Throughout American history, racism, specifically towards African-Americans, has caused tremendous suffering across the country. According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of racism is: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. During the 1800s, there was a significant amount of established racism and discrimination against U.S. citizens of African descent. Despite the fact that African-Americans technically had somewhat of a legal say in politics, there were still discriminatory laws that deprived African-Americans from their human rights, most particularly in the Southern states. During this time, racial prejudice, segregation and favoritism of white …show more content…
Millions of African-Americans relocated their home in Northern and Midwest cities such as Detroit, Boston, New York, and Chicago. These cities are not Southern, but they still saw violent racial tensions.
The height of the American Civil Rights movement began during the 1950s and the 1960s. It began with the desegregation of public schools along with the start of many widespread protests across the country being lead by the younger generation. The passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to the end of the Jim Crow laws. African-Americans were no longer "separate but equal". This created an increase in the number of opportunities available for African-Americans in the United States and also manifested a transition in the social acceptance of racism that had been imbedded into American law since the beginning. The United States has come a long way since then, but there are still accounts of racial inequalities still continuing today. In 1991, a conference sponsored by the Coalition for Christian Outreach featured an African-American evangelist, Tom Skinner, as one of their speakers. Wendy Sereda, a member of the Association of