The Struggles and Movement for Black America

Following the Civil War, America was in shambles. There were many groups with strong, conflicting ideas of how things should be. However, most groups had one idea in common: reducing the rights of African Americans as much as possible. Freed slaves had very little freedom under the law, were treated like a lesser species by those around them, and faced dangerous environments everywhere they went. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation may have legally freed slaves, but African Americans were barely more than paid slaves.

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).

African Americans, majority of them still enslaved, continued to fight for their freedoms. Many began to petition for their unalienable rights. Northern states petitioned to have the children of slaves freed once they reached the legal age as an adult while others ran away to the North to a free state (Voices of Freedom Chapter 6 pages 14-116).

This cannot be furthest from the truth, they were considered free in word, but not deed (p. 506). To this day, many African Americans along with other ethnic groups that were oppressed are still tainted by slavery and its historical trauma. With this so called reconstruction of the new America, people of African descent demanded to be treated equal. The reconstruction period was a hopeful time for women who made a mark for themselves as far as acquiring financing and political independent (Gates & Smith, 2014). Can you imagine, personal freedom after coming from an era in which you had no options? After the Civil War supposedly broke slavery’s band, African Americans felt that this new nation shall be color blind, respect, and value women and men on their character rather than the color of their

African Americans were set free after the Civil War. After the Civil War the freedom of African American was really vague. Although they were set free they really weren't free. White people would say

After the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War, millions of African Americans won their freedom and were prepared to join society as equal citizens. While some Americans embraced the situation, others strained to spread racism throughout their community. By 1900, the South had formed a segregated society, finding ways to get past new laws and keeping old traditions that kept African Americans under a white American system.

For many years, history has told us tales of freedom. The independence of the United States back in July 4, 1776, was the starting point of the great concept, freedom. Yet there was no concept of freedom for the African American community. Once the Civil War took place, by the end 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation contributed to have their freedom that they needed since 1776. Unfortunately, during the "Reconstruction era", blacks were free by law, but no resources, and racism kept blacks in slavery.

The civil rights movement was a struggle by African Americans in the mid-1950s to late 1960s to achieve civil rights equal to those of whites, including equal opportunity in employment, housing, and education, as well as the right to vote, the right of equal access to public facilities, and the right to be free of racial discrimination. No social or political movement of the twentieth century has had as profound an effect on the legal and political institutions of the United States. This movement sought to restore to African Americans the rights of citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which had been eroded by segregationist jim crow laws in the South. It fundamentally altered relations between the federal government and the states, as the federal government was forced many times to enforce its laws and protect the rights of African American citizens. The civil rights movement also spurred the reemergence of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, in

Shortly after the civil war, slaves started to prove their independence from whites while the whites tried protecting the old way of life. Blacks

The blacks couldn't really do anything when they became free because a lot of blacks were slaves and didn't have jobs and businesses therefore the supply of food medicine and products we need to be healthy to help us live longer they didn't have because they were slaves and didn't make money to buy it and they couldn't go to a store because most stores were only for whites and those were the stores that had the supplies they did need and so they really didn't have no way of getting the materials needed to survive until people found jobs and not many could do that because people were slaves and blacks had to have money to create businesses therefore it was very, very, very hard on blacks coming out of

Blacks were treated poorly throughout their years as slaves. After the Civil War, they were emancipated from slavery, and given to right to citizenship and suffrage through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. With their newfound freedom, many former black slaves joined the war efforts, and were one of the primary reasons the Union had victory over the Confederacy. However, even after all the wonderful things that they did, nothing changed about how society treated them. Evident through black codes, Jim Crow laws, and rise of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, blacks may have gotten “freedom” however they were still treated poorly, and less than human.

Some slaves were able to buy their freedom and leave their owner’s comfortable house only to have to work 12 hours a day and regret ever leaving the life they once had. This of course did not happen to all blacks that received their freedom back. Some were able to surpass many obstacles with a great amount of hard work and attain a comfortable living, while other were still able to reach a higher level and might even be considered wealthy.

When faced with political adversity, women and black people in the United States of America are often consoled with this phrase: be patient. Eventually things will change, and time will erase the adversity that they face. This is often said as a way to restrain others from taking action and working to create change. Those who say this phrase to women and black people fail to acknowledge the change that came from the work that the people of the black and women’s liberation movements over time. Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote serves as a response to that common phrase, as well as a reminder to those who strive to make change to continue their efforts, because if they didn’t, then time would overall perpetuate the status quo.

Today, there are many movements that are going on due to unfair ways of oppression. Oppression can be defined as “tyranny by a ruling group to the injustice some suffer due to everyday practices of a society” (Campón and Carter 2015: 497). I chose to write about the Black Power Movement because of the recent cases of oppression that have been occurring in the United States of America. Oppression can happen to people of all races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. The black power movement cannot be placed into a box of confinement, it much more that one movement. Since the 1960s there have been many things like small protests and movements that have contributed to the black power movement over time. There have been

Black Power was a call to action of black people to deny an established racist society, to acknowledge their ancestors and history and to unite their black communities to gain the power to make a change. The SNCC believed that in order to develop black power they needed to close their ranks and organize themselves before reaching for something else. It encouraged people to take charge of their own lives and organizations rather than relying on whites’ influence. Black Power was a build up of strength and power in black communities to change previous white institutions and power structures that have been established for hundreds of years. Blacks did not want black visibility but rather a chance to change society for the better.