African American Hardships

In America, the lives of Africans did not get any easier. Once the demand for labor began increasing dramatically, more and more Africans were imported to America. Originally, white people and black people worked together in the plantations. As a result of the increase in Africans in these British colonies, less white people took jobs on plantations. Eventually, enslavement became based on race. Numerous slave codes were developed, which included denying slaves the right to be out past sunset and denying slaves the right to meet in groups of three or more. These Africans forced to live enslaved in America were treated as if they were inferior to white people. It is discouraging to think about the fact that this country, though it was long ago, once accepted this kind of social injustice.

African Americans specifically seemed have the most discrimination and lacking of prosperity due to the fact that they were the biggest ethnic group out of the rest of the other ethnic groups. African American soldiers like the rest of the veterans of World War II, received the GI Bill monthly allowance of $50 or $75 if they had a family, each month. The money was often used towards and was intended to be used towards higher education or training (Document J). The government essentially was paying these veterans to go to school and make something out of themselves. African Americans however were not offered this opportunity because of the fact that many colleges were prejudice and had rules about blacks going to their schools. Africans Americans in school at any level were segregated and not treated equal to other people of their age and qualifications because of their race. If African Americans were denied this opportunity, how could the make something out of themselves and add to the prosperity of society? The answer is they could not (Document E). With the opportunity of getting an education lost and not being able to get a degree and therefore a job, at least African Americans could use the money to buy a home in a suburb like many other people were. They could not do that either even though buying homes in suburbs was

Understanding that the poverty of black Americans did not just stay within the home is a big step in understanding urban poverty. Urban poverty reached outside the home, into the parks, schools and playgrounds. With poverties reach being that extensive, there was something other than adversity causing this. Louis Gates wrote an article about this called “Black America and The Class Divide.” (Jr.)

After the great migration that many African American families did to the north, the same thing of oppression happen but it was hidden. African Americans at this time want to be accepted in society rather than being an outcast, this is why the struggle of finding a sense of home was a way of being coming apart of the society. Yes, many Americans had Dreamed of owning a home but to African American having a home was more of having a place where they can be truly them. Yet when the African Americans finally accomplish this goal, it was halted by the society. An example of this is from the article White Rage by Carol Anderson who talks about when those who

I believe the United States Declaration of Independence did not fulfill or acknowledge the rights of Native Americans and African Americans at all, as both racial parties didn’t have the right to freedom and equality. African Americans and Native Americans didn't have the right to equality in society during 1815 to 1850. According to Document 2, (Highland, 1843) “Brothers, your oppressors try to make you as much like animals as possible.” This quote demonstrates the status African Americans had in society from 1815 to 1850. There were oppressors in society that brought down the African American people to the status of an unequal.

The life of African Americans in the 1800 was so harsh and unfair. Their owners would treat them cruelly and made them work long hours. They were not fed and had no sanitation which led to malnutrition and disease. Many young girls also went through sexual abuse and owners wouldn’t even get prosecuted because they were the ones who ruled everything. They separated many families from husbands, wife’s, and children. Those who were not prepared suffered every day because they were not with their families. Many of them never saw their family again.

African americans couldn't justify having higher jobs on plantations as their desire to occupy land was no longer surfacing. Their plight for land became only similarly faded as Andrew Jackson in 1865 ordered all land formerly dispensed through the Bureau to be back to its authentic proprietors inflicting many African americans to be evicted and instilling a deep experience of betrayal as it might seem that any efforts to rise within the social ladder might be

African Americans, among their families, and their communities find themselves in an unceasing battle for survival in a world that has previously, and to this day, brought many hardships and sufferings. Although America has succeeded in abolishing slavery, there are still aspects of racism and economic segregation that occur within residential areas. This being said, many individuals of the African American race become primary targets and victims to devastating economic and social disadvantages. The articles, "Survival and Death in New Orleans: An Empirical Look at the Human Impact of Katrina" written by Patrick Sharkey and "African American Men and the Prison Industrial Complex" by Earl Smith and Angela J. Hattery similarly bring attention to the social injustices that African Americans are forced to endure while offering two different scenarios; the predominantly black communities affected by Hurricane Katrina and mass incarceration of African American men for the selling and abuse of illicit drugs.

The African-American people have suffered great hardships since slavery. During the 15 and 19th century many Africans were taken and forced into slavery. Some slaves

Many African Americans were tenant farmers or sharecroppers during this time. The price of cotton fell and farmers were growing too much product to match up with demand. Famers were also battling nature. Many areas in the Midwest and Plains were struggling with lack of water and dust storms. All of these issues caused many farmers, white and black, to up and leave their land to move to the city. African Americans were often excluded from government programs that were established to help farmers recover. It was not until many years later that President Franklin Roosevelt would acknowledge the plight of African Americans. My second picture below depicts an African American couple who are sharecroppers in Mississippi. It is easy to see their home is in need of repair, they are barefoot and disheveled. I feel it is safe to say the African Americans of this time were in a great depression long before and after the whites

African Americans had little opportunity to better themselves economically. Some laws prohibited them from teaching and from entering certain other businesses and professions. Large numbers of blacks had to take low-paying jobs as farm hands or as servants for white employers. Many others were forced to become sharecroppers or tenant framers. They rented small plots of land and paid the rent with money earned from the crops. Struggling to survive, many ran up huge debts to their white landlords or the town merchants. Fortunately, there were rays of sunshine forcing their way through this cloudy time.

African Americans didn’t know that is was a Great Depression. African Americans have always been poor and knew how to survive. By 1932, approximately half of black Americans were unemployed, blacks always felt unemployed and under paid. Whites attempted to keep blacks out of work by not hiring African Americans. They used racial violence, and discrimination tactics to keep an underprivileged population depressed.

The immigrants from abroad and the African-Americans both left their homelands of restricted opportunities and sought to find better ones. The African-Americans came without proper clothing and skills, unaware of the future obstacles ahead. Their environment and surroundings were significantly different in the South than the lively cities in the North. Before migrating, the African-Americans lives consisted of mainly working in the fields in the blistering, hot sun, or working as servants or tenants for white property owners; they had never laid eyes upon a building or factory. For the immigrants, coming to urban America was an enormous change as well. They were oblivious to the American culture, American politics and economics, and were unable to read or speak English, in most cases. While settling in the northern cities, there were certain harsh conditions that the African Americans along with the immigrants experienced. They both were forced to live with their families in small, unsanitary living spaces due to the intense persecution and racialization from American outsiders. Families in neighborhoods grouped together, and each family member contributed economically to the family income. To relieve these challenges and harsh conditions, both African-American and immigrant groups were obliged to do certain tasks in the new, metropolitan surrounding.

The United States is a immigrant country, which faces varieties of problems. The African American problem is one of the most serious one. Racial segregation is a deep-rooted social problem, which reflects in every field in the United States. For example, education, labor market and criminal justice system. In the aspect of education, most of black children were not permitted to enter the school, because the white children studied there. In the aspect of labor market, the black people 's average wages were lower than the whites. They did the manual work. In the aspect of criminal justice system, the blacks were easily in jail. Badly, their sentences were also more serious than the whites. In general, the blacks live in the bottom of the American society. Martin Luther King delivered the famous speech I Have a Dream, ' ' I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ' ' (1) However, it was difficult for African American to get the freedom. The 1776 Declaration of Independence announced that everyone are equal and freedom.But black slavery still occurred in the southern states of America. Then the Civil War broke out, African American kept struggling for land and political rights.

The African American experience is one that is quite different from other racial/ ethnic groups. The majority of the first African American came over, unwillingly, on ships from various African countries. They were brought to America by white, European settlers to be used as slaves in an order to plant and harvest their crops and make money for the white man. This racial group was treated as if they were property and not people. However, with the ending of the American Civil War, African Americans gained freedom, freedom that not all white American were quite ready to handle. After gaining their freedom came the need for education, jobs and suffrage rights. Now in America this racial group has come a long way, having elected its first African American present for two terms, yet still there are many issues that are very prevalent. This racial group has been fighting their way to equality since the birth of this nation. African Americans have experienced an array of conflict, violence, stereotypes, prejudice acts, and discrimination against them throughout their history in America.