Civil Rights By Tkam

Today I have chosen two speeches which are critical to the growth and development that our nation has gone through. Two men from different backgrounds and different times with one common goal, equality for all. The Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” both address the oppression of the African-Americans in their cultures. Though one hundred years and three wars divide the two documents, they draw astonishing parallels in they purposes and their techniques.

Before using her Facebook as a means to connect young minds about civil rights movements and issues that still plagues the nation today, Sandra Bland used her social media like every other citizen. That is until just after Christmas of 2014 when she made the decision to speak up about “the economic crisis burdening young African Americans,” trying to, in her words, inform her readers about black history, or American history as she liked to describe it (Nathan). Sandra Bland, a 28 year old African American, had just received a job interview from her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University. Her life seemed to be going smoothly, just received a job offering, rekindled her relationship with her mother, and seemed optimistic about the future to

Discrimination has afflicted the American society since its inception in 1776. The inferiority of the African American race – a notion embedded within the mindset of the white populace has difficult to eradicate – despite the efforts of civil rights activists and lawmakers alike. Many individuals are of the opinion that discrimination and racism no longer exist and that these issues have long since been resolved during the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. However such is not the case. Discrimination is a complex issue – one that encompasses many aspects of society. The impact of discrimination of the African American race is addressed from two diverse perspectives in the essays: “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King .

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution were historical milestones in which the ever controversial topic of racial equality was first challenged. In theory, these two movements laid the groundwork for a racially equal United States of America. A country in which every member, regardless of skin color, or race were to be treated equally under the eyes of the law and to one day be treated as equals within all realms of society. As historic and powerful as these movements were, they did

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

The wicked vice of racial discrimination towards African Americans has, over the course of almost six centuries, indelibly tainted social, economic and cultural relations between those of all racial profiles in the “Land of the Free”. Historically speaking, the African American experience is imbued in pain and suffering for centuries of malfeasance on the part of white American-dominated governments. Institutional racism combined with social and cultural discrimination towards African Americans has been tremendously destructive to the advancement and psychological morale of American blacks. The barbarism of slavery, racial segregation, culturally ingrained racism and violent lynchings have all at certain periods flourished in the modern day United States. The public pressure of the African American Civil Rights Movement of the mid 1960s culminated in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and brought about significant changes to American life, especially in the Southern states. The intended purpose of this Act was to once and for all provide all race groups with equal access to opportunities in employment and education. However President Lyndon B. Johnson would, at the start of his presidency upon the passing of the Act in 1965, build on the dream of African American rights crusaders such as Martin Luther King initiating the

There is a vast number of social issues facing the world as a whole. Yet, the debates on racial differences and politics are far from being resolved. For an example a number of authors argue that even though there are several privileges and rights which are assured by the United States Constitution as well as its subsequent amendments, and the laws that guarantee fundamental freedoms to all individuals, many people particularly; blacks have not gained their civil rights and they are still regarded as inferior to whites ().This points out to the idea that the reconstruction after the Civil War has failed to guarantee full equal rights to black Americans. In the early years of the 20th century (Washington,

This assertion sets this moment into the greater scheme of African American history. At this moment, the American Negro is ready to fight for the rights with which God has endowed him, King says. In this moment, American Negroes hopes are high that he may be considered an equal to his white neighbor and rid himself of the burden of not being enough, a condition detrimental to the psyche. This contributes to King’s argument that it is time for everybody who believes that these natural rights should be granted to black Americans, to unite and start the fight to win them.

Through the past century, the quest for racial equality has been a continuous trail of successes and milestones. From Abraham Lincoln’s views on slavery during the Civil War that lead to the creation of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing over four million African slaves in 1863, to the iconic “I have a dream” speech from Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, not to mention that Barack Obama, the very first African-American president of the United States, was inaugurated in 2009.

The United States Declaration of Independence clearly stated, that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” As time went on, this statement had proven to be immensely inaccurate. All throughout American history, African Americans faced extreme levels of hatred, injustice, and discrimination because they didn’t acquire the pasty pale skin of the whites. As the 40’s turned into the 50’s, African Americas all across the United States became exhausted of the hatred and discrimination. Their exhaustion turned to great power as Africa Americans took action and began what is known as the Civil Rights Movement. This movement brought great acts of change and prosperity that forever impacted the United States.

One of the biggest problems Africans Americans faced in America is Segregation, discrimination, racism, prejudice, rebellion, religion, resistance, and protest. These problems have helped shape the Black struggle for justice. Their fight for justice marks a long sequence of events towards their freedom. Provisions of the Constitution affect the operation of government agencies and/or the latitude chief executives and legislatures in the creation and implementation of policies today. The rights and passage of Amendments granted to African Americans in the Constitution serve as a source of “first principles” governing the actions and policies of elected and appointed public servants across the United States. The 15th Amendment Equal Rights: Rights

The cynical cycle of enslavement has ravaged on throughout the history 's great civilizations; the victor holding reign over the defeated, the enslaved succumbing to the forces of bondage. There has always been, and always will be, a discord between peoples of different groups. Until the advent of modern democracy, the distraughted had no voice which to be heard by the masses. Democracy has paved a way for all citizens to have equality. In 1863, the United States of America joined other nations by emancipating those in bondage. Slavery had begun it’s way out in the modern world. However, due to years of indoctrination and social appropriation, there was a discord between those who were white and those who were colored. One hundred years after the emancipation proclamation was given, there was still social and systemic oppression and discrimination against colored people in American Society. Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate during the Civil Rights Era who fought for the equal treatment of all people. In 1963 MLK gave his timeless “I have a Dream Speech” that sought to both help bring the end of systematic discrimination in America and to unify the country through love and peace.

Our forefathers fought for a time when all men were free. Now we have achieved this goal,as a nation we are not. As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “ The Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” They are free, but this nation has failed to keep it’s age old promise that we are all equal. Those of color are, in a sense, buried alive. They are free but they aren’t allowed to live so because of the restrictions “white” people have placed upon them. In the words of Dr. King I say that “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note…

There were, without a doubt, many blacks and whites who believed strongly that African Americans would never be afforded full citizenship of this country, with all the rights and privileges of whites; and the only alternative for blacks would be to emigrate and establish a country or colony of their own. Still, there were those blacks that claimed: as native bon, and many generations removed from their ancestral lands, that they were entitled to the same privileges of white American, and fought against colonization. The fight by African Americans for their complete and unabridged civil and human rights, and by all people with dark-skin, continues into the twentieth-first century.

It is written in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (USHistory.org) Certainly,  if this was written for all men, this should have included African-Americans as well. At the turn of the twentieth century racism and inequality were the norm. During this time, two prominent African-American men spoke to African-Americans on which approach they should take to be treated in the same manner of White Americans. Booker T. Washington was an influential African-American leader, reformer, and educator. He believed that African-Americans should concentrate