Racism has been prominent in the United States since the country was founded and is still continuing today. From slavery to segregation, all races were not given the equality of the white man's up until the mid-nineties. The melting pot that we call the United States was once a world of grief for African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and many others, and possibly still is today. Thanks to numerous movements, marches, and representative leaders, our country has improved tremendously since the 1800s, but is still not fully separated from the racism stigma. Perhaps if the white man did not force all of the original Native Americans to relocate, the United States would not have fallen down into the predicament of racism and bigotry that it did in the 1900s,
Slavery was first known in the 1600s when a ship deposited around twenty enslaved African Americans in Jamestown, Virginia. This is one of the first known slave trade-offs after the first permanent English …show more content…
settlement in North America. Slavery did not become a problem until the 1840s, which lead to the Civil War in 1861. Ultimately, the southern part of the U.S. lost to the northern, and slavery was abolished, but this was not the end of the history of racism for the United States, African Americans and other races were still looked down upon. The law allowing for legal segregation of the races in 1896 made the situation of racism even worse. It was not until 1955 when the true reconstruction of racial equality began.
The story of the Civil Rights Movement starts in late 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man.
This sparked a revolution for all people of color. Before the Civil Rights Movement, every race other than the white race were regarded with contempt, and did not have nearly as many rights as a white man or woman. The Civil Rights spark helped reform the country into the land of freedom we know it as today. Martin Luther King Jr. later emerged as a voice for everyone who was oppressed, causing him to be one of the most powerful leaders of our era. Although this movement stimulated nonviolent protests, colored people were still cast down by the whites, and were frequently gassed, water-hosed, arrested, and punished for their perseverance. After nine tedious years, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was established, and every race had equal rights. The Civil Rights Movement was one of the most legendary protests to exist, and is still being upheld to this
day.
Many movements have developed in the United States for equal rights since the Civil Rights Act, and are still impacting people across the world. For instance, the Black Lives Matter, also known as BLK, campaign, is geared towards the union of all African-Americans to fight for the equality and justice they deserve. This campaign was made in response to the death of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old African-American who was unjustly killed in 2012 by a white man who followed and shot him as he was walking back home. The BLK movement is one of the most well known movements of today’s time, and still continues with yearly marches for the equal rights of African-Americans.