History
Strict opposition did not meet banning slavery in the United States; especially the rich land owners who could not again benefit from exploiting African-Americans to work in their fields for meager pay. The American constitution was amended with the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments have the greatest impact on the issue or racial discrimination. The amendments emphasized that ant person regardless of race born on American soil was a citizen and was entitled to all the rights of an American and all male citizens of whichever race could vote in elections. The Reconstruction assisted blacks to fight for equality and it helped them be part of major political decisions made in the country. There were however, groups like the ku Klux who vowed to stop African-Americans from exercising their full democratic rights.
African-Americans were subjected to discrimination and racial prejudice during that period. Despite amendments in the constitution, matters still did not get any better for blacks. The black Americans were not allowed to share the same taxi with a white person; they were restricted from having access to public places such as public libraries. Certain parks held up signs that read ‘No negroes or dogs allowed in the park’ they suffered from public humiliation since despite the age; any black man was normally referred to as ‘boy’ and any black woman as ‘girl’. Should a black person made a mistake of looking at a white woman in the face; they were badly without any remorse.
In time, civil rights movements starting cropping up all over America in a bid to fight for equality. They were non-violent movements that promoted civil rights to all blacks under the law. African-Americans started protesting in the streets to prompt the government to take a hard stand on discrimination. President Truman during his tenure in office set up a presidential committee to look into the civil rights in the country and come up with recommendations on how to improve it. Truman went on a quest of desegregating Washington and including blacks in the army and promoting the rights of the minority groups in the federal contracts.
A woman by the name Rosa Park credited as one of the pioneers to oppose racial segregation in America. She refused being discriminated against when she boarded a bus meant for whites only despite seeing the sign. She refused to come off the bus stating that she had equal rights similar to every white citizen in the country. Martin Luther king led a rebellion against the discriminative regime. He led a large group of African-American everywhere he went promoting them to fight for their rights as US citizens and not to cower down to pressure from the white community.
The group by the name ‘Black Panther’ believed that freedom could only be achieved through violence. They did not fear getting into bloody conflict with whites if it meant that their people would receive the respect and equal rights they deserved. Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association led the black community to strive to achieve self-reliance by not settling foe anything less than what was accorded to the white. The National Negro Congress set its target to promote integration of blacks in the white dominated society by fighting for equal rights. They set their goal on public transportation by discouraging discrimination in such areas in New York City.
The African-American however face many major obstacles in their quest to achieving equality. The constitution may be changed but the mindset of people takes a long time to adapt to the new changes. Many black Americans that protested were brutally murdered an example being the Assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. The black community, despite encouragement from civil unionists to fight for their rights was always afraid due to the random attacks they received from the whites. Police brutality was eminent with police constantly killing innocent black Americans or charging them for offences they never perpetrated.
Black Americans held peaceful demonstrations in the city but were forced out of the streets with teargas and police harassments. Arrest of Union leaders demoralized the followers and quickly quelled the rebellion. Church leaders failed to address the issues of barring blacks from congregating in their churches or discrimination as certain white church leaders still supported segregation. Policy makers failed to intervene and quell this havoc. Drafting bills that promoted equality for all races took a long time for their approval.
African-American leaders such as Malcolm X challenged the laws discriminating the black community. They fought such laws in courts, through staging demonstrations, in the media via the various manuscripts written by such leaders in a bid to have them changed to promote equality for all. Civil rights movement placed their concentration on discrimination in schools, as they believed that education was the key to helping them penetrate the white dominated fields and get better jobs. Trying to overcome segregation in schools was very difficult as it meant facing tremendous opposition and many a times violent confrontation.
Violence as the black community reasoned would not bring equality but holding peaceful demonstrations, striking at work place in case of unfair treatment and constantly writing to the international leaders by union leaders put pressure by the government to put tough measures to ensure that all Americans irrespective of race were treated equally throughout America. Such were the strategies that in the end proved to work and give the black community the rights they rightfully deserved.
