Personal Presentation Made Me Reflect Personally And Professionally Essay

Throughout history, African Americans have encountered an overwhelming amount of obstacles for justice and equality. You can see instances of these obstacles especially during the 1800’s where there were various forms of segregation and racism such as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorism, Jim- Crow laws, voting restrictions. These negative forces asserted by societal racism were present both pre and post slavery. Although blacks were often seen as being a core foundation for the creation of society and what it is today, they never were given credit for their work although forced. This was due to the various laws and social morals that were sustained for over 100 years throughout the United States. However, what the world didn’t

"If teachers across America would arise and make the personal commitment to do something about racism, beginning with their own selves, their eventual impact would, I believe, be tremendous" (Hacker 191).

This duality, this mixture of something wonderful and something equally terrible really captures for me the state of the country during the Reconstruction period. A lot of pulling and pushing. The african-americans had been freed but to what purpose? Even when granted the Fifteenth amendment allowing black males the right to vote, they were still disenfranchised through state laws which kept them from voting through legal loopholes and to top it off, none of this did much in the way of women's suffrage. Again, back to the pulling and pushing struggle. Sort of like "two steps forward but three steps back." When thinking of the Reconstruction era one must also remember the violence that lingered on. The formation of the Ku Klux Klan was birthed in that era and from that violence. Such a prolific group full of hate and detestable rhetoric that lingers on to this day. One good example of that violence is given in our text when it describes the events of Hamburg, South Carolina on July 4th, 1876. The violence of one-thousand armed white men obliterating one-hundred african amercan men. I would be remiss not to recall the freedmen bureau, the many charities towards education as well as the government

Beginning in 1861, the civil war was fought over many political questions regarding slavery, yet was barely focused on the actual freedom of the slaves themselves. It is often taught that the Union fought for the freedom of slaves at the beginning of the war. However, it is more accurate to say that Abraham Lincoln’s primary goal at the beginning of the war was to reunite the Union after the majority of the slave-owning states seceded to protect their way of life: slavery. Yet, by the end of the war, the Union’s goal was to free the slaves. Though the laws securing slaves freedom and suffrage were contributed to by many, the primary driving forces behind them was the African Americans. Through their willingness to fight and support the Union cause, African Americans made the United States acknowledge their struggles and transformed the war into a fight for reconnection and freedom. Though hindered by racist people and policies, the African Americans’ participation during the war and Reconstruction greatly contributed to tremendous cultural change as well as the securing of legal rights to blacks.

The Civil War was one of America’s most brutal battles in history. Majority of which being white, male soldiers. Over the years, many historians have argued the actual involvement of blacks during the civil war era. Many claiming that they were doing nothing more than assisting the actual, white soldiers in combat such as, nurses, and wagon drivers, not actually picking up the gun and shooting alongside in battle. Most people look over the fact that almost ten percent, or 180,000, of the Union army were African American. Though a small fraction of the amount of total soldiers during the war, their involvement is still significant. These soldiers recruited and voluntarily, committing the same acts of bravery of any Caucasian solider, due to the prejudice against them, they were pushed to the back burner and treated with disrespect, virtually diminishing their extensive courageous acts. Nevertheless these soldiers made an impact in world changing war.

African-Americans have fought on many of liberty’s battlefields from the pre-emancipated plantation to the killing fields of the Civil War. African-Americans have always been willing to fight not just for their freedom, but for their country as well. Yet, their country never lived up to its founding document that asserts that, “All men are created equal; ”instead,

African Americans have endured many trials and tribulations over the centuries. Our people have suffered from war, violence, and anguish simply because of the color of our skin. Our history has been so blatantly missing from textbooks and the K-12th grade educational atmosphere. Our educational system continues to neglect the history of our African American ancestors and fail to provide them with the educational resources to inform them of our past and allow them to learn about the true origins of our culture. We have made many significant contributions to the world but those have also been highly ignored as well.

At the end of the Civil War, America faced the difficult task of uniting not only two separated territories of the United States, but also two races long separated by racism and culture. Devastated and embittered by the damage of the war, the South had a long way to go in order to achieve true equality between the former slave owners and former slaves. The majority of the South remained set in racist behavior, finding post-Civil War legal loopholes to diminish African American rights (Tindall & Shi, 2010, pp. 757-758). Southerners continued to marginalize Blacks in their behavior toward ex-slaves and the later African American generation,

As David Blight says in his novel, Race and Reunion, after the Civil War and emancipation, Americans were faced with the overwhelming task of trying to understand the relationship between “two profound ideas—healing and justice.” While he admits that both had to occur on some level, healing from the war was not the same “proposition” for many whites, especially veterans, as doing justice for the millions of emancipated slaves and their descendants (Blight 3). Blight claims that African Americans did not want an apology for slavery, but instead a helping hand. Thus, after the Civil War, two visions of Civil War memory arose and combined: the reconciliationist vison, which focused on the issue of dealing with the dead from the battlefields, hospitals, and prisons, and the emancipationist vision, which focused on African Americans’ remembrance of their own freedom and in conceptions of the war as the “liberation of [African Americans] to citizenship and Constitutional equality” (Blight 2).

Not in this case. Although the North did win the war, they didn’t win Reconstruction. The South still controlled the slaves, who didn’t leave, in the South. African Americans were free due to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. In the South, people found ways to control those rights. Black codes were passed in the South, allowing slave owners to have power over any rights African Americans had, “new southern state legislatures passed restrictive “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans.” What did the codes due exactly? The black codes stripped African Americans of any and all freedom they had, “The Codes explicitly denied blacks the right to vote, limited their freedom of movement, and criminalized behavior.” African Americans were given the right to vote, given freedom and given citizenship but what does it matter if there are people who stop you from exercising those rights? If there were any African Americans that did have those rights in the South, often times there were other things posing threat to them exercising those rights, as well. For examples, white supremacist groups like the KKK, would go to great lengths to stop African Americans, “the South's white community banded together in what they referred to as patriotic organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to overthrow these “black”

Since the end of the American Civil War, a movement started and continues to persist explaining the South’s reason for seceding from the Union and fighting the Civil War. This is the Lost Cause. Developed shortly after the defeat of the South as is shown in Edward Pollards book The Lost Cause Regained, this dogma has persisted throughout America into the current day. The influence of the Lost Cause can be seen in our media, historic sites and memorial, and this is derived from the continual use of early pro-southern books book authors like Edward Pollard. These influences continue to educate those interested in the cause of the South. The Lost Cause highlights the challenges modern historians face when analyzing the Lost Cause against the

Most literature about the American Civil War will discuss the intricacies of battle strategy in great detail. These accounts may also painstakingly discuss the rationale of the presidents, the generals, and even some of the soldiers involved in perhaps the greatest American conflict, divulging further and further into how the war began, what could have been done to prevent it, and whether or not the Civil War was in fact about slavery. However, there is very limited literature on the people directly at the center of this conflict: the enslaved. Tennessee Civil War 150, a documentary series produced by Nashville Public Television, included a thirty-minute segment discussing this very subject. “Looking Over Jordan” from Tennessee Civil War 150 not only includes African Americans in the discussion regarding the social

The Civil War, a period of four years in the United States filled with bloody combat, thousands of casualties, and the destruction of much of Southern infrastructure. Although the Civil War had various causes (economy, politics, etc.), it mainly originated from the pressing issue of slavery at the time, mainly its expansion into the Western territories. As we all know, slavery was one of the most horrific times in our nation’s history, yet it was a typical and normal thing for the people of the 19th century. The film, Glory (1989), directed by Edward Zwick, doesn’t necessarily depict the horrors of slavery, however it does show 19th century America’s attitude toward African Americans, as well as the average African American’s hunger for

I believe that with motivation and guidance, children of all backgrounds can harbor success in the educational world and receive the skills they need to have a successful and prosperous life. It is a teacher’s duty to encourage lifelong learning, consider individual learning styles and aptitudes, and self-reflect on how to improve. My experiences as an engineer, a person of color, a pre-service teacher, and a STEM advocate have culminated together to form my educational values and philosophy.

The post-Civil War South was left in shambles. The economy was wrecked, the people were divided, and the government could not keep up with the chaos on both political sides. Due to the division, President Lincoln was shot, the Ku Klux Klan arose, and agriculture plummeted. The greatest lesson is American’s fought for justice and overtime American’s of color are getting the respect they deserve. Our country was drastically crippled by the Civil-War, however, without it, our country would not be as strong, diverse, and equal rights for