Louis Agassiz would have agreed with the Supreme Court’s 1878 ruling in protecting segregation because he believed that races could not naturally mix. (Gould, 80) This Supreme Court ruling was involved in the case of Hall v. DeCuir, which took place during the Redemption period. (Cowan, 4) Segregation played a big role during the Redemption period because it went against what the Reconstruction Era stood for. The Reconstruction Era stood for equality and the Redemption period stood for social segregation, which is what Agassiz’s theory was all about. (Gould, 80) Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), born in Switzerland, was a naturalist. (Gould, 74) In 1840’s, Agassiz migrated to America and became a professor at Harvard. (Gould, 75) Agassiz was an extremely successful man in the science world. (Gould, 75) As a matter of fact, he raised money to support his buildings, collections, and publications. (Gould, 75) When Agassiz came to America, he became the leading spokesman for polygeny. (Gould, 75) The polygeny theory was actually one of the first theories of the American origin that caught the attention and respect of European scientists. (Gould, 74) This theory believes in humans being descended from different species, which means no equality can take place. (Gould, 75) Agassiz, however, did not support slavery at all. (Gould, 75) Agassiz did not bring this theory with him from Europe. (Gould, 75) He converted to this doctrine after he had his very first experience with American black people. (Gould, 75) He had never seen a black person in Europe, so seeing a black person was an extremely alarming experience. (Gould, 75) Agassiz first met blacks at his Philadelphia hotel in 1846 and his experience was completely ... ... middle of paper ... ...nt guaranteed African Americans citizenship for blacks and overruled the Dred Scott decision. (Cowan, 4) This meant that any person that is born in America is automatically a United States citizen no matter what race, color, or gender you are. (Cowan, 4) The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed African Americans the right to vote, however, women still could not vote. (Cowan, 5) It stated that no one should be denied the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (Cowan, 5) Clearly, Agassiz was wrong in his theory of polygeny. Agassiz stated that humans were descended from different species and that social equality is naturally impossible, but we have seen otherwise. We have seen public schools and public transportation and other institutions become interracial and it just simply proves Agassiz wrong.
...h and 15th Amendments were made to improve the lives of African Americans and give them equal rights with white citizens. While the intention of the lawmakers was good, the amendments failed because of the strength of the feelings of former slave owners and their ability to influence the people that enforced the law.
Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.
...dom and right to vote established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, blacks were still oppressed by strong black codes and Jim Crow laws. The federal government created strong legislation for blacks to be helped and educated, but it was ineffective due to strong opposition. Although blacks cried out to agencies, such as the Freemen's Bureau, declaring that they were "in a more unpleasant condition than our former" (Document E), their cries were often overshadowed by violence.
...ious slaves the right to citizenship, meaning they were able to do anything that a normal citizen could do, for example hold seats of power. The Fifteenth amendment ensured that they were given the right to vote. However, the reason that their accomplishments were in vain was because they did not get rid of racism. Whatever advancement they made was taken back due to whites still believing in racism. After the Reconstruction era, the South feared an African American with power so they formed hate groups and technicalities to get around amendments. Even though the Fourteenth amendment ensured that slaves were given the right to citizenship, the whole ideal of “separate but equal” came into play. With the Fifteenth amendment, the South was able to justify the racist action of enforcing a literacy clause or a grandfather clause by writing it into their constitution.
... Over the course of the next century, the 14th Amendment would be used by the Federal government, particularly the Supreme Court, to integrate African Americans and other cultures into the society. This was and is a major step in the evolution of the United States into the melting pot of freedom that it has become known to be.
To the African American community the 15th amendment was the most important amendment to the constitution. The 15th Amendment was made to provide every man, no matter what color he was, the right to vote. This made every man equal, although not all were treated that way. The 15th Amendment was very significant to many Americans of different races. This Amendment changed their lives forever by allowing them to vote.
..., at the annual meeting of the Equal Rights Association, Douglas addressed the urgency of the vote of black men. With the establishment of the fifteenth amendment extending the vote to black men and not women friction was created between the two causes and greatly split them. “Douglass claimed that it was the “negro hour” and their rights had to be secured first.” ( Huggins, 121).
In 1758 a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus established the classification system still in use for various forms of life. He listed four categories that he labeled as "varieties" of the human species. To each he attributed inherited biological as well as learned cultural characteristics. He described Homo European as light-skinned, blond, and governed by laws; Homo American was copper-colored and was regulated by customs; Homo Asiatic was sooty and dark-eyed and governed by opinions; Homo African was black and indolent and governed by impulse. We can in retrospect recognize the ethnocentric assumptions involved in these descriptions, which imply a descending order of prestige. Most striking is the labeling of the four varieties as governed by laws, customs, opinions, and impulse, with Europeans on the top and Africans at the bottom. In fact, different populations within all four varieties would have had all four forms of behavior. (8).
Social Darwinism was a set of theories developed by various people during the 19th century. It was the adaptation of Darwin's theory of evolution applied to human social behavior and ability to survive compared to other human beings. It can now easily be seen that these theories could be used to justify racial discrimination and they have been used in this way throughout history. This misconception of Darwin’s theories popularized by various academics in the west caused western nations to treat other nations badly. People like French man Joseph Gobineau had already come up with race supremacy ideas before Darwin’s theories of evolution started to become a popular idea.
The fifteenth amendment was proposed to congress on February 26, 1869 and was ratified a year later. After the Civil war, the confederate states were forced to ratify the reconstruction amendments in order to be reinstated into the union.3 Charles Sumner, an advocate for equal rights, refused to vote as he believed that the amendment did not take necessary steps to prevent the development of various state laws that could disenfranchise black voters.4 Sumner was correct, by the 1890s many states had adopted legislature designed to keep blacks from voting. The Poll Taxes and Literacy Tests may be the most emblematic legislation of the period. These laws were passed in order to ke...
The passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States gave African-Americans recognized rights under the law. However, a national commitment to the civil and political rights of all U.S. citizens without regard to matters of race was destined to last less then a decade.4
Before the 15th amendment, African Americans had been used as slaves and were discriminated against. African Americans were not allowed to certain things, like use the same restrooms, go to the same restaurants, drink from the same water fountain, sit with Caucasian people, etc. Another one of those actions was that African Americans were not able to participate in is voting. People, who were activists, state troopers, and protesters, were being hurt and murdered for standing up and fighting for what they believed in (Voting). African Americans were fighting for the right to have the same equality as Caucasian people. The most well known and remembered speaker was Martin Luther King Jr. In his speech, I Have a Dream, is when he then states, "We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality"(Martin). No matter what they did, the African Americans felt as if they were to blame and were wrong. Most African Americans were being punished, killed or very severely hurt. People like, Eugene “Bull” Connor, violently attacked the protesters(Voting Rights..Rights Act of 1965). It took the murder of voting-rights activist in Philadelphia, Mississippi, which gained national attention, and other numerous acts of violence and terrorism for people to actually recognize that there is a problem. Also the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965 by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pet...
During this time, the idea of segregation was a very controversial topic among the c...
Regardless of one’s reason to practice eugenics, either to solve medical issues or commit discrimination, the misuse of this technology can affect the genetic diversity of the entire specie. Since the decline in genetic diversity threatens the existence of the specie, people must put regulations on the practice of genetic modification, and eugenics as a whole, to preserve genetic diversity. In Owning Genetic Information and Gene Enhancement Techniques, professor Adam D. Moore wrote, “If humans were to achieve genetic homogeneity (a genetic uniformity obtained by gene enhancement techniques), then a newly emerged disease could decimate the entire human population, since all individuals would be susceptible.” Furthermore, during an United Nation
In “Race and Human Variation”, the main point in this section regarding human genetic variation is. RACE as a division of the human species basically depends upon the distinct in physical features that are actually known by the heredity. Whereas, Darwin saw the origin of the species as just like a single gene pool from which all humans share descent.