Throughout history people have been working towards African American rights. There have been countless individuals, as well as entire organizations, who have made significant advancements in this movement. Though the struggle for rights has been a long process, these people’s contributions eventually led to emancipation and further rights of African Americans.
Harriet Tubman is known today as one of the most significant individuals in her contributions to the African American rights movement. After escaping slavery herself, Tubman went on to help hundreds of others to escape to freedom as well. Through the use of the Underground Railroad, it is estimated that nearly 100,000 slaves were brought to freedom. People known as stationmasters were
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The Dred Scott Decision is one of the many examples that brought awareness to the issue of African American rights. Dred Scott became a very important individual in the movement as he attempted to sue for his freedom. His ‘master’ (as much as it pains me to say that word in terms of a human owning another human) had brought him to live in a free territory before returning with him later to Missouri, a slave territory. Scott, along with the help and support of several abolitionists, sued to end his slavery. They set their case under the terms that because Scott had spent time in a free territory he should therefore be deemed free. Scott’s case, gaining momentum, ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court, where there a racist idiot of a judge ruled that because African Americans are not citizens they are therefore unable to sue in court. Though Scott’s case was proven unsuccessful, it did bring a lot of awareness to the issue of slavery. While some were in favor of the final outcome, others were driven more strongly in their opposition of slavery and believed it needed to be put to an