Civil Rights In America Between 1865 And 1980

American history was radically changed when President Abraham Lincoln gave the very famous Emancipation Proclamation. This lead to the freedom of millions of African Americans who sought the same liberty and equality that was promised to everyone under the United States constitution. These liberties, of course, were not achieved right away. During the Reconstruction era, which is the decade right after the Civil War, many of the recently freed slaves did not have money, property, or credit. They could not buy the necessary things to enjoy their freedom, which lead to sharecropping, a glorified form of slavery. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner lets a tenant use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land (Sharecropping).. Added on to this, facilities were segregated to prevent the black man from enjoying the same things as the white man due to Jim Crow laws which were enacted after the Reconstruction era. The struggle for equality and rights continued during the Gilded Age (1873-1900), the Progressive Era (1900-1920s), the Great Depression (1930s), WWII (1939-1945), the beginning of the Cold War (1947), up until the Civil Rights movement (1954-1968). At this point in history, African Americans fought for their rights and changed the course of American history. Music was a very important tool used by African Americans that helped achieve this. Ever since the slavery times, music was a big part of their culture

During the 1800s, discrimination against African Americans was apparent throughout America in varying degrees. Especially in the North, people wanted to find a solution to stop this inequality. When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865, it was a turning point and ever since then more movements have occurred to promote greater equality for African Americans. Despite these turning points, discrimination still continued to occur for African Americans, and it has led to numerous historic and political movements.

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

Thesis Statement: In this paper, I’m going to explore how the Civil Rights Movement first started, and the brutal events and forms of protest during this monumental moment in history. Looking at first-hand accounts from pivotal figures such as the leaders of the social movement organizations, I can properly recount the conditions and struggles in the fight for equality for African Americans. Covering these topics, I can properly describe the effects that came from each movement and the change that subsequently followed. Brown v. Board:

Freedom is a fundamental human right that all Americans enjoy today. Foner defines freedom as the ability of an individual to do as he/she wishes as long as long as the actions are within the law and respect the right of others (2). Accordingly, freedom is among the rights that are anchored in American constitution to protect the civil liberties of all Americans. Today, America is regarded as a democratic country that operates within the rule of law partly because of its respect for human rights (Romano 3). However, history shows that the freedom that African Americans enjoy today did not come easily; rather came after a long and enduring struggle by Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). It is noted that, unlike white Americans who enjoyed freedom to do as they wished in the early 19th century, African Americans were denied the freedom to operate freely like their white counterparts (Foner 6). Therefore, because curtailing the freedom of African Americans were denying them the opportunity to advance socially, economically and politically, the Civil Rights Movement was formed by Martin Luther King Junior and colleagues to fight against racial segregation and to ensure that African Africans gain equal rights as the whites. This essay seeks to explore the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968) struggle for freedom and

During the period of Reconstruction, the African Americans secured many meaningful liberties which consisted of the right to vote, due process of law, protection of private property and the opportunity to run for elected office. However by the year 1910, African Americans could no longer claim many of these rights. At the close of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, race relations between the whites and the blacks also underwent many changes and it changed for the worse and finally it paved way for mass movement for Civil Rights.

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore’s book Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950 shows the Civil Rights movement in the same light as those writers like Jacquelyn Dowd Hall who believed in “The Long Movement.” Gilmore sets out to prove that much more time and aspects went into the Civil Rights Era and that it did not just start at the time of Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights acts of the nineteen sixties. The book adhered to the ideology of “The Long movement” aspects of the civil rights era during its earlier times. However it also differs by displaying the more unorthodox, often unseen origins of the movement in Communism, labor, and fascism. She also shows that Black civil rights is not a problem faced by many

Social movements are one of the primary means through which the public is able to collectively express their concerns about the rights and wellbeing of themselves and others. Under the proper conditions, social movements not only shed light on issues and open large scale public discourse, but they can also serve as a means of eliciting expedited societal change and progress. Due to their potential impact, studying the characteristics of both failed and successful social movements is important in order to ensure that issues between the public and the government are resolved to limit injustices and maintain societal progress.

I took another visit to the Library of Congress, located in Washington D.C. I went to James Madison building. My purpose at the library was to research The Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government Records of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Police-Community Relations in Urban Areas, 1954–1966 and obtain information from the Newspaper and Current Periodical reading room. I was really disappointed that the librarian directed to me to ProQuest periodical. There was no other access of information. When I enter the manuscript room, it was the first time for me using microfilm and I was watch intensely by the staff when I was using the reel machine. The microfilms are located in the Madison building. The records focused on Black Americans, civil rights, Commission on civil Rights, police, race relations, racial discrimination, and urban area. The records were generated to disclose the tense relationships between police enforcement and the black communities they served in. This collection included reports on police brutality, dishonest arrests, and police failure to act for protection, race relations, and police training programs in cities including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Baltimore. I focused on the city of Baltimore. Some of the materials were written or received by Roy Littlejohn, he was the staff attorney for the Commission on Civil Rights. Some of the other materials were issued by local

The end of the civil war should’ve marked a major turning point for the position of African Americans. The north’s victory marked the end of slavery and in addition, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment guaranteed African Americans full civil and political equality. However, the end of the civil war and the beginning of the reconstruction era was seen a ‘false dawn for the slaves in the former confederacy and border states.

Civil Rights-the freedoms and rights that a person with-holds as a member of a community, state, or nation. Ever since the beginning of involvement between white and black people there has been social disagreement; mainly with the superiority of the white man over the black man. African Americans make up the largest minority group in the United States and because of this they have been denied their civil rights more than any other minority group(source 12). During the Civil Rights Movement, it was said to be a time full of violence and brutality; however, many African-Americans pulled through in their time of struggle. By records, known history, and personal accounts, this paper will show how many people fought for equality and how the

Lots of civil rights protests seemed to turn violent, but why? Protests such as Bloody Sunday turned violent because law enforcement was ethnocentric. Police were prejudiced because that’s what they were taught. Non-violent protests provoked violence, and although this was not intentional it helped spread the word of equality for the black race.

During the duration of World War II, the United States refused to intervien in the war until the attack on Pearl Harbor. In our history classes, we were taught the story of four Japanese planes commencing an attack with deadly force. What we were not taught in our classes was Executive Order 9066 which order that all Japanese-Americans were to evacuate the West Coast. The result of this order forced approximately 120,000 people to relocate to internment camps located seperatically throughout the country. President Franklin D. Roosevelt singed this order which some would say is one of the most fraudulant violations of civil rights in American

In the eleventh grade I was assigned to write a ten-page essay on the civil rights era. You had to choose a specific person or group from a list and write how they helped with era. I was given three weeks to write the essay. However, there was an outline to help us know how far along we were supposed to be. We were not held accountable to follow the essays outline, because my teacher wanted it to a college essay. There was seven parts of the essay Plan of Investigation, Background Information, Summary of Evidence, Sources Evaluation, Analysis, and Conclusion. The Plan of Investigation answered the question what are civil rights and explained the purpose and methods I was using for the essay. Background Information

Throughout all of literature, history has been a frequent muse to writers and had a significant influence on their work. The post-slavery civil rights movement is no exception. As this movement was one of the largest in history, and had such a substantial impact on politics, culture, and the economy, its impact on literature is only logical. African Americans struggled towards equality by fighting for their rights and slowly changing America for the better. The African American civil rights movement not only changed the lives of the black population throughout America but also influenced authors and literary works such as Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Color Purple by Alice Walker.