ipl-logo

A Dream Undone Analysis

654 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Topics on african american voting rights

Voting has been a major barrier for African Americans before and since 1870 when African Americans males were given the right to vote due to a ratification in the 15th Amendment. In the article “A Dream Undone” by the New York Times, the reader is given a brief history of the black vote. Most of this is told in brief anecdotes from and or about numerous figures that reside in North Carolina. The stories focus on the tactics used to suppress the black vote, the role of race in politics, how race changed politics, and the progression of the black vote. The writers’ major argument of this article is that even though the Voting Rights Act has been in effect for fifty years, mainly Republican legislators have used tactics to undermine and cut out …show more content…

He starts off the article by making reference to Henry Frye, the first black chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and continues down in history and continues to talk about important people in North Carolina and the United States that supported the minority vote or helped hinder the minority vote through various tactics, such as Carter Wrenn and Eric Holder Jr. Wrenn was a former strategist for Senator Jesse Helms and helped the Republican Party gain a majority in the South, largely by drawing conservative white voters from the Democratic Party with race-tinged campaigns. Holder is the first African American attorney general of the United States, he helped turn the Justice Departments focus from election fraud to improving access to the ballot. I believe that the writer mainly focused on North Carolina because of House Bill 589, a bill that was passed that some believe was purposefully written to have a discriminatory effect against black voters. It was originally a short voter ID bill, allowing for a wider range of IDs to be used, it then turned into a bill that suppressed voting. The writer even proves his point further by including that the New York School of Law stated that North Carolina had one of the most restrictive voting laws since the Jim Crow

Show More
Related
213 Words | 1 Pages

African Americans weren’t actually free during Reconstruction because they were initially not accorded the full rights of citizenship under the constitution, they were forced into submission by violence and intimidation, and were abridged the rights they had later gained by Black Codes. Despite the fact that African Americans were liberated from slavery, during the early years of Reconstruction, they were not equal citizens under the law. Even though blacks had fought loyally for the union, they were initially denied the right to vote (Doc a). The President of the United States, President Johnson, regarded black suffrage as something to radical that would “change the entire structure and character of the State governments,” (Doc b).

Read More
1104 Words | 5 Pages

In the year of Jackson 's campaign the right to vote was given to men who did not own property which had been a key part in the vision of Hamilton ever since the late 1700s. In document A George Henry Evans in “The Working Man’s Declaration of Independence” written in 1829 presents this social progress found in the Jacksonian era “defended” by his followers as the idea of a guardian is presented as he states, “it is their duty… to provide new guards for their future security”. (Doc A). The emerging class shows how the equality of economic opportunity had been nurtured. The amended voting regulations illustrated a significant transition in the typical rights bestowed upon men and an obvious increase in Individual liberty.

Read More
1006 Words | 5 Pages

“Should blacks receive full voting rights, and what rights should they require. Radical republicans posed that freed slaves should recieve voting rights, but president Johnson quickly turned this down. But congress passed a bill that gave freedmen full rights including voting rights that lasted a few years. In our discussion, we came to the conclusion that freed men weren’t quite ready to vote yet, as they needed to be educated first. We agreed that this way was the best for the freedmen to be admitted back as citizens.

Read More
406 Words | 2 Pages

Suppressing black votes is not only a thing of the past. In the early 1840’s, Frederick Douglass became a registered voter in Massachusetts. He escaped slavery from Maryland travelling to New York and then to New Bedford. Before becoming a public figure in American history, he was had committed voter fraud, using an assumed name. Being an illegal immigrant and a fugitive slave in Massachusetts, it was necessary for him to be registered under a new name as it is against the law.

Read More
226 Words | 1 Pages

We see multiple successes of voting equality attempted through amendments, however, the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County v. Holder has pushed back years and years of effort for voting rights. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling was in Shelby County’s favor, stating that the Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional along with Section 5. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, who wrote the majority’s opinion, said that the power to regulate election was reserved to the states, not the federal government. As a result to the court’s decision, the federal government can no longer determine which voting law discriminates and can be passed. After the case, many states had freely passed new voting laws; the most common voting law states passed

Read More
66 Words | 1 Pages

To accomplish social equality and justice has been a long controversial issue in U.S. history. Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be understood as a tremendous accomplishment today because it not only represent a symbol of the triumph of fighting social injustice, but also open the first gate for African American and minority to strive for more political power in order to create a “great society.”

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction Hook: I never knew that one day, one idea could have such a big impact. That one thing could change the history, set up the rest of the country to follow suit with this specific topic, and things that need a change in general. Background: Over 50 years ago, on March 7, 1965, now known as bloody Sunday, segregation was still prevalent. At the time it was not allowed for blacks to vote at the time.

Read More
563 Words | 3 Pages

The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

Read More
841 Words | 4 Pages

In “From Chapter 6 of ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Fin’ by Mark Twain,” Pap told Huck, “It was ‘lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn’t too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they’d let that nigger vote, I drawed out.” During Mark Twain’s time, the whites used the word nigger so loosely. It was so common that it had been a part of life and a social norm. The author, Twain, was showing to the world the names the African Americans were really being

Read More
645 Words | 3 Pages

But, when these officials were elected to Congress, they passed the “black codes” and thus the relations between the president and legislators became worst (Schriefer, Sivell and Arch R1). These so called “Black Codes” were “a series of laws to deprive blacks of their constitutional rights” that they were enacted mainly by Deep South legislatures. Black Codes differ from a state to another but they were stricter in the Deep South as they were sometimes irrationally austere. (Hazen 30) Furthermore, with the emergence of organizations such as the Red Shirts and the White League with the rise of the Conservative White Democrats’ power, efforts to prevent Black Americans from voting were escalating (Watts 247), even if the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution that gave the Blacks the right to vote had been ratified in 1870.

Read More
930 Words | 4 Pages

Many people were brutally beaten and there were also some that lost their lives, because of it. Lyndon B Johnson begins his speech his by convincing his listener that he will flight for what is owed to the Negros. That is the equal right to vote regardless of your race. The speech “We Shall Overcome”, speech gets to the core of the problem within the Legislation itself. He wants to see that everyone will abide by the 15th Amendment that gives Negros the right and the privilege to vote without any recourse, without worrying

Read More
756 Words | 4 Pages

The Fifteenth Amendment granted African-American males the right to vote in the late 1800s. However, through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, southern states were able to effectively discourage African-Americans. It was not till 1965, almost a century later, that the Voting Rights Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson; enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment. But acquiring the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was an enduring task for African-American citizens and supporters. A perfect example is “Bloody Sunday”, where a group of activist, in their attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama protesting for the rights of voters, were beaten and left for dead of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

Read More
1821 Words | 8 Pages

Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.

Read More
101 Words | 1 Pages

The information regarding the history of African Americans and voting is very interesting. You are correct regarding the hard time that African Americans went through to vote. Mississippi still have major problems in voting rights. Many organizations are still fighting with Mississippi Constitution. In Mississippi a person cannot vote if convicted of certain crimes, in 2008 the Attorney General added 11 additional crimes.

Read More
2067 Words | 9 Pages

I Dreamed a Dream is a soliloquy piece, sung by Fantine during act one of Les Misérables (1980). Fantine has just been fired from her factory job after it is discovered that she has an illegitimate child and takes to selling herself on the streets to pay for medicine for her daughter. It is here that ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’ is sung as a way of progressing the story and providing a realisation by the character of her unfortunate situation in life with the song being composed as a way of expressing the feelings of Fantine as she wonders where her life went so wrong as to descend to her present predicament. Throughout the song an anguished, during and impoverished Fantine reminisces on happier days and descends back to the harsh reality that is her hopeless life. I Dreamed a Dream is set in common time (4/4) with a steady set tempo throughout the piece, de despite significant changes in dynamic, texture, modulation and emotion.

Read More

More about A Dream Undone Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document