African Family System Analysis

During the mid-1800s, it was challenging being a slave. Belonging to another human being instead of being free brought numerous hardships African Americans had to endure. It brought about unimaginable pain, frustration, disruption, and stress. In America, slavery was glorified, even though, families were separated and destroyed. Slavery made it tedious to have stability in families because of the effects it had on the African American people. After reading “How Affected African American Families” and “Narrative of Jenny Proctor,” slavery caused African American families to cope with separation, unfair marriage stipulations, horrible living condition, mistreatment and labor, and also the ending of slavery.

The number of two-parent African American households is dissolving. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the black family has declined from 80% in 1890 to 39% in 1990. The result of conflict, and warring souls in the African American community, this trend can be stopped and reversed. The African American family must first gain an understanding of what is causing this dissolution, then they can be taught about what principals and skills they must adapt in order to reverse it. Once this is accomplished, the black family must be given opportunities to share this information. By taking these steps, two-parent African American families would once again be prevalent in the United States.

The American Civil War was ending and African Americans gained freedom, freedom from slavery and to live life as common folk. However, being set ‘free’ was not enough for African Americans to really experience what freedom was really like. Respect and rights of citizenship are by themselves weak in the ability to survive without also obtaining economic power. This paper will examine the progression of African Americans after the Civil War of 1865.

The 1920’s was a decade of change, a change in economy, daily life, and a change in values. Traumatic economic decline and wars will lead to changes in the definition of freedom, limiting freedom for Americans as the government and society demands unity and fears disloyalty. While middle class white adults conformed, the growing youth rejected conformity and for African Americans this was a time for resistance of inequality. In the 1960’s black and some white activists will see results from pressuring politicians and using the media to bring attention to the fight for equality. Based on the idea that freedom could not exist in a society of extreme economic inequality, civil rights movements became about power, pride, and economic change. President LBJ’s support for an activist government leads to a significant political change to end poverty. But the way legislation was passed created backlash and war made applying this change difficult. Civil rights movement’s became successful and in doing so motivated other movements. These other movements attempted to end legal cultural and institutional discrimination that made the majority of Americans second class citizens because of their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. The role of government and meaning of freedom change from the 1920’s into the new millennium. New deal society excluded various groups creating winners and losers. But working together and media attention will help them to achieve equality.

The years of 1945-55 saw limited progress in improving the status of African Americans to an extent; however, during this time period there was also an increased amount of progress for the African American community in improving their status. There were many key factors, which contributed to improving the status of African Americans, such as the work of key civil right parties, for instance the NAACP and their approach to increase grass-roots activism, and their increased membership shows their wide support. In addition to this, there was also help from economic and political victories which demonstrated a fundamental shift

The historical aspect of the civil rights movement was the tip of the iceberg of the social and economic injustice of African Americans within the United States. From the 1900s to the late 1980s economic disparities existed between African Americans and other ethnicities. According to Klarman (2004), many different sorts of factors political, economic, social, demographic, ideological, international, and legal account for the transformation in American racial attitudes and practices over time. As blacks moved from southern farms to northern

In 1960-1980, many new advancements were out in the world. Still women were expected to stay home. Women were frowned upon when they got jobs or didn’t marry. African Americans were the poorest living in slums. Other races were treated the same. This was the time of the Civil Rights movement. Whites killed African Americans for doing what they considered wrong in the south. African Americans earned the rights they wanted, to the dismay of the whites.

Family was very important in this time, before blacks became “free”, many were separated from

It is nearly impossible to overstate the plight of American Americans throughout the course of United States’ history, and Passing helps to display the slow, grudging path that led towards freedom for African Americans. Initially introduced to the country as slaves, African Americans were stripped of all basic human rights. Believed to be less than human, African

This research paper will discuss the African American social standing in America throughout history. It will discuss the highs and lows and the pros and cons of the progression and also the different periods that African Americans lived through since they were brought to America.

Commencing in the late 19th century, state level governments approved segregation acts, identified as the Jim Crow laws, and assigned limitations on voting requirements that caused the African American population economically and diplomatically helpless (Davis, n.d.). The civil rights movement commenced, intensely and assertively, in the early 1940s when the societal composition of black America took an increasingly urban, popular appeal (Korstad & Lichtenstein, 1988). The 1950s and 1960s was well known for racial conflicts and civil rights protests. The civil rights movement in the United States during the late 1950s and 1960s was based on political and social strives to achieve

He was yelling for his life. I could hear the sound of the tar splashing on his body. This tax turns people into monster and it should be stopped. I thought this all through the night but I had no idea how to stop it. The next day I couldn't find my father in the house. I asked my mother where he was and she said that he has gone back to work and that the tensions on his place of work had subsided.

The industrialization of earlier eras pushed some into suburbs and many in the city into tenement housing. The groups had different views of the world and sometimes how they saw their place in it all. Although it seemed stereotypical that certain racial groups fitted into these environs, they developed an individual nature that effected how families were structured. The changes of thought in people during the 1960’s brought about pro-feminist and African American empowerment movements that had people realize that the American dream seemed to be a concept that was archaic and the society needed to mature, and the family structure changed too. Reliable and convenient contraception and the availability of safe and legal abortion permitted sex with minimal risk of childbearing and the concomitant long-term commitment to parenting (Lundberg and Pollack, 2007). Families were now groups of people who cared for one another, but weren’t necessarily married the social stigma of single parent families, divorcees and inter racial couples was seen as taboo. Social changes throughout the 1960’s and 70’s made the

African Americans have come a long way in the last few decades. We have more rights, more opportunities to grow and prosper and more independence than ever before. But the same cannot be said for African American families as a whole. The African American family and community is in trouble (Tilove, 2005). These families are facing many issues today that are contributing to their break down. These factors include poverty, diminishing health, welfare, incarceration, the struggle to find housing and the challenges involved with providing children with higher education. The disintegration of families have gone on for too long and it’s time we do something about it (“Current Challenges”, n.d.).

Black family systems are African in nature and American in nurture. “Africanity” is being in tune with an African worldview, therefore the role that Africanity plays in black families determines the unique form black families take. Africanity is at the root of black families. The operation of the black family is directly linked to African culture through an African attitude, kinship networks, and childbearing.