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Essay On African American Community

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The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal," however, African-American communities have struggled for centuries to exercise their rights. Even though the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery in the United States, Fourteenth Amendments (1868) strengthened the legal rights of newly freed slaves and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) gave newly freed slaves men the right to vote. State legislatures enacted laws that led to the legally mandated segregation of races, known as the Jim Crow Laws. During World War II, African Americans served bravely and with distinction despite discriminatory treatment, exclusion, and degradation at the hands of the United States Armed Forces.
Agencies such as The National Association …show more content…

Businesses such as Digby Hotel survived and thrived during the war years. Nonetheless, the community was faced with a problem once the Japanese were allowed to return. Of the 30,000 Japanese who lived in Southern California before the war, 16,000 returned to Little Tokyo.
Despite cities fear, community programs such the Pilgrim House, founded in October 1943, helped Japanese and African American learn to harmonize in the same town. Community activist such as Dr. Harold M. Kingsley, former congregational pastor of the contemporary church of the Good Shepard in Chicago together with Samuel Ishikawa, Japanese social activist, formed community center offered to all regardless of race, debunking the high tension supposedly between the minorities. Kingsley stated, "Building a community is hard- involved in an area of transition. And little Tokyo is still a port of entry with only the helpless and the friendliness staying here as residents. There is no social vitality here, no loyalty." Restrictions placed on black people and Japanese alike in regards to economic, health care, and housing matters, allowed both ethnic groups to coexist and thrive. Japanese property owners allowed black people to remain in their hotel's

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