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US Government Help Or Hinder The Progress Of African Americans Between 1865 And 1941

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Did the US government help or hinder the progress of African Americans between 1865 and 1941? According to Thesaurus.com (2017), help is defined as, ‘to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; render assistance to; cooperate effectively with; aid; assist’. On the other hand, hinder is defined as, ‘to cause delay, interruption, or difficulty in; hamper; impede’. In this essay, I will analyse the role that the American government played in both helping and hindering the progress of black Americans between 1865 and 1941 Two years prior to 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln, declared that ‘all persons held as slaves within any part of a state … thenceforward …show more content…

These alone ensure the Civil and political rights, the abolishment of slavery and lastly the forbade of discrimination within society (although it continued). Having said that, the government's failure to implement the amendments lead to the harsh treatment of AA as there were acts of violence occurring throughout the period, from the KKK terrorized not only AA but government officials as well as the lynching of numerous AA. Although for a brief period during reconstruction, the social injustice faced from the state and the hate groups like the KKK mellowed down, the compromise of 1877 led to the uprising and upbringing of more injustice as we saw the ratification of the civil rights bill not extending to individuals but the government and segregation being tolerated. Most importantly, there was decline in education throughout the period which meant that the AA could not improve upon themselves as they had a low quality of education as well as the struggle to read. Although the freedmen's bureau attempted to close this gap they were later refused funding which led to the ever expanding educational gap. Therefore, in my opinion the government hindered more than they helped within the period of 1865-1941 as they struggled to maintain their efforts of help after 1877, most evidently through the era from 1910-1941 as we saw no change in the rights or social status of the

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