the respect or equality they deserved. Socially, politically and economically, African American people were not being given equal opportunities as white people. They had certain laws directed at them, which held them back from being equal to their white peers. They also had certain requirements, making it difficult for many African Americans to participate in the opportunity to vote for government leaders. Although they were freed from slavery, there was still a long way to go for equality through America’s reconstruction plan.
7 Civil Rights Leaders who Made an Impact on African-American History Photo Credit: History These civil rights leaders made a significant contribution to African-American history and culture. These activists helped shape the course of black history thanks to their passion and dedication to uplift the rights of the black community. Their names should be recognized and remembered by all black citizens.
Every person is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, since every citizen is born equal. Sadly, however, before the Civil Rights Movement, that wasn’t true. Any African American living in the United States was treated far worse than how they were supposed to be treated. They were disrespected, denied rights, and their freedom to go places were commonly restricted by signs that said; “Whites only,” or “No colored people allowed”. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a major activist in The Civil Rights Movement, and he was thrown in jail many times for his nonviolent protests.
They had many more rights than they had before however they still experienced a large amount of hate. African Americans migrated during the Great Migration due to poor living conditions and treatment in the Southeast of the United States (Phillips 33) . “For many blacks, their departure from the South was a response to, and a defiance of, the coercions used to keep them bound to segregation” (Phillips 39). In the 1920’s, treatment of African Americans was different, blacks were able to do more such as getting a job however, some felt as though the hate they would get for it wasn 't worth it. Although, there would always be challenges that African Americans would have to face such as landowners supporting the passing of laws meant to control the mobility of blacks, limit their wages, and minimize their chance to purchase and own land (Phillips 33).
Even though slavery was over, there was still racial tensions across the country, highly, and African Americans continued experience oppression (Source 1). Oppression meaning being subjected to unfair treatment (Source 1). With this mind, African Americans were unfairly even though before they were used, bought and also sold before this. ”The Supreme Court had given segregation a legal “okay” and many states took advantage of this” (Source 1). With this happening, it was very prevalent in the South.
Prior to the Reconstruction Era, the Union and the Confederate states had just engaged in a war concerning slavery and the unity of the United States, which is also known as the Civil War. The damage from the war was economically, socially and politically devastating to the United States of America as a whole. The newly liberated African Americans were harassed, tormented and even killed in the communities they had developed after the Civil War. Literacy tests were implemented as a way to prevented the miseducated African American male from suffrage. Lastly, early Jim Crow laws originated during this time period.
American history marked specific and different strategies that helped support the achievement of racial justice, having faced mixed reactions and responses. With the Civil Rights Movement using nonviolent tactics and receiving support from organizations such as the SCLC and SNCC, with the Black Panther Party advocating for revolutionary socialism, Reactions varied and differed among individuals and groups, with some offering support and others offering opposition(Doc 6). In spite of these differences, both movements played significant roles in the advancement of the cause of the civil rights movement in the United States. In the 1960s, the movement for civil rights for African Americans was characterized by a variety of approaches, supports,
The safety of blacks was slowly lowering as the southerners, or democrats, were once again dehumanizing them. With this progress, came violence. Blacks finally had a platform that they could utilize to the best of their abilities and finally make a change not only for them, but for everyone else that opposed them. But the resistance of change only grew larger, resulting in
The Jim Crow laws and segregation allowed African Americans to be treated as second-class citizens. In Document I from The Crisis written by W.E.B Dubois May 1919, Dubois states that many African Americans were also drafted to fight in World War I, but were not welcomed to a great home when they returned.
Even after that, African-Americans were still being treated unfairly as segregation was alive and well. Segregation is the forced separation of different racial groups in a certain place. Blacks were to sit in the bck of the bus and give up their seat for whites. Kids were not even allowed to go to school together. There was still no equality.
Their schools and buildings were severely underfunded and not properly maintained. Blacks could not socialize with white people in public or they risked being arrested. “A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it
Over the ages racism has been a constant matter in the United States of America, notably during Reconstruction. For the time being, this specific stage had a considerable impact on the country because it was known as the effort to give African Americans a voice, as well as reunify the nation after the tragic civil war. Although laws and compromises were put in place to pave a pathway to a better life for freedmen, they were ineffective. The Ku Klux Klan became known and African Americans lived in a constant state of fear, praying to escape from violence and murder. More than that, there were consecutive failures involved with reconstruction, including the limited necessities freedmen and women were supplied with and the black codes that were
Racism has existed since humans have stepped foot on Earth; clans were formed based on hair, eye, and skin color. Racism and social injustice are certainly not new, and they are certainly not absent in the world. During the 1940s, segregation, a form of racism, was present in schools, hospitals, militaries, etc. Jim Crow laws had one of the leading roles in the film of racism, and they are the reason blacks, in the eyes of whites, had a filthy image and background. Although negroes were stereotyped, there were many inspirational leaders that stood up for negroes such as: Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson as well as some others.
It was so difficult for them to see them as normal people. It was really hard for them to get attention because they would seem them as slave people by saying that is they would treat them as people who would clean the house, the one who made them clean their shoes with the mouth, the one who were able to clean the floor with their hands. In those time it was really hard time to find work for them because no one would accepted because of their skin color. School for the skin color was they would bullying them, having people
The new laws that the government had set in place made lives for black people very difficult at the time. When this law was put in place, the differences between blacks and whites were very clear. Whites got preferential treatment, just for being white whereas blacks had to struggle with daily