African American History

Prior to the Civil War, many African Americans were the minorities. They were not even considered citizens in the United States. During this period African American were slaves, working in fields and being servants for the white slave owners. During the year of 1861-1865, the union states were fighting the federate states in which the union won and slavery was later abolished. After this period, things for African Americans did not change. Blacks were segregated from whites, they were still considered minorities, and blacks are still mistreated by the whites. Although African Americans were freed overtime, the life for African Americans did not change in the wake of the Civil War.
Violence was the worst during the segregation time period. Blacks were mistreated and often looked down upon. There was always a threat by terrorist violence. The Ku Klux Klan, Knights of White Camellia, and other terrorists killed many blacks to keep them from voting and participating in public life. Founded in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan did everything they could to attack he blacks from having their rights. The KKK’s main form main form of violence towards blacks was lynching. Meaning, the Ku Klux Klan was known to kill African Americans by hanging for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial. In the south, over 2,000 African Americans were lynched between the years of 1884 until the early 1900’s. They also did other types of violence such as shooting, burying African Americans alive, and beat them to death. The Ku Klux Klan was not only violent towards African Americans, but they attacked citizens who supported Republicans or racial equalities. Frederick Douglas, a dominant Republican said "Rebellion has been subdued, slavery abolished, and peace proclaimed," He said, "and yet our work is not done...We are face to face with the same old enemy of liberty and progress.... The South today is a field of blood.” Meaning, even slaves were freed from working in fields and being servants, they still were mistreated because of the color of their skin. Even in the North where most civil rights reformers hailed from, people discriminated based on color.
In the United States, racial segregation and discrimination was enforced by the Jim Crow Laws, a system of laws and customs. Jim Crow Laws were enacted by lawmakers who were upset and bitter about their loss to the north and the ending of slavery. The laws were written to and applied in a way that discriminated against African Americans, but yet the laws did not specifically mention race. February 1843, started the tradition of the Jim Crow with a performed song and dance act by four white men from Virginia. The successful troops were individual performers who copied African American’s singing and dancing. Jim Crow grew slowly. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, many African Americans still enjoyed the rights granted in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, along with the 1875 Civil Rights Act. Blacks and Whites rode together in the same railway cars, ate in the same restaurants, used the same public facilities, but did not interact as equals. Held at the Civil Rights Act in 1875 the court case Plessey v. Ferguson was unconstitutional and ruled that the 14th Amendment did not prohibit individuals and private organizations from discriminating on the basis of race. The court case started the “separate but equal” status. This means, blacks were free, but they were to remain separated from the white Americans. Later, blacks were denied social forms of respect. Signs were posted stating “Whites Only” and “Colored. Black male adults were often called “boy” by the whites.
Eventually, by the year 1912, in the south laws were passed for two separate societies. One society was black and the other was white. Blacks were not allowed to sit on the same train as whites, eat in the same diner with whites, or sit in the same movie theatre with a white person. During the Jim Crow era, the separation of schools for children encouraged blacks to leave the south. There was segregation in hotels, stores, entertainment, and libraries. Segregation within the south caused all this fueling an atmosphere of racism and a rise in lynching, rioting, and the Ku Klux Klan.
Most blacks in the south were not granted jobs or housing because of their skin color. Blacks were also often denied the right to vote through literacy tests and poll taxes that was giving with trick questions on the test. When blacks were hired, some jobs prohibited blacks from working in the same room as a white person.
During the year of 1954, court case Brown v. Board of Education declared integration in schools. This court case led to legal suits, mass sit-ins, and boycotts to force dash desegregation. Although blacks were undefeated against segregation and discrimination, they still faced hard times such as unequal opportunities. Having new approaches, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and the Black Power Movement, this led to the ending to the Jim Crow Laws.
The violence and the power of state governments made segregation complicating. African Americans used ballot boxes, courtrooms, and organizations such as the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People to help them fight segregation. Meetings were held by blacks after the Civil Rights Act of 1883. Many speeches were given from black leaders who chose to fight for rights in their communities.
W.E.B. Dubois, the first African American to receive a doctoral degree from Harvard University, was followed by several Black activists to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada to plan strategies to fight racial equality in 1905. They were later known as the Niagara Movement by the year of 1909. The Great Migration, the changing nature of African American politics, and the social and cultural changes connected to war itself were the three major factors that contributed to the Civil Rights Movement.
Until the 1920’s, Blacks loyally voted for Republicans. While during the 1920’s, he democratic Part remained dominated by the Southern, segregationist wing. Because President Franklin Roosevelt hated segregation, he appointed blacks to high offices. The rights for African Americans were slowly but surely gaining at this time. Roosevelt was not the only one who hated segregation. The National Council of Negro Women was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to have tea. When she resigned from the Daughters of America Revolution when they refused to allow an opera singer, Marian Anderson, to give a concert because she was lack was one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s most important act against segregation.
Later in the 1930’s, when more blacks in the north began voting for Democrats instead of Republicans, things started to shift. Arthur W. Mitchell eventually became the first black Democrat in the history of Congress.
World War II was the final attempt to replace the Civil Rights Movement. Jackie Robinson was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers because the manager Rickey realized that segregation in Major League Baseball was morally wrong. Robinson played for the Doge Minor League his first year. Soon the team accepted more African Americans and the team became stars with blacks and whites on the team.
Although African Americans were freed overtime, the life for African Americans did not change in the wake of the Civil War. To a good extent, W.E.B. Dubois was correct when he wrote that the single greatest issue of the 20th century would be the “color line”. Because of the 13th, 14, and 15th Amendments segregation was over. Even though blacks and whites are integrated in today’s society, blacks are still being judged and stereotyped because of their skin color. In fact, some towns in the south still have active members of good and organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As a African American living in the south, I believe having the right to vote and getting a good education is important because so many African Americans fought hard for black students to be able to get a good education and vote for a President of the country I represent.