Midterm Assignment: African Americans

African Americans are currently the largest racial minority group in the United

States. They have been part of the country since the colonial times, but their history is filled

with struggle and hardships. However, their hardships arent a thing of the past, they

continue to struggle against racial injustice and oppression today. They were brought to

America as slaves to provide labor in farming and housework. Although there were efforts

to minimize slavery when the slave trade was banned in the early 1800s, the legalized

practice of slavery was not to end until the Civil War.

In ante-bellum Unites States, there were several events that would lead to the Civil

War. First, the Missouri Compromise banned slavery north of the southern line of Missouri.

Second, Nat Turner lead the biggest slave uprising and although it was quelled as quickly as

it began, the abolitionist movement began. Harriet Beecher Stow published Uncle Toms

Cabin and stirred anti-slavery sentiments. Then in 1857 in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case,

the Court denied African Americans citizenship and held that Congress was powerless to

restrict slavery in the federal territories (George). In April of 1861 the Civil War began and

the Union fought against the Southern states to end slavery and grant African Americans

freedom. After the war, three new amendments were added to the Constitution. The 13 th

amendment abolished slavery in the United States. The 14th amendment gave African

Americans citizenship rights and the 15th amendment allowed them to vote.
 However, the Civil War did not grant African Americans equal rights as there were

still many legal ways to segregate. After reconstructing the South, although slavery was

abolished, segregation was very much alive. The Ku Klux Klan was formed almost

immediately following the end of the Civil War by ex-Confederates. As Greenberg and Page

explain, in 1896, the government turned the other cheek on discrimination in Plessy vs.

Ferguson in which the Court established that separate but equal was constitutional (530).

Therefore, states in the South developed a system of segregation, commonly known as

the Jim Crow laws (530).

Finally, "separate but equal" was ruled unconstitutional in Brown vs. Board of

Education Topeka (Carey). Almost all public things were segregated, whether it was water

fountains, public restrooms or schools, everything was separated for white people and

colored people. The transportation system was also segregated, where blacks had to give

up their seats for white people and sit in the back. The Civil Rights movement began in the

50s when Emmett Till, a young African American boy was murdered for whistling at a white

woman. Another spur to the movement was when a now well know civil rights activist, Rosa

Parks, refused to give up her seat in the bus to a white person. Rosa Parks was arrested and

following the black boycott of buses, the transportation system was desegregated. The

National guard had to intervene and accompany nine African American students to Central

High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Those students became known as the Little Rock Nine.

Martin Luther King began anti-segregation protests and he was arrested in Birmingham

where he wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. He continued to lead African
Americans through the hard times with the hope of a better future. Martin Luther King

leads the March on Washington where he delivers his I Have a Dream Speech. African

Americans were also discriminated when it came to voting, the states found loopholes

through the 15th amendment. There were often poll taxes or literacy tests enacted to

prevent African Americans from voting. Martin Luther King also lead a march on Selma to

Montgomery to show African Americans desire to exercise their right to vote.

After the death of President Kennedy, President Johnson was in a hurry to draft a Civil

Rights bill. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaw[ed] racial segregation in public places and

provided a strong equal-opportunities provision (National). Later, the Voting Rights Act

of 1965 was enacted to address entrenched racial discrimination in voting (Roberts).

African Americans have certainly come far from the ante-Bellum era to the Civil Rights

movement and their current status. We had an African American president, Barack Obama

and over 40 African American members in the House of Representatives in the 114th

Congress. Although, racism has minimized today, unfortunately racial discrimination still

exists today. Law enforcement definitely doesn't side with African Americans. Young black

men are often accused of crimes and unreasonably succumbed to police violence simply on

a racial basis. The stop and frisk program is certainly a legal way for further racial

discrimination. African American neighborhoods are separated and schools are often

majority black or majority white. Thus, segregation is on a way happening again, but this

time not through legal methods. The best way to address discrimination and ensure
equality for African Americans is to work on integrating schools and teaching children the

concept of equality.

Works Cited

Greenberg, Edward S., and Benjamin I. Page. The Struggle for Democracy. N.p.: Pearson,

2012. Print.

George, Robert P. "U.S. Supreme Court Justices Should Not Practice Judicial Activism." The

U.S Supreme Court, edited by Margaret Haerens, Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing

Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010665

228/OVIC?u=pasa19871&xid=a0f5db3e. Accessed 19 May 2017.

Carey, Kevin. "The Next Affirmative Action." Minorities and the Law, edited by Nol Merino,

Greenhaven Press, 2015. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010942215/OVIC

?u=pasa19871&xid=24da00a1. Accessed 19 May 2017. Originally published in Washington

Monthly, vol. 45, no. 1/2, 2013.

"National Association for the Advancement of Colored People." Civil Rights in the United

States, edited by Waldo E. Martin, Jr. and Patricia Sullivan, Macmillan Reference USA,
2000. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/BT2338230

991/OVIC?u=pasa19871&xid=963c8acc. Accessed 19 May 2017.