The American Dream: A Myth For African Americans In The 1900's

The American Dream was a myth for African Americans, newly arrived immigrants and Native Americans during the time period of 1865 through the 1900s. These groups faced discrimination as they were denied their rights of freedom, opportunity, equality, and lastly, their human rights. For example, some newcomers such as Asian immigrants were denied opportunity, freedom, and their human rights due to both discrimination and laws passed by the US Congress.
For many African Americans, the American Dream was a myth due to the fact that their human rights and their chances for opportunity were denied. Black Codes restricted what they were able to do such as freedom of movement, right to own land, and lastly they were not able to testify in court.

Chinese and Asian immigrants were denied equality, opportunity, and freedom. Chinese immigrants were sent to Angel Island which is located in San Francisco Bay, California. Angel island was probably the worst conditioned immigrant station. Immigrants who were sent here usually did not get into America for months or even years. Once Chinese immigrants made it into the United States they were forced into slave work such as mining and building railroads. Chinese women were automatically put into prostitution, but they also said it was not as bad as China. Are you able to imagine what these people were going through to come to America and say that this is not bad? Chinese and Asian women only had one job, prostitution. Once they entered the country they payed of their ticket by doing this. The contract lasted for four and a half years and if they became pregnant they had to work another year to make up for lost time on their current contract. There was also a big risk of the prostitute catching an STD because during this time period there was no such thing as condoms or any type of protection like there is today. This also meant that there was a high pregnancy rate. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act came into play. This act made it so that no Chinese could come into America for ten years. This was made because no one else was able to get a job due

The Sioux tribe was an example of a group that had a dream that was not achieved. The government was kicking this tribe out of every area they were placed in due to Westward Expansion in the early 1800s. The government also lied to the Sioux by the fact that the government at this time promised the Sioux they would send out care packages and money grants to them. The food that was sent to the Sioux was usually spoiled rotten and the so called money that was supposed to be sent to them was “lost or corrupted” so they never ended up getting it. Once the government became even more fed up with the Sioux then they already were they sent the tribe to plantations in the middle of nowhere and let them die off. This is why Native Americans did not experience the American Dream because they were denied human rights and opportunity.
In conclusion the American Dream was a myth for Americans in this time period because these groups faced discrimination and they were denied the rights of freedom, opportunity, equality, and lastly, their human