African American Contributions To The Civil Rights Movement

The resulting outcome of Reconstruction has been labeled as both a success and a failure. At the end of the four-year Civil War, and nearly 250 years of slavery, President Lincoln’s intentions were to unify a shattered nation. Thus, began the Reconstruction era. Reconstruction succeeded in the installation of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, the 14th Amendment defining citizenship and protecting all Americans under the law and extending suffrage to all men in the 15th Amendment. The Freedman’s Bureau and Civil Rights Act also sought to help African Americans to participate equally in government, in society and in the economy. Black men were elected to political office in every level of government and all Southern states drafted new constitutions and ratified Reconstruction amendments.

After the ending of the Civil War in 1865, slavery was, at last, formally abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment. Due to the freedom of these African Americans and the South’s ever-growing hatred towards this group, African Americans were left to suffer harsh discrimination and horrible conditions. Africans Americans were left without homes, education, jobs, or money. Reconstruction was the Radical Republicans’ attempt to try and bring the Confederate states back to normal and unite both the South and the North into a whole country once again. Reconstruction was also set to protect and help the newly freed African Americans assimilate to the new society and the foreign economy they were placed in. Conditions of the African Americans in

Reconstruction (1867-1877) under Congress was a fast tightening of a noose in the South. Congress no longer trusted Andrew Johnson’s loose plan for Reconstruction, so they began closing in on their plans. Radical Republicans made many lasting impacts in this period. Under Congress, the 14th and 15th Amendment was created, guaranteeing rights to African Americans. A newly created Freedmen’s Bureau help create many schools and colleges, lasting up to modern times. African Americans held power in office, although they were quickly brought down by the Ku Klux Klan’s terrorism. The main path Reconstruction took was based on the government’s plans. There

The North’s victory after four years of fighting in the Civil War in 1865 allowed the 13th amendment to pass, and eventually added the 14th and 15th amendment to the constitution. These abolished slavery and attempted to create equal rights among all people. The Reconstruction Act divided the South into separate military districts and formed governments based on male suffrage. The South and North had extremely different views on how to rebuild the South and how former slaves should be incorporated into the country as freed people. The process of the Reconstruction period of rebuilding the South proposed many new challenges. The efforts to ensure equal rights to the freedmen failed because of the acts that were passed to control the labor and

The reconstruction era brought political changes. For example, the 13th Amendment freed all slaves in the United States (doc. A). African-Americans gained their citizenship with the 14th amendment (doc. F). All African-Americans could vote after the 15th amendment was

In 1865, the end of the Civil War led to the freeing of 4 million slaves and the start of an era known as Reconstruction. Lasting until 1877, Reconstruction was revolutionary because it caused sudden, radical, and sometimes violent change that pushed forward progress. These efforts included rebuilding the South and repairing the Union, while helping African Americans assimilate into society. For these goals to be accomplished, the South had to show loyalty to the Union. In addition, the freedmen needed rights. However, it was nearly impossible to reconcile both aims due to fears in both the North and the South. Despite successes such as the 14 and 15th amendments, Reconstruction failed to give rights to women and Native Americans, while black

After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were added to the Constitution, these amendments freed African Americans from slavery, made them American citizens, and gave African American males the ability to vote. The United States seemed to be making a step toward equality for all. However, After the approval of the Jim Crow laws by the Supreme court(separate but, “equal”), many African Americans became frustrated. As lynchings and race riots increased, in addition to, unequal job opportunities and disenfranchisement, African Americans sought to find new ways of securing equal rights and fighting national discrimination.

During the start of the African American civil rights movement, Africans Americans still were faced with Jim Crow laws which segregated them from whites. Under the Jim Crow laws African Americans had different schools, bathrooms, trains, buses and many other things that were separated from the white population. The case, Plessy v. Ferguson went through the U.S. Supreme Court and turned out to make a legal policy “separate but

During the Reconstruction era which occurred after the Civil War there was animosity between the states as well as the debate over how freed slaves should be dealt with in terms of becoming citizens with the same rights as the Constitution provided for whites. The government had to come up some type of conditions which would attempt to allow the rebellious southern states back into the union.

Before the Union victory in 1865, Congress assembled for the challenges the United States would face at the war’s end, particularly the integration of four million emancipated African Americans into the country. The Congressional Reconstruction period generated the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments into the United States Constitution. These amendments extended legal and civil protections to former slaves. These three amendments were foundation of the civil rights movement; because it gave new constitutional protections to African Americans, though the struggle to fully achieve equality would continue into the future, it led the civil rights movement on to the right path.

The war has ended on April 18, 1865 and the congress had passed the 13th Amendment in which had abolished slavery in the United States. Five years later the senate passed the 15th Amendment which granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color/ or previous conditions of servitude. Most states believed that blacks shouldn't have a right to vote but they didn’t want to directly break the law. Voting equality would be denied for a full century further in southern states through the use of poll taxes, literacy test and other means to effectively disenfranchise African

There was once a time in history where society was drastically different from the way it is today, particularly with African Americans in the United States. Although these people have gone through rough times since the beginning of European colonization in America, they have proven themselves through a matter of historical events and movements that have changed their position in today’s society. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s has made it possible for America to have a black president; this remarkable event in history conveys the goal that African Americans were trying to achieve so long ago; elimination of racial segregation.

As tumultuous as the United States was during the Civil War, the period of reconstruction was filled with a similar sense of uncertainty; the Confederate states had to be assimilated back into the Union but there were many conflicting views on how this should be done. While the Thirteenth Amendment had already emancipated the Africans living in the Southern territories, it did not guarantee them equal treatment. Still up for debate was whether Africans would be given the equal protection under the law, citizen status, and the right to vote. While the South had been defeated militarily, it still fought to preserve its way of life through politics, and much of the political debates during the Reconstruction period would define the futures of the African-Americans.

This abrupt change left many African-Americans confused and struggling with their newly found freedom. Furthermore, the majority of the whites in the society were not exactly welcoming the race that has been enslaved for the last century into their society. Not only was this an end to this cruel practice, it was the beginning of a long and difficult battle for equal rights. The fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were also passed in 1688 and 1869, consecutively. The fourteenth amendment created a definition for citizenship and granted African Americans equal judicial rights as whites. The fifteenth amendment ensured that all citizens had the right to vote regardless of their race or previous servitude. These amendments were put in place to ensure the freedmen’s legal protection and equality, but did not affect their status or treatment in

African Americans were granted full citizenship, by the Fourteenth Amendment, in the year of 1868; segregation did not end until almost a hundred years later, in 1964. The “separate but equal” doctrine allowed segregation as long as blacks and whites had equal facilities. During the time of “separate but equal” many debated whether this doctrine was constitutional or not. The monumental Supreme Court cases Plessy vs Ferguson and Brown vs Board of Education shaped America’s society by deciding the constitutionality of the “separate but equal” doctrine.