African Americans And The American Dream

As a result of the North’s victory in the civil war and the reconstruction period that followed, African-Americans were seemingly on the verge of being able to enjoy the freedom of no longer being slaves. During the reconstruction era, important pieces of legislature were written in order to protect the rights of the newly freed men. Those pieces of legislature were essentially trying to somehow transform former slave into free productive members of society. However, a number of disgruntled southerners took it as their duty to prevent African-American from being free of their former masters. They saw the northerners demand as an infringement of the South traditional values. Although the

Frederick Douglass once said, “No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling and action of others, and who has himself no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defending and maintaining that liberty.” Throughout the history of America his words have proven true seeing that those of African descent have been faced with a tremendous amount of prejudice. Whether that be in terms of the basic rights vital to African americans, or the freedom of expression that should be allotted to every human being. They were subjected to endless economic and social prejudice. While at the same time being refused the decencies all American citizen deserved. But most importantly, African Americans were denied the right to decide how their country was controlled and in turn their “liberty”. These atrocities prove that the reform introduced during the Reconstruction era did little to resolve the problems plaguing African Americans or improve their quality of life.

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

During reconstruction the United States was divided on social issues, presidential campaigns were won and loss on these issues during this period. The struggle for development of African Americans and how they initiated change in political, economic, educational, and social conditions to shape their future and that of the United States. (Dixon, 2000) The South’s attempts to recover from the Civil war included determining what to do with newly freed slaves and finding labor to replace them. The task of elevating the Negro from slave to citizen was the most enormous one which had ever confronted the country. Local governments implemented mechanisms of discrimination to combat citizenship

The Rise of African- Americans From 1865 To 2012, Their Struggles To Become Free Americans

Throughout the 1960’s, the widespread movement for African American civil rights had transformed in terms of its goals and strategies. The campaign had intensified in this decade, characterized by greater demands and more aggressive efforts. Although the support of the Civil Rights movement was relatively constant, the goals of the movement became more high-reaching and specific, and its strategies became less compromising. African Americans’ struggle for equality during the 1960’s was a relentless movement that used change for progress. In essence, the transformation of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the 1960’s forwarded the evolution of America into a nation of civil equality and freedom.

I have a dream that one day the people of this world will come to realize that it is always beneficial to have hope. The severity of any situation that you are in couldn't even compare to the possible outcome that will happen if one was to just remain hopeful. It was the hope for a new nation that caused America to break away from Great Britain. It is without their hope, that the world we live in now possibly wouldn't even exist. All it took was the hope of one individual to spark a domino effect world wide.

T.T., an anonymous writer, dreams of two very different worlds from the outcome of America’s Racism and is my first crucial turning point in “the history of mixed race America”. His first dream, he,” described how Americans of all colors were living in harmony…”(Nash 63). A place where all races were unified was unthinkable to most Americans during his time. For T.T. or anyone else to believe that this could be America in the next couple hundred years was crazy talk. Furthermore, T.T. found himself in the dream at ,”an elegant reception where the newly elected president of the United States would be introduced...T.T. discovered [the president] was a distinguished African American”(Nash 63). An African American would never be capable or allowed to become president, making T.T.’s dream even more astonishing.No one owuld eblieve that an African American man could bring peace to this racially seperated country. On the other hand, T.T.’s second dream turned the tables. T.T. found himself in Charleston ,South Carolina where, “ former slaves debated what to do with the

After being arrested, African-Americans are 33% more likely than whites to be detained while facing a felony trial in New York. The amount of African Americans killed solely based of skin color throughout history is astonishing from lynching to police brutality. The American dream was something everyone coveted because it was the opportunity of success and prosperity in society. This included living in the suburbs with a family with a successful job. For many this was available through hard work and diligence but if you were African American during the 1950s it was a different story. The American dream was unattainable by African Americans in the United States because of racism and prejudice.

The American Dream began as a vision for the men who framed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. These two documents provided the foundation upon which the American Dream was built. The reality of the American Dream translated into a nightmare for the African-Americans who had to overcome slavery in order to achieve the ideal that all men are created equally. Their dream did not become a reality with the signing of the Declaration of Independence; in fact, even after slavery was abolished, there was no concrete date established that mandated that whites and African-Americans were equal. The law said the slaves were free;

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s is without doubt one of the seminal moments in American history. While some may view the movement itself as a the means to a specific end point or moment—such as the assassination of Martin Luther King or the passage of the Civil Rights or Voting Rights Acts of the mid-1960s—by using a broader view, it is also possible to view the movement itself as the culmination of simmering racial tension dating back to the end of the Civil War. The end of the nineteenth-century and beginning of the twentieth-century saw many African-Americans struggle to improve their lives as either sharecroppers tied to land on unfavorable terms or hired hands moving city to city in search of menial work and safe-haven

Even though the optimal American Dream doesn’t promise that all citizens will achieve personal success, it offers equality and fortunes for them to pursue dreams through hard work. However, during the Industrial Age, the American Dream didn’t apply to the lower class. Most immigrants from southern and eastern Europe arrived in the United States to escape religious persecution and poverty in their home countries and also seek new opportunities. But, they realized the brutal reality after their arrival. As unskilled foreigners who suffered poverty and lacked experience and English skills, immigrants lived in nasty tenements located in city ghettos, earned little wages that at times couldn’t even enable the whole family to survive, and were taken advantage from bosses because of their naivete and lack of power. African Americans faced a crueler circumstance because of the long-lasting racial discrimination. In the 1880s, a number of African Americans migrated from rural south to industrial cities in order to avoid poverty, violence, and oppression they faced in the deep South. However, they rarely found factory jobs or professional opportunities. Women also couldn’t rule their destinies during the Industrial Age. Desiring to be more independent and provide financial help to families, many women worked in factories. Most of them experienced disadvantages, including gaining less wages than men did and experiencing sexual harassment from their foremen. Even though the federal

America in the 1950s was still a racially segregated country, and African Americans were still carrying the past weight of slavery and do to which they were seen as second class citizens. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court had overturned segregation and established it by law as being unconstitutional (Brown vs Board of Education, 1954), racial segregation still continued to persist through forms of employment, education, and housing. The civil war was long gone yet many still felt limited in their ability to achieve “The American Dream”. Langston Hughes wrote “Harlem” in 1951, a poem addressing the limitations of the American dream for African American individuals. Although the poem is particularly simple, it paints a mental picture of what it looks and feels like to defer dreams. The poem itself does not mention specific examples of a dream, but instead focuses on potential outcomes to the deferral of a dream, ranging from “Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?” or “does it explode?” (Hughes, 1951). Lorraine Hansberry, an African American writer, used the poem Harlem as the foundation for her play A raisin in the sun, which portrayed the distress and troubles of a poor African American family, fighting to prevail the racial prejudice and limitations that they face. Together, both Hughes Harlem and Hansberry’s A raisin in the sun depict the consequences faced by people when a greatly anticipated dream is disenchanted by socioeconomic hardships.

From the settlement of Jamestown and Plymouth colonies to modern times, Americans have always been determined to improve themselves both economically and socially. Even today, we are attempting to make society better by extending marriage rights to homosexuals and arguing the merits of flying the Confederate Battle flag over government buildings in non-historical situations. At the same time, concerns such as the impact of the Greek economic collapse on American business and the long-term cost of the Office of Personnel Management 's data breech impact our belief in the continued economic improvement of our society. Arguments about the truth behind the "American Dream" and its reality for minority Americans leave many wondering and confused about our ability as a society to balance the desire to "do good" socially with our ability to "do well" economically.

In the reconstruction era the freed slaves had the opportunity to be paid in cash for work, but, the rich white southerners took advantage of the vulnerable African Americans and guided them to poor jobs and away from the American Dream. The 14th amendment gave African Americans the right to life, liberty and property. “Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”(Text of the 14th amendment). The founding fathers wrote this amendment to