The Main Obstacle Preventing Blacks From Achieving Equality Essay

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

Regardless of race or ethnicity, it is my belief that people in general, will stand up for their rights no matter what they have to do in order to get their rights recognized, they will do it. In this case, African Americans had to fight to mold the country and freedom that they desired. When a group of people become oppressed they will learn to band together to mold their future and the future of their children. I would like to look into this from the point of view that even though we are referring to people of African American descent, other races would have done the same. I hope to touch on topics and keywords that will reflect that in a literary sense.

Slavery was not a word that was unknown in the United States of America; the word was at the tip of almost everyone’s tongue, only it came with many names. After the civil war, slavery became more pronounced for the black people. The south then thought something ought to be done and passed laws called the black codes which begun the limitation of blacks’ rights and separated them from the whites; white supremacy began. Before, these laws would have been unnecessary because most of the black people were slaves and they were already segregated in public places like schools and theatres. In 1866, Congress did not like this and they responded to these laws by putting a stop to it. Republicans had managed to begin reconstruction on the society and understand the black community. But in 1877 things took a turn for the worse when the Democratic parties recovered control and stopped the progress of reconstruction. This in turn caused the reverse of all the progress made in the past few years to understand the black community; they lost their rights to hold political seats, vote and generally participate as though they were members of the community. Slowly but surely, the south started to restore their racially unfair laws. The aim of the laws? To ensure segregation and alienation of the black community. One of the main powers taken away was the right to vote and they did this by imposing poll taxes, having expensive fees to be paid at the voting booths and

The promise of freedom to all “slaves” came with the end of the Civil War. The 13th amendment, ratified on December 6, 1885 officially freed any remaining slaves. Then, the 14th amendment was ratified in the summer of 1968; it stated that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” would be given citizenship. The 15th amendment followed and gave all men, but not women, the right to vote regardless of race. It appeared as if all freed men and women would soon be as fortunate as any white person. Unfortunately, this was an illusion. While Congress could ratify amendments, the states retained a massive amount of power and utilized this to reissue the Slave Codes as Black Codes. While all of the southern states passed Black Codes,

When I survey the landscape in black America, it does not take long for me to recognize the massive impression of a vehement struggle of a collective group of people to simply keep their head above water. The problem in the black community is that it is where every ill of this nation is felt first. It is the place in which much of the economic devastation is felt and absorbed in order to relieve some of the pressure off of this nation’s more affluent citizens.

American law addressed how people would become slaves: “…a slave inherited that status from the mother, served for a lifetime, was of African descent, and was chattel property able to be bought and sold independently of the land” (32, Horton and Horton). Over time, states amended or completely abolished these laws, but this was standard practice up until the Civil War. We can see a somewhat extension of this practice even after the Civil War, but it was just the opposite, the Grandfather Clause. In the wake of Reconstruction throughout the South, there was still an abundance of animosity to those of any other color than white, and the legislatures wished to keep the whites in power, and anyone else out. Poll taxes and literacy tests soon regulated voting throughout the South, but those who had grandfathers who could vote without poll taxes or literacy tests were exempts from such regulations. This curtailed most now free blacks from voting, and still allowed all white to vote. It was only until 1915 that “Grandfather Clauses” and regulated voting was found unconstitutional. What was not discussed

they are enslaved as wrong as it was some people did not believe so, enslaved lasting

Equality for African Americans took some time to come after the civil war. One reason it took a while was because of the Jim Crow laws. Even though the 14th amendment was suppose to secure the rights of all people no matter the color or race the Jim Crow laws were state local laws enforcing racial segregation in the southern United States.

The black freedom struggle has not yet come to an end – there are still prejudiced and racist radicals that try to negotiate white supremacy and dominance in order to prevent the blacks from their long wait for equality. Consequently, the movement has progressed very sluggishly in the past few centuries. Nevertheless, the campaign for equal rights has led to the triumph over slavery and has led to the accrual of suffrage rights. However, this is still not enough, not after centuries of enslavement, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. Oftentimes, there is still no justice in court houses, especially when black people are accused and convicted, even for the simplest of crimes – as compared to the white and powerful who are charged for heinous misconducts and get away scratch free. Hence, throughout the period of the Blacks’ long fight for freedom and equality, several Black intellectuals have come front with ideas that could administer better treatment for their people. A good strategy to encourage the black populace to fight for their freedom and their rights is by inverting popular ideas so that there is a clear distinction between the reasonable and unreasonable notions of equality and justice. Thus, it was not uncommon for these literati to undermine dominant discourses in order to bolster their own analyses. Among the discussed black intellectuals who inverted prevailing dissertations, three that stood out the most are Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and

In "A Worn Path", a short story by Eudora Welty, the main character, an old colored woman named Phoenix, slowly but surely makes her way down a "worn path" through the woods. Throughout her journey, she runs into many obstacles such as a thorny bush and a hunter. She overcomes these obstacles and continues with her travels. She finally reaches her destination, the doctor’s office, where she gets medicine for her sick grandson back home. Many critics have speculated that this short story represents the love a grandmother shows for her grandson. Others say this story represents life and death, where Phoenix represents an immortal figure. Dennis J. Sykes disagrees with the other critics by saying,

Protest against injustice is deeply rooted in the African American experience. The origins of the civil rights movement date much further back than the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which said, "separate but equal" schools violated the Constitution. From the earliest slave revolts in this country over 400 years ago, African Americans strove to gain full participation in every aspect of political, economic and social life in the United States.

As the United States flag Pledge of Allegiance states “I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, One nation under God, …with liberty and justice for all” did people really believe in this pledge? Liberty means freedom, liberation, right, and justice means fairness or impartiality for all Americans whether they were, African American, White, Mexican, Indians, Japanese…etc. The government maybe needed to revisit this pledge just to remind them of what our county was built on which is equal opportunity. During this time the county was still divided by races even though the government used some of its power to help African Americans.

According to Merriam Webster, Racism is defined as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam Webster, n.d.). Knowing this, Racism is certainly not particular to the United States of America, As Alex Haley, the author of Roots, told Scott Ross, CBN journalist, in a 1992 interview, “If you think about it, …there is no grouping of people to my knowledge, of any consequence, who have not, at one or another time, been the object of hatred, racism, or who has not had people against them just because they were them” (Ross 2016). Racial discrimination and related treatment of African Americans over the decades may be deeply rooted in American culture. In fact, it can be traced to the Founding Fathers. As history tells us, two of the most famous Founding Fathers owned slaves, and it goes without saying that for one to justify another’s enslavement—as did wealthy American colonials—that person would have to hold to the belief that the slave is by definition, and inferior being. Our first and third presidents: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners and their treatment of African Americans is well documented. (Smithsonian, 2015) The dehumanizing way Early Americans treated Africans who were imported as slave labor became universally accepted among the population from the very beginning while still under British rule. In spite of the

The United States has a long history of discrimination and marginalization towards distinguishable minorities. For instance, America’s past of enslaving African Americans. Our country today, is considered to some as one of the world’s largest melting pots, where a variety of culturally diverse individuals are integrated into a collective community. According to statistics regarding immigration policy, 41.3 million immigrants were living in the US, in 2013. But our nation has yet to integrate its diversity into one bonding community. That said marginalization and discrimination can be cohesively manifested by their role in America’s current poverty situation. The United States’ poverty

skills to this day. Prior to the eradication of Jim Crow laws in the 1950's, segregation existed within the