Equality In The United States

America was founded on the belief that all men (people) should have equal rights. This was not true for another eighty years, when President Abraham Lincoln put the Emancipation Proclamation into effect. And still, over one hundred fifty years later, this is not true. People are being refused from jobs and schools due to their gender or race. I believe this is unjust, that everyone should have equal opportunities, and that our country should evolve to change their prejudices.

“Segregation is that which is forced on an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.” -Malcolm X (brainyquote.com). Malcolm was one of the most forceful civil rights leaders in history, saying there should be equality in the United States, and he was going to achieve this “by any means necessary”. His biggest turning point was when he was in high school. The teacher had asked what he wanted to be when he was older, to which he said that he wished to be a lawyer. “One of life’s first needs is to be realistic… you need to think of something you can be… why don’t you plan on carpeting?” He did not take this well.
Dropping out of high school the next year at 15, he had turned to a life of crime.

Frank McCain, Junior Blair, Joe McNeil, and David Richmond: four black men living in the sixties, who stood up for their rights. These men sat down at the white counter in a diner, where they were refused service. They had expected to be refused, but they still sat there. For several months they came in when the diner opened and left when it closed. During this protest, entire cities started supporting their actions. More African Americans started copying this special kind of protest all over the United States (Expert 21 Book). I respect their actions and ideals, and I also believe that there should be more equality in the US. All citizens in the sixties had the right to protest peacefully, but this right was being oppressed from them by government forces, who should’ve been the ones protecting those rights. Their actions should not have been justified, and the policemen who opposed these rights should have been trialed for doing so.

“America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” -Abraham Lincoln (brainyquote.com). On January 1st 1863, Abraham Lincoln had put into effect, the Emancipation Proclamation (Call to Freedom). This document made it so all slaves were freed from custody, and so it was illegal to harbor a slave. But, 154 years later, all races are still being segregated against in modern society. People are still making racial biases against every single race there is in the world. Abraham Lincoln did not fight for people's rights, to let others discriminate against each other for their own supremacy. He made this law because he knew that blacks were people, who deserved to be equals with the whites, that they had potential for great things, and that they have the rights to live their own
life.