Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Great African American Hero

Throughout time there have been heroes that have shaped history with their bravery and their dedication to fighting for what is right. When one thinks about a person that changed the world, one usually thinks of a great political leader such as Franklin D. Roosevelt or a civil rights activist such as Doctor Martin Luther King. This tends to be the case most of the time because these are the heroes everybody knows, but there are others that have fought for the rights of others, who have fought against racism, poverty and homophobia. These important figures in history sometimes go without being as recognized as the great American heroes. These people have fought throughout the injustices of men and have managed to change the history of America.
Even after slavery was banned in the southern states, the white population made it hard for African Americans to live. It was already hard for them to find a good job because they had been slaves their whole life and didn’t not know how to live a free life. This would cause many of them to move to other states pursuing a better life. As time took its course, many African Americans began to prosper. Many had found jobs in northern states and had started a life. Their life appeared to have changed from when they were slaves, but it was actually almost the same as if they were still under slavery. This factor that would follow many free slaves throughout the Untied States was racism. African Americans fell victims of racism in many ways some of them by not being able to vote and not being able to have the same rights as the white population. This would torment African Americans for decades. It kept getting worse over time to the point where clans were being formed to persecute African Americans throughout the country. They would be persecuted for numerous reasons, some of which just seem as an excuse to torment the black community. African Americans would be executed because they would be falsely blamed for harsh crimes such as rape and burglary. They would immediately be blamed for these crimes because it was believed that African Americans did not poses the same intelligence as the Anglos. This idea would be embraced by many college professors who also believed in white supremacy. According to The American Challenge, many of these college professors wrote books over this subject stating that, “African Americans possessed less intelligence and a greater tendency toward crime than Americans of European decent” (764). These statements were like adding fuel to a fire, in this case the fire would represent the racism that was consuming the African