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Oppression Of African Americans In Thomas Blackmon's Another Name

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Oppression Of African Americans In Thomas Blackmon's Another Name
Civil rights are defined as the rights of citizens to participate in society with equal treatment before the law (Bond, 2014), and the end of the Civil War provided African Americans with the hope of receiving full citizenship in American society (Salmond, 2009). Following the Civil War, a “thriving interracial democracy took hold in the former Confederate states” (Burton, 2008, p. 282) with equal citizenship for the African American community (Salmond, 2009). African Americans participated in state and local elections and held many offices between 1867 and 1877 (2009). In addition, after the Civil War, African Americans and whites shared public spaces, and some African-American children even shared classrooms with whites (2009). However, this integrated society was not lasting. Federal troops were stationed in the South to enforce the equal treatment of African Americans, and once the troops were removed due to political bargaining, it was again a dark time for African Americans in the South (2009). The hope that filled the hearts of the former slaves and their progeny to prosper economically, politically, and personally (Bond, 2014) through full citizenship dissipated (Burch, 2008) and was replaced with fear of the new slavery described in Blackmon’s (2008) Slavery by Another Name.

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