The Diversity Of The African American Community

In 1865, slavery was abolished, by the Thirteenth amendment. This Amendment brought humongous changes and a large number of problems. (Lecture 1) After the destruction of slavery, it left nearly four million African American with no property, little training, and few rights; which made the definition of freedom for African Americans the central question on the nation’s agenda. The big question of the time period was, “what was freedom for African Americans?” (Give me liberty! An American 550)

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.

As seen through time, African-Americans have been at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing funds that are available to most people. This however has not stopped them from creating and accessing help that supports and aids their families. Through communal efforts, African-Americans have been able to create mutual aid for themselves. In these communities, there are many sectors that have been built, but the main reason many are “making it” or able to afford and do what they are currently doing is through the help of the various communities and organizations that came about.

For the greater part of the nineteenth century, black people were slaves for white men. The Fourteenth Amendment was placed into effect to protect the rights of the black community after emancipation. It stated that, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” would be supported under the doctrine. However, this article failed to uphold the rights of the newly freed slaves. The blacks, ridiculed and scorned by the public, were greatly suppressed by the white backlash. The states put into effect laws that would suppress the blacks even further, even though they were protected under the Amendment. The states made stipulations on rights the African Americans were granted, like the right to own land, vote, and even hold certain jobs. Voting was a major controversy for the newly freed slaves, they wanted the chance to be heard through politics. Nevertheless, they were still denied the simple right to vote in many of the states if they could not meet the prerequisites for reading or could not pay a voting tax. They made contracts for them to work for white men, just as if they were slaves and nothing changed. Black people were still waiting for their salvation under this new piece of legislation, but were unable to grasp it through the government. African Americans stood for their newly given rights under the Constitution and were denied by the people who put

For centuries Africa American’s have been stripped from their freedom, their history, and their human rights due to racism and white supremacy. However, in 1868 there was a light at the end of the tunnel, African Americans thought there was an end to racism and the beginning of equality when the 14th Amendment was created. The 14th Amendment stated, “All persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States… no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”(The Founding Fathers) With the privilege of being a citizen a person is entitled to universal freedom (Walton, Smith). Even though the 14th amendment enforced that the state shall not deny privileges to citizens, it never brought about equality for African-Americans because of racism. The Amendment was intended to create equality, however its meaning was misinterpreted and ultimately benefit white males. Because of this, it denied them of their right to freedom from barriers created to keep African Americans inferior such as Jim Crow Laws, Gorilla Warfare for Voting, and Institutional Racism.

In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed all African Americans that lived in rebel states. For years, only the rebel states had free African Americans, however, after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment freed all slaves, no matter where they were. Of course, after years of slavery, whites were not used to having free African Americans around them, creating a hostile environment. One former slave, Houston Holloway wrote, “For we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them” (African American Odyssey 1).

In 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation declares “that all persons held as slaves with the confederate states are, and henceforward shall be free”. It was not until 1865 when the Civil War ended and the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. As a replacement of slavery, whites created Whites in the southern states enacted the Black Codes. Black Codes were thought to uphold a social caste system, reflecting the racial hierarchy of slavery. Slavery was abolished, however it still serves as a form of punishment for those found guilty of a crime. In the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) lies a description of the policy: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to the jurisdiction.” A major contributor to blacks becoming criminalized and, in turn, enslaved again were laws that penalized the homeless and unemployed. When black people traveled without proper documents that verified their employment or a home address, they would often be charged with trespassing (Browne-Marshall 2007). As newly freed people, most had no income to pay the consequential fines, thus, they would become prisoners and their enslavement would be legally justified.

More than hundreds of years, Africans Americans had abided in inhuman lives and were thrown into passivity like lower social positions. Jim Crow laws, lasted from 1876 to 1965, “prevented ex-slave from riding in the same train cars as whites, from eating in the same restaurants, or from using the same toilet facilities” (Roark et al

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

The group of people most affected by the revolutions of Reconstruction was without question the newly emancipated slaves. There is no doubt that the liberation and ensuing reforms were serious improvements in the lives of black people in the United States. For the first time since they had been brought to the colony of Jamestown, blacks were allegedly granted, at least in principle, the same freedom as whites. Even though some of these new rights did not afford much real-world independence at the time, the end of the institution of slavery and its barbaric treatment of the captive blacks should not be dismissed. With the solidification of the Thirteenth Amendment, paired with Lincoln’s Freedman’s Bureau, the United States began to distribute

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation which freed African Americans slaves in the Confederate states. After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all United States slaves. As a result, the mass of freed blacks in the South now faced the hostility of whites. As the social challenges arose, the freedmen experienced difficulty being accepted as just that- freed men. One freedman, Houston Hartsfield Holloway, wrote, "for we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them." The nation was unprepared for the questions of rights and citizenship of its newly freed population and the turmoil that came with it. Due to the unwillingness of whites,

Although the declaration of independence states that “all men are created equal” but this was not true for the African American at that time. In 1865, the thirteenth Amendment was ratified to end slavery. But that was not enough so the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) help strengthen the legal rights for the freed African Americans. Despite all these Amendments, the blacks were often treated unfairly then the white in American, especially in the south. Fact in some states they legislated enacted laws that led to the legally mandated segregation of the races. Meaning blacks and whites could not be in the same building let alone the same bathroom.

Race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, poverty, and sexual orientation, all play a role in developing one’s identity and more often than not, these multiple identities intersect with blackness. Being that American society has deemed colored people and populations as minoritarian subjects, African diaspora people can be seen making safe spaces for themselves to survive as individuals and as a part of communities.

The United States of America is known for its claims of democracy, equality, and freedom for all of it’s citizens. These claims are the foundation of America’s independence and essentially its entire history. But “claims” are simply all they were in history. While many achieved equal democracy and freedom, the African-American population of the US was exempt from these “inalienable rights” and heavily oppressed by society. The cruelty of slavery and oppression as a whole reached its peak in the 19th century bringing upon the abolitionist movement, which eventually aided in the historic removal of slavery and the continued fight for equal right of citizenship for African-Americans. Of the many abolitionists who fought for

America took a step forward on January first, 1863 when president Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation, it proclaimed the freedom of slaves. Although free, black/biracial people were still treated as an inferior race. They did not have the same rights and freedoms as whites. They endured almost a century of racial segregation. After slavery was abolished, the United States of America establish three amendments to the constitution the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth. The thirteenth amendment actually abolished slavery, the fourteenth amendment acknowledged african americans as citizens of the United States, and the fifteenth amendment gave african americans the right to vote. Despite these amendments african american were treated as second class citizens and were segregated from whites. In 1896 the supreme court in Plessy versus Ferguson ruled that separate but