African American Hardships
During pre-colonial African kinship and inheritance, it provided the bases of organization of many African American communities. African American men were recognized for the purpose of inheritance. They also inherited their clan names based on their accomplishments, as well as other things when one decease. Land was not owned in many parts of Africa during the pre-colonial period. It was yet held and distributed by African American men. Access to the land by women depended on their obligations or duties within the gendered division of labor. Agriculture was the job of many African women. Men believed in having several wives that would all work together as farm workers and do whatever duties necessary as required.
Africa is considered to be a multi-lingual country. There are eleven officially recognized languages their, many of which are often spoken but not widespread. English is generally understood across the country. It is one of the eleven common spoken languages but it only ranks 5th out of the eleven spoken languages. During the 15th and the 19th century, major changes had happened to the African and North American continents. Europeans ventured to Africa where they began a trans-Atlantic slave trade. Many Africans were taken as free people and then forced into slavery in South America, the Caribbean and North America. This slave trade had brought about a different type of racism. It was the color of your skin that determined whether a person would be a free citizen or be enslaved for life. This slave trade also devastated African lives and their heritage.
Some slaves were sold and traded more than once, often in a slave market. Families were torn apart, children hysterically cried while t...
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...t units to serve in the civil war. Most blacks did not care about what the issues of the war was. They joined because it provided a better income which was an alternative way of making money compared to the poorly paid domestic labor that most blacks had endure. The civil war resulted in the 13th Amendment of the Constitution which abolished slavery all together. Although black soldiers fought in the war which eventually ended slavery, they still did not have civil rights. The whites did not want to share political power with African Americans. This had brought about the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. African Americans were now guaranteed civil rights. This change opened doors for African Americans so that they can progress and excel in the political system. Public schools were now established and access to jobs outside domestic labor was now available.
...n their efforts to make America truly democratic by ensuring full citizenship for its entire people. Black soldiers, who continued to serve in segregated units, were involved in protest against racial injustice on the home front and abroad. The introduction of black troops left a profound effect on Europe. More than
For the beginning, in the middle and in the ending of the Civil War in the United States, the Black Americans were central as soldier and civilian. At first, people tried hard to get around this fact. Even President Abraham Lincoln administration sent Black volunteers home with an understanding that the war was a ''White man's war". The policy was eventually changed not because of humanitarianism but because of the Confederation's battlefield brilliance. The South brought the North to a realization that it was in a real brawl that it needed all the weapons it could lay hands on.
After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was passed and slavery was abolished (Doc. 8). In addition, 14th and 15th amendments were passed which gave citizenship and the right to vote to African Americans (OI). If the slaves didn’t try fight for their freedom, the US would have the equal rights that they have today. This changed the fabric of the American population forever.
African Americans helped shape the Civil War from various perspectives. Actually, they were the underlying foundation for the war if you think about it in depth. African Americans were slaves and had been dealt with like property since they arrived in America. The likelihood of opportunity for these slaves created an enormous commotion in the South. The issue of equal rights for African Americans brought on a gap between the states. The United States Civil War began as an effort to save the Union, and ended in a fight to abolish slavery. The Civil War, frequently known as the War Between the States in the United States, which was a Civil War battled from 1861 to 1865, after seven Southern slave states proclaimed their severance and framed the Confederate States of the United States. More Americans died in the Civil War than in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined. Two thirds of the individuals that were killed in the Civil War died of disease. The medical world at the time of the Civil War and advanced disinfectants, did not exist which could have enormously lessen the spread of disease and illnesses. After years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 soldier’s dead and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, & the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began. By December 1865 the 13th Amendment had abolished slavery throughout the United States (Waldstreicher).
The treatment of blacks from were turned from a grim fate to that of a bright future, the ability to vote and citizenship were vital to the forward progress of male black Americans. While the economic opportunity of making your own money through hard work and responsibility was taken by most blacks in the south. It was not until the nineteenth amendment was passed for both black and white women to finally become equal in America.
African Americans were very questionable at first in the Civil War. The Union Navy had been already been accepting African American volunteers. Frederick Douglass thought that the military would help the African Americans have equal rights if they fought with them. Many children helped in the Civil War also, no matter how old they were. Because the African Americans were unfavorable, black units were not used in combat as they might have been. Nevertheless, the African Americans fought in numerous battles. African Americans fought gallantly. Northern leaders also saw another reason to have African Americans in the Civil War is that the Union needed soldiers. Congress aloud them to enlist them because they thought they might as well have more soldiers.
1. Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Making of America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966.
Another positive change that was an outcome to the Civil War was that different races such as African Americans and women were eventually given equal rights to a white male. As Document E states, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on gender, race, color, religion, etc. It also ended segregation in public facilities and in public education forever. When this act was passed, it was able to make the nation a lot better than it originally was due to the fact that everyone is now considered equally regardless of race, gender, nationality, and color. Although it was a very large struggle to get to this stage in equality, it was finally achieved and made possible with the Civil War ending and every enslaved person being freed and fighting for their rights.
World War I was a life-changing moment in African-American history. It impacted all African Americans, no matter gender, class, or origin. Although the it had a larger impact on those who lived in the South. African-American soldiers actually served in the army for the United States way before the Great War. But World War I marked a turning point for colored soldiers, not only on the battlefield but when they returned home as well. It was overall a good thing for them. In the end over six hundred African Americans were selected as officers which was a rank they could not hold efore the war. Allthough still segregated against and suffering extreme discrimination black soldiers made big improvement for race issues during this war. Race discrimination was preasant in World War 1.
The United States developed the official poverty measures in 1960. It was developed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had declared a war on poverty during the Civil Rights era. (The Path of Power- The years of Lyndon B. Johnson, (Caro, 16). The poverty rate of African Americans has been declining for many years. The Census Bureau releases two reports every year that describe who is poor in the United States based on cash resources. There is also the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) which takes account for the cash resources and non cash benefits from government programs aimed at low income families. (www.Census.gov/People and household). In 2012 there were over 46.5 million people in poverty and of those numbers 10 million were African American according to the poverty reports. African Americans have been a major factor since slavery. Since the late 1660s there has been a race on poverty since the marches of the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King. One of the protests was the call to March on Washington in 1963. Dr. King stated that “on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity”. (MLK speech, March on Washington, 1963)
Through his political activism and his artwork, Douglas dramatically changed the way other artists viewed African Americans. Politically, he helped found and served as president for the activist organization that drastically assisted with employing thousands of artists.
African Americans who came to America to live the golden dream have been plagued with racism, discrimination and segregation throughout a long and complicated history of events that took place in the United States dating back to slavery to the civil rights movements. Today, African American history is celebrated annually in the United States during the month of February which is designated Black History Month. This paper will look back into history beginning in the late 1800’s through modern day America and describe specific events where African Americans have endured discrimination, segregation, racism and have progressively gained rights and freedoms by pushing civil rights movement across America.
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
The disadvantages that black Americans faced in the 1950’s. In the 1950’s black people were discriminated against and mistreated beyond belief whilst white people lived a life of luxury with cars, televisions and money. Statistics from the ‘US Department of Commerce’ state that 18% of white people lived below the poverty line, whilst 56% of black people lived below the poverty line. From 1882 to 1968, 3,445 lynching’s were recorded and many were not recorded.
In the Western world European colonialism is hailed as an accomplishment. It is the time where Europeans flourished economically after finding and taking control of the lands of the New World. Because of European colonialism and the need for free labor, millions of Africans were forced from their homeland and were forced into slavery. Years later the Europeans came back to colonize and take the rich resources of Africa without any regard to the native people who lived there. Though colonialism ended in the United Stated in the 1700’s and other parts of the Americas in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, many of its racial and injustices are still an ingrained in society today There have been many instances where groups of people within African