Suffrage of African Americans in Red Summer written by Cameron McWhirter

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new na-tion, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” a quote by America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, directly recalling how equality was the catalyst for the conception of America. It’s a universal right that should be known by all, but it was barely an option in our country for the African American faction almost a century ago. Chained, chastised and condemned, the African American had to surpass through radical odds to get to a mediocre amount of respect. When World War I first began, many citizens of America saw it as a seemingly distant European conflict that they couldn’t be bothered with.

The national narrative of transformation depicted in the appended PowerPoint presentation purports to explain African American's longwinded struggle for voting rights. The story begins with a newspaper advertisement of black slaves for purchase. The advertisement perpetuates the ubiquitously presumed value of black people as commodities which consecutively invalidates black people’s value as human beings. Considering black people’s undervalued reputation, they were not appreciated as citizens of the United States until 1866. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 marked the beginning of transformation, as all native-born Americans including blacks were given the rights to citizenship.

Blacks fought for the ideals of America in World War I but they did not receive any recognition for their hard work. Instead, they were still put under the “Jim Crow” laws which prohibited them from voting and segregated them from their superior races. This explains the decrease in percentage of eligible voters who vote from 1900 to 1920.

     Black Americans of today need to register to vote and make use of their voting rights if they want to see a change to the current state of democracy. In the

And one of the programs under the New Deal hit blacks hard (figuratively). A lot of black were forced off of the land because of whites leaving the land untilled to make more money. “Over 100,000 blacks” (Doc B) were forced off between 1933-1934. Now obviously this was bad and was even kind of racist but it also decreased the living conditions for them. Some families went straight from having a house and food everyday to having little to no food.

Above all, blacks wanted to steer away from the life they had in the south so they could start fresh elsewhere. During the start of World War One, African Americans started moving north in large amounts to search for jobs. This large movement was called the Great Migration. The Harlem Renaissance

When the men and boys started coming back from the war, some of them took back their jobs from Women, Mexicans, and African Americans. But others weren’t as lucky to get their jobs back; many didn’t have a job after the war, and were left to find another job: which was hard to do since the African Americans that had moved up from the south liked it in the north.The north was more tolerant towards African Americans and they offered more job diversification to them. “There were also a decrease in jobs because all the factories that shifted their business to make supplies, were suddenly out of work when the war ended, and a lot of people were out of jobs”(Mass

The status of black Americans improved under Reconstruction, and then deteriorated towards a low point by the end of the century. African Americans in many parts of the South were politically powerful in the first years after Reconstruction. The timing and nature of white supremacy in practice was determined by demographics, economics, class, occupation, gender, and even the tone of skin color. The exclusion of black workers from major sectors of the Northern and Western economy during a period of industrialization set a pattern of racial exclusion and oppression at the workplace. This pattern also helps to explain why black migrants in the North fared particularly badly in comparison with immigrant groups. Forced into ‘dirty’ jobs or domestic

Throughout the duration of the Civil War in 1861 to the 1920s, African Americans made significant strides toward their advancement in America and toward equity with whites. After having being subjected to white governance and enslaved for so long, their dependence generated a sense of unfamiliarity with their newly acquired emancipation. This uncertainty sparked many debates regarding the most effectual way to go about receiving their “inalienable” rights as human beings, not merely substandard Negros as they were perceived to be. However, some thought that the most effective approach would be to acquiesce to the subservient status upheld by whites in order to earn their respect until equity permeated. Others were more combative in their

After the post-Civil War Reconstruction period ended in 1876, white supremacy was largely restored across the South.Around 1916, when the Great Migration began, a factory wage in the urban North was typically three times more than what blacks could expect to make working the land in the rural South it was pretty hard for them to live.By the end of 1919, some 1 million blacks had left the South, usually traveling by train, boat or bus; a smaller number had automobiles or even horse-drawn carts they couldn’t take it any more so they decided to leave.many blacks headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that first arose during the First World War. Migrants were forced to deal with poor working conditions and competition

For African Americans World War I was one of the most transformative moment. At first the war seemed not to impact African Americans much. Little did they know that the war would directly impact them all, both women and men, African Americans from the North and the South, but in this case the most affected were the Southern African Americans. At that time African Americans knew that they had to try to struggle for something they called black freedom. Even though many African Americans did not participate in many important issues like voting or had well paid jobs their hard work and commitment gave them the opportunity to give their families a better future economically and education wise.

After Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, many African Americans remained in the South. It was not until the World War I that a significant number of African Americans migrated to the North. Unfortunately, many realized that North was not as desirable as imagined. As Africans Americans move out to escape the miserable conditions in the South that include the poor race relations, labor crisis, and economic factors were the major push factors of the Great Migration. The fact that Jim Crow laws and customs still were used in the South and that lynchings, violence, and racial terror were enough to convince African Americans to leave the South. Mechanization of farm labor decreased the availability of jobs for African Americans. The north

During World War II many minority groups thought that if they were to participate in the war and defend the country that they would gain more respect or get a higher class status in society, although they thought wrong instead they were sort of obligated to defend the country in war without thinking they were going to get any reward in return. African Americans were one of the few minority groups that hoped to win a better position in postwar society. But in the end they were very disappointed. Many blacks were migrated from rural areas into industrial cities which was great for the economy but not really for the blacks because it created tensions among blacks and whites. In the military blacks had the most menial assignments, and there were segregated training camps and units for the blacks. Not only were blacks affected by the war but also Native Americans. There was very little war work that was available for the tribes. Some young people left the reservations causing the number of people in tribes decrease. This caused many Indians to come in close contact with white people, which opened up their eyes to the benefits they would receive if they left the reservations and lived in a non-Indian world and adjust to American society. But soon after the war there were fewer jobs available for them so they returned back to their reservations. Then there were many pressures to eliminate the reservations for good, which would require tribes to reassign themselves and adjust to

The combat and labor of world war I mentality and physically drained black soldiers.Nevertheless, being able to serve their country and travel to france was quite the experience. Black soldiers were able to interact with North and West African soldiers and that helped expand their knowledge of their culture and their sense of belonging. Majority of French civilians treated black soldiers with respect and showed no racial tendencies toward them. The War gave black american soldiers a new outlook on the world and expanded their thoughts of the world and their place in it. Black soldiers were able to come away from the war with something positive.

Despite freedom having been granted to African Americans regarding their status as slaves, their status as citizens certainly was not advancing as rapidly nor as positively as they had hoped. In the midst of the chaos and aftermath of the war, African Americans found hope in the re-election of Lincoln, whom they ultimately sided with due to the radical changes he had made in their favor. However, African Americans could favor Lincoln but could not vote for him; a crucial component of citizenship which they lacked, and therefore essentially lacked the ability to have a democratic choice in their future. To add to such unfair law, African Americans also struggled for better pay, which had been an apparent issue before the war’s termination, but