in the United States when there was not even a United States. The American slave trade started at as far back as 1619 when slaves were bought from the Dutch. In fact, most people think that slaves became popular in George Washington's time. Also during the Civil war, there were many misleading facts. Most people believe that everyone in the north was against slavery and in the south, everyone appreciated it. This is what the majority felt not everyone with a unison opinion. Another misconception is that all the soldiers that were black were from the north. Some troops were from the south and made up of blacks. One of the big falsehoods was that the Emancipation Proclamation freed all black slaves. In truth, it did not free any slaves since this document only applied to the confederacy and the south broke off. Lincoln did however start a movement. Soon the constitution was amended to say that slavery was now unlawful. It stated that no person could be forced to work unless as punishment for a crime that was proven. The next amendment said that citizenship was to be given to anyone born in the United States or have parents in the United States. The fifthteenth amendment stated that no person should loose the privilege to vote because of race or of color. In the late eighteenth century and early, ninth there was a disagreement that lead to the Supreme Court.
In Plessy v. Ferguson a person who was 1/8, black was arrested for riding the white car in a Louisiana train. This arouse the African Americans should be treated equal. This was settled by the courts deciding to segregate thing. How ever this time they were to be segregated equally. This ruling stood until the 1950's. When a young girl was forced to walk over a mile to a black school through a railroad switch back, Mr. Brown, her father, stepped in. He talk to the white school that was only seven blocks from her house. The school said that they would not accept a black student. This caused the case to go through the court systems up to the Supreme Court. It was ruled that separate but equal was not so equal after all. Linda was able to attend the white school in Topeka Kansas. A few years later, the Civil Rights act came about. The civil rights act said that the government must make it where all the people who qualify in the constitution are allowed to vote, and to vote safely. Affirmative Action was then put into play. This was a set of policies to help insure that discrimination would not happen in the work place. However, this cased many people to get rid of their good majority workers and replace them with some one who had to be trained again to meet the set quota. The government no longer requires a certain percentage for affirmative …show more content…
action. All this while Martin Luther King Jr. came to be know. He was a black preacher who was against violence and for freedom. Before he was assonated, he had created many rallys and also created the longest freedom marches. His most famous moment was most likely when he gave his "I have a Dream" speech in Washington in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Another famous protester was Malcolm Little. He came to be known as Malcolm X. Unlike king, he was much more for a forceful way of pushing towards freedom. He forms the organization of Afro-American Unity to help with the struggle with civil rights. He too was murdered.
Even in the present day, many people are still racist.
Maybe if the US gets a woman as president everything will work its self-out. Mrs. Clinton is planning to run in the coming election. This seems surreal. The rule of thumb was that you literally could bludgeon your wife as long as the object used to strike was smaller than that of a man's thumb. One of the people many overlook is Annie Oakley. She was a person who stepped out of the normal lady expectation. She was a sharp shooter in the Wild West that became a leader to inspire others. Later on women began to take interest in the government. Women soon wanted the right to vote. In 1883, New Zealand was the first to let women vote. Margaret Brent was the first women to insist on voting. Wyoming soon lead the way for America allowing women the same privileges as men. Americans wanted to prove that they could to the same. After over three hindered years, women were granted the right to
vote. Voting was the first step. How ever, the Equal Rights Act said that no person could be turned down by the United States because of his or her sex. This was another break through. None the less there are still a large gap in pay as well as respect. A man will make one dollar for every seventy-seven cent of that of a woman. Even so, it could be worse. One of the bigger things that is frowned upon in the society is sexuality. It is said that there are on average 300 people killed just because sexuality. Homosexuals are now trying to get the right to marry in the United States. It is acceptable in Canada as well as Belgium. It want until after the Civil war were black couple aloud to marry. In some places in California and in Hawaii, there are some special jurisdictions to allow couple to qualify for some benefits. This brings up issues such as should they be able to adopt. Some feel a child could be critically traumatized by growing up in a homosexual environment.
Therefore, in closing I would like it to be known that my final statement is that if a person is black, poor, a woman, and homosexual, she is SOL to have her knight in shining armor show up.