African-American Segregation and Isolation

In the 1960’s, black and white individuals were not recognized as being equal. The two races were treated differently, and the African Americans did not enjoy the same freedoms as the whites. The African Americans never had a chance to speak their mind, voice their opinions, or enjoy the same luxuries that the white people attained. Through various actions/efforts like the lunch counter sit-ins, freedom rides, and bus boycotts, the black people confronted segregation face on and worked to achieve equality and freedom.

Convict Leasing was started when lawmakers saw a loop hole in the Thirteenth Amendment, which stated that with the exception of punishment for a crime, slavery was abolished. Fourteen thousand dollars was earned in Alabama through convict leasing Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2012). And since no efforts were made to

Segregation back then was a difficult time to settle in for other race especially the black race. It first started in 1896 when the supreme court sanctioned legal separation of the black and white race. Every right a white man or woman had the black did not have, most business where white allowed only and a few welcomed blacks. In 1954 segregation ended, the brown vs board of education had ended segregation. In the present there has been no sign of segregation, but with our president he might bring it back.

The Constitution states that, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery for everyone except prisoners. Even now, prisoners can work for little to no pay as a punishment for crime. Commentators in the documentary talked about the thirteenth amendment and proved how even after the amendment was passed, African Americans were still enslaved.

We have issues. More specifically the United States has issues, continuous and all encompassing issues of racial inequality.The United States is experiencing a outburst of racism, as can be seen from the 2014 killings of two unarmed African-American men, to the brutality of white supremacy in Charleston and the string of arsons in black churches across the South. Of course, it’s nothing new for a nation with a long history of extreme racist violence—the most recent lynching-related death occurred in 1981, hardly a lifetime ago, when Michael Donald was hanged by two members of the Ku Klux Klan.The United States, however, continues to avoid its history on race, refusing to confront its past in a “post-racial,” “colorblind” society, and that policy of systemic ignorance is particularly strong when mention of racial equality is brought up. Although the concept of equality has never truly existed in this world, as can be traced back to very beginnings of recorded history we see the nobles ruling the commoners, conquerors reigning over the conquered, the will of man dominating women, the United States needs to acknowledge the fact that racial inequality still exists within our country and has in no way progressed towards betterment.

Do you know what one of the saddest things that mankind has ever done is? Segregation. We often separate people into groups based on height, weight, skin color, hair color, and even the way that a person’s face looks. America was one of the worst countries involving segregation because of the Caucasian and African American in the past few years. Honestly, it should not matter to people, yet it does. A person’s physical appearance matters to people, to most people, actually. There are some who can look past the skin and see the spirit. One person famous for this was Mother Teresa. Then there are the British and the Indians, who unfortunately were enemies in this great racial war. These people are described in detail in the stories Something

Throughout the history, slavery has existed simultaneously with the forming of the United States of America. Many Africans were dictated to step down their native land behind as they lost in the war with the colonist. Soon after European traders first came and settled in America with numbers of African servants, the slavery era began in the United States between 17th and 18th century. A system of forced labor was well established back then, as the needs for slaves rose dramatically. The idea of white supremacy came into being afterwards, which was the bedrock of racial tension in the United States, and still entrenched in the American civilization until today. Segregation and discrimination have always been the stark and prominent issue facing

African Americans put their lives in danger because Northern legislators wanted to help to emancipate slaves. During this time the economy started to grow and the people that own property knew this would make considerable changes. On the other hand white Northern still believed that slavery should be abolish. Many thought slavery looked ancient and cruel. Northern thought about their religious beliefs and how emancipation might even be a good idea. Southern had a completely different view. They wanted blacks to remain in slavery. The Quakers always believed human brotherhood and non-violence. They were against workers that could not be educated and knew nothing about

This Article, released on July 22, 2009, was in regards to an apology made by the U.S. Senate on June 18, 2009 for the slavery and segregation of blacks prior, during and after the Civil War. According to the response of members representing Project 21, a public relations network for African Americans, this apology will be used as a defensive tactic towards acquiring reparations for the suffering of their ancestors. Members of the black leadership network are quoted as saying, “The apology will do little to heal perceived racial gaps.” The intention of the resolution made by the U.S. Senate was not to warrant the need for reparations, but simply an apology on behalf of The United States for the suffering the slaves endured during the Civil War era.

Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton argued influentially in their book American Apartheid that “the missing link” in each of the underclass theories prevalent at the time was their “systematic failure to consider the important role that segregation has played in mediating, exacerbating, and ultimately amplifying the harmful social and economic processes they treat” (Massey & Denton, 1995, p. 7). Residential segregation has had a negative effect on African Americans in the United States for years. It puts people at a disadvantage for social and economic success. This residential segregation “was manufactured by whites through a series of self-conscious actions and purposeful institutional arrangements that continue today” (Massey & Denton, 1995, p. 2). Segregation is maintained by institutional arrangements and individual actions. This segregation seems to be the outcome of impersonal social and economic forces. “Residential segregation lies beyond the ability of any individual to change; it constraints black life chances irrespective of personal traits, individual motivations, or private achievements” (Massey & Denton, 1995, p. 3). Individuals cannot change this by themselves it is up to policymakers and the government to make a change. The “missing link” to understand the urban poor is segregation. Society has to understand that by having segregation in the U.S., we will never truly be as one instead of separated.

Political inequality has been an obstacle that many minority groups have encountered throughout history. The segregation and subjugation of African Americans in the United States during the 1900s was indifferent. Although innumerable people were opposed to the unfamiliar ideals of anti-segregation activists, George Edwin Taylor went against the standards of society, and explored new civil morals. Through his endeavors, he was able to encourage people to divert from their accepted beliefs and helped establish a foundation for the yet-to-come Civil Rights Movement.

For nation-based racism, Sociologist see race as a socially constructed concept that bares no sustentation in setting us apart. Whereas using the concept ethnicity to identify individuals by their shared cultured trait and not by physical characteristic. However, most people utilized race and ethnicity to stratify individuals. Most immigrants, especially those from developing countries are massively discriminated solely based on physical composition that often on the contrary to the White Anglo American physical composition. Although great strides have been made to enact laws that contest racial discrimination, there has been little progress for the discriminating factor "immigrant". Events like the 1960 's which focused to end the racial segregation and discrimination of African Americans and enacted a legal precedence affirming legal protection of the each and every citizen regardless of color. While racial discrimination continues to divide us it has cleverly developed a new direction —the immigrant, the illegal, the alien and the countless monikers used to that unjustly degrade the individual who by no fault of his/her doing does not have the proper documentation and for that reason we rather used the word "undocumented", as is reflects accurately the situation at hand. But one of the advantages of living in a metropolitan city, such as Los Angeles, I have been able to have conversations with individuals whom are immigrants themselves or they are first or second

To my opinion apartheid is a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race, segregation on grounds other than race. Does it still exists? I believe that it still does because we see examples of it today as well as having personal experiences myself.

Segregation is the practice of restricting people to confined areas of residence or to separate institutions, programs, and facilities on the basis of race or other criteria. Widespread segregation arose shortly after the end of the Civil War and continued, mainly in the South, for decades under various forms. At the end of the war, black people became free and as such, they had all the rights given to American citizens under the Constitution such as the right to vote and to buy property and other rights that were denied to them under slavery, but in practice, black people were not treated equally as white people.

Almost immediately after the abolition of slavery during the Reconstruction Era the racialized convict leasing system arose. To find replacements for the free labor they had extracted from slaves, slave owning legislators, and plantation owners alike deployed the Vagrancy Law of 1866 (Blackmon). The law decreed that any free African American lacking adequate documentation of employment every year would be subject to criminal sentencing. Though the 13th amendment had abolished slavery via inheritance and racial category, it was permitted as a form of punishment (Blackmon, Fraser, et al). Individuals charged with “vagrancy” for any other offences vaguely outlined in the Black Codes were sentenced to hard labor with companies all over the United States such as US Steel (US News).