Hickman 1

Tara Hickman
Mr. Sandstrom
U.S. History
18 May 2015
Civil Rights DBQ Part B
In 1932 Langston Hughes wrote the poem I, Too it reads, I, too, sing America. / I am
the darker brother. / They send me to eat in the kitchen/ When company comes, / But I laugh, /
And eat well, / And grow strong. / Tomorrow, / Ill be at the table / When company comes. /
Nobodyll dare / Say to me, / Eat in the kitchen, / Then. / Besides, / Theyll see how beautiful I
am / And be ashamed- / I, too, am American. It alludes to what civil rights Africans Americans
will have after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is enacted, but African Americans still had to make a
substantial amount of progress between that the thirty-two year gap.
Africans Americans wanted to obtain basic fundamental rights by ending the violence
against them (Document 4) and obtaining equal voting rights (Document 2), educational
opportunities (Document3), and treatment (Document 5 and 7).
Document four alludes to the fact that many African Americans were physically treated
very brutally. A photograph depicts a woman being forcefully removed by multiple police
officers for peacefully protesting, which only gives shows how unnecessary many of the brutal
actions against African Americans were (Boston Core Demonstration). According the Fifteenth
Amendment the United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from
denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of

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servitude. (Wikipedia). As a response the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled
ban on African Americans suffrage unconstitutional, and in turn President Johnson signed the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Document 2). SCOTUS overturned their original stance of separate
but equal in the Plessy v Ferguson case in 1896, when education was decided to be kept
segregated (Hisotry.com Staff), by ruling that unconstitutional according to the Fourteenth
Amendment in the Brown v Board of Education in 1954 (Document 3). In the presentation
Negroes Most Urgent Needs, the need for equal job opportunities and ability to expand their
houses were cited as a need that African Americans wanted met (Document 5). Many African
Americans also wanted equal pay in addition to their other needs (Document 7).
In order to accomplish their goals African Americans tried many different methods,
which were mostly nonviolent. At first, they tried to communicate and negotiate with
government leaders, but did not make significant progress (Document 4). Since that method did
not work, they boycotts (Document 7) and sit-ins (Document 1). One of the most famous
examples of boycotting is the Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955 to 1956, where African
Americans and other civil activists refused to ride any of the buses by carpooling (notes). Sit-ins
were demonstrated when African Americans sat in any designated whites only area, such as the
Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit In, in 1960 (Document 1) and Rosa Parks refusing to give up
her seat to a white man on a bus in 1955 (notes).
Eventually, all of these actions brought enough attention through the media and other
outlets that many people realized how big on an issue civil rights were. As a result, the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 was enacted that outlawed discrimination in hotels or public accommodations
and jobs (notes). To start understand if African Americans succeeded in their goals, you must
look at the de-jure and de-facto aspects.

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Today, the Civil Rights Act and Fifteenth Amendment (Cornell University of Law
School) presents the de-jure factors, which lead to the belief that African Americans did
accomplish their main goals, attain the basic civil rights and minimize discrimination.
Even though these laws are present, people must also consider the de-facto aspects.
Discrimination is a very de-facto aspect because it is all relative. The levels of discrimination are
at different depending on the situation. Prejudice is another factor of discrimination that should
be considered, but prejudice will always be around as long as humans continue to judge others.
The act of judging alone is not bad, but creating a strong dislike or even hate towards someone or
a group of people based on these judgements and assumptions is. Recently, there is proof that
people are still prejudice to African Americans, resulting in continuing discrimination which in
some cases very violent. These instances include the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson,
Missouri and the riots against police brutality in Baltimore, Maryland after the death of Freddie
Gray while he was in police custody. Police often respond in very violent ways against the
protesters. Many people are also somewhat unaware like Mr. Peacock explains in Document 8,
but this is being changed by all the new levels of media attention. All of these are events are
similar to those ways that were seen in the 1950s and 1960s surrounding the Civil Rights
movements. In the end, I would say that history is repeating itself because only changes is the
main goal of equal voting rights to equal treatment.