Achieving a Free America

This compared to the lynching and other terrors inflicted upon them showed the complete neglect white people had for the community. Regardless of these broken promises which happened far too often King continued to fight not letting setbacks be his downfall and cause him failure. He persevered on his path to ending injustice.

The Negro community has waited over 300 years to achieve equal constitutional rights. Martin Luther King who was their voice and their leader, was invited in 1963 to Birmingham, Alabama, to help assist with a nonviolent direct action campaign. The unjust segregation taking place in the city of Birmingham needed immediate attention. In spite of, King’s efforts to negotiate with the local and national communities as

Martin Luther King Jr left a note that was a promise in which all African Americans and Americans would be assured “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is clear that America has declined to follow this promise. The article, I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King Jr stated, “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (11). Basically, Martin Luther King Jr. is saying that to this day, everything still remains the same. African Americans are still being discriminated and judged for their appearance. Latinos and African Americans still get paid less than whites and Americans are still at a higher level and treated more with respect then Hispanic and African American. Discrimination should not be happening in today’s society, we need to help each other out and support everyone in order to grow. African Americans are still being discriminated till this day for instance police brutality. There is a massive amount of African Americans that have been cruelly beaten or attacked by a police officer. This should not be happening no more, there has got to be a stop to this, Black lives

Undeterred by historical civil rights gains of the 1900s, racial discrimination still remains today due to the re-emergence of new cultural stereotypes, law enforcement discrimination and political underrepresentation, and African American’s cycle of economic poverty due to poor educational

Introduction Martin Luther King Jr, Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X are among some of the greatest political leaders of the 20th century. Their ideas, although approached using different methods, revolutionised the way in which African Americans and in turn blacks all over the world were perceived by the white race. They were able to gain the support of the people - although there were those who opposed their methods – and achieve a common goal which was to unify blacks and white through an end to segregation and discrimination.   The Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr’s involvement Equality and an end to racial segregation have always been a struggle for African Americans, dating all the way back to the 17th century because of the colonial and slave eras. After being freed from slavery during the American Civil War of 1861, new laws were passed that gave African Americans the rights to certain things such as to vote, but this was short lived when the conservative whites regained complete control politically and too away these rights and enforced strict segregation laws.

Segregation and civil rights movements are familiar words that reflects some of the good, bad and ugly pasts of the United States of America. Though these events had its history for many centuries, but its extension into modern times created a culture that almost truncated the amazing potentials that diversity has been destined to bring to the United States.

After centuries of fighting, protesting, and labor, the fight for equality seemed to reach a conclusion. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 brought an end to segregation and promoted full equal opportunities for not only African Americans but other ethnicities as well. America elected Barack Obama as its president, allowed certain months to represent cultural awareness, and immigration numbers augmented. However, regardless of the fact that the country becomes increasingly diverse by the day and heavy, racial social boundaries no longer exist, racism, prejudice, and stereotypes still exist. “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line” (McQuade 391) says it the best; racial and ethnicity still remain underlying causes

“America at this moment”, said the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945, “stands at the summit of the world.” In 1950’s America is propelling economically and has the strongest military in the world. Everywhere there were construction and development. On the other hand, Segregation or the Jim Crow (The term Jim Crow originated from the name of the character in an 1832 minstrel show, where whites performed in black face ridiculed African – American life.) , amongst the colored become the new normal. On buses, trains, hospitals, churches, cemeteries, restaurants, theaters, apartments/houses and even schools African Americans didn’t have equal rights to use them as a fellow Americans. They were separated from whites

Freedom is a state of mind and being in which a person has no barriers to hold them back. These barriers can be financial, emotional, mental or physical. I think that if someone didn’t have these barriers, they don’t necessarily achieve freedom, but they have the chance to. To go beyond this though, freedom needs to first be achieved within. When someone is free in their heart and their mind, I think they’ve achieved true freedom. In short, freedom is the freedom from restraints and the freedom to do what they please.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” (I Have a Dream, ‘92) The author of this quote, Martin Luther King Jr., is one of the most memorable freedom and equality fighters known to this day. He preached, marched and even served jail time while he non-violently fought for equality. Mr. King helped the world overcome one of it’s biggest segregation problems: segregation by race. He spoke that we should all judge others on the “content of their character,” (Martin Luther King Jr., ‘63) rather than their physical attributes. And even though this seed of knowledge is now planted, it has yet to grow to its full potential. We are becoming more accepting of race, but still lacking in other types of segregation. One

Many of the social structures such as schools and communities were, and still are, largely segregated. Since the south has a history that is deeply rooted in racism, I naively assumed that these were issues specific to the region. However, the events of the past year drastically changed my perspective of race relations in the United States. For a brief moment in time, before the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the events that spurred its creation, I thought that as a nation we were making progress. However, this perceived progress was only a manifestation of our nation’s ability to hide the truth, being that African Americans are expendable. Constantly hearing about people of color being killed due to unnecessary violence from law enforcement – Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, Michal Brown, Eric Garner for example – caused immense pain in my heart. These same individuals could have easily been members of my own family. I began to lay awake at night, afraid that the people that I love the most may would not live to see their next birthday, graduate from high school or college, or have the opportunity to create a life of their own. I realized that the issues that people of color face are not restricted to any particular region, but are reinforced by oppressive social structures nationwide. The only way to improve race relations in our country is to have an

Martin Luther King’s vision of a better society built upon equality is still far from fulfilled. A 2013 poll from the Pew Research Center highlighted the black’s (horrible?) situation, as only 26% of black people believed America is better today than five years ago, in contrast to 2009, where 39% of

The United States has experienced a time of great hardship with many great changes in society. Black Americans may have found an era of greater opportunity and better than what they had in the past; However, they themselves still find themselves trapped in many negative things.

Civil Rights Activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 as he demonstrated his disapproval for segregation and contended for equality between all men, as outlined in the American constitution. Yet, after forty-nine years and thirty-one elapsed MLK holidays, racial segregation still exists. The world generally defines racial segregation as the separation of different classes of race as they execute daily routines, whether institutionally or by action. Racial segregation demonstrated between African Americans and the Caucasians, informally referred to as blacks and whites, is still an ongoing problem in the United States of America. Even after non-discriminatory and civil rights acts have been put in place. The black race is still seen as a lower species in comparison to the whites and as a hazard to the American society. The misconceptions and discrimination of African Americans has created racial segregation within our society. The images that have been portrayed in the media of the African American class has prompted prejudgment and discrimination which is demonstrated in the streets, the neighbourhoods and in educational institutions.

Nowadays, like never before, is an ideal opportunity to seek after the fantasy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The contempt being showed in our nation and over the world has beforehand driven us to annihilation, and has the likelihood to do as such once more. Today we live in a period where there is a pattern of youthful dark individuals being persecuted, and some of the time killed, by police severity, a period that energizes alienating Muslim-Americans because of a couple of radicals leading existences of contempt, and a period where certain nations are denied of the privilege to vote because of gatherings like ISIS. This is a long way from the fantasy Dr. King talked about more than 50 years prior.