The most prominent films of the course are perhaps Selma, The Big Short, and the Circle due to their string criticism of society and authority. Selma critics the past of United States history. The Big Short offers criticism to modern U.S. society, and The Circle offers criticism to what could happen in the future. Upon the success of the success of the Civil Rights Act 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. still argued that there was much left to accomplish for African Americans. In order to further combat the south, King wanted to continue to push for the United States to secure voting rights for African Americans. Although voting was not outright outlawed by southern states, some made it quite difficult for African Americans to vote for elections. …show more content…
society as well as authority. The film not only illustrates the great recession due to collapse of the housing and credit bubble, but it also demonstrates the events leading up to it. The crash of the housing market completely devasted everyone. In the United States, millions of people lost their home, jobs, money. Additionally, several other countries were also impacted by the crash of the United States economy. Unemployment grew in the United States and at other countries as well. Markets slowed down in growth. There were several stock markets that crashed with the housing market. The housing crash essentially caused international trade to fall at an all-time low. As a result of the crash of the housing market, government regulations were put in place to ensure that something similar does not happen again. Lewis is critical of the people involved in the crash of the housing market by stating that no one was punished for their actions. Only one person received jail time. Lewis explains how on the contrary, the bankers responsible for the crisis received a bailout from the United States government at the expense of the tax payers of America. Those bankers then went on to provide immense bonuses for themselves with the bailout money. The government policies resulted in saving economic industries that should have failed in order to attempt to help alleviate the crisis. By criticizing the government
Jim Crow Laws, enforced in 1877 in the south, were still being imposed during the 1930s and throughout. These laws created segregation between the two races and created a barrier for the Blacks. For example, even though African Americans were allowed to vote, southern states created a literary test exclusively for them that was quite difficult to pass, since most Blacks were uneducated. However, if they passed the reading test, they were threatened with death. Also, they had to pay a special tax to vote, which many African Americans could not afford.
More businesses became aware of the difficulties, which caused businesses to not expand and start new projects. This caused job insecurity and uncertainty in incomes for employees. The crash was also used as a symbol of the changing times. The crash led the American people out of the roaring 1920’s into a new decade.
Additionally, the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed blacks the right to vote, but the South found ways to get around this amendment.
They passed the Reconstruction Act, which was the desperate act to establish newly freed slaves. The African Americans were only reconsidered for their voting right after the Republican majority congress implementing of radical Reconstruction plan. Despite the congress trying to provide equal rights among the freed slaves, southern states other hand was equally reluctant. Congress hardened on Confederate states to implement the mandatory including of the African American in the election process, guaranteeing their voting rights. “Congressional Reconstruction embodied the most sweeping peacetime legislation in American history to that point. It sought to ensure that freed slaves could participate in the creating of new state governments in the former Confederacy” (Shi and Tindall 591). Congress was desperate to provide political rights to freed slaves. As a result of that, they passed the military Reconstruction Act. The military Reconstruction Act guaranteed the right to vote for the African American make, encouraging them to participate in conventions. “The South Carolina constitutional convention -which included 58 men who were once enslaved” (Hillstrom 55). Many states have started eliminating discrimination against freed slaves, and providing equal rights as every white citizen. As more and more state law was more soft towards them, many African American populations were engaging in the election process electing their own people to represent them. “…every former Confederate state elected at least some black delegates, and most states elected African Americans in about the same proportion as their population. A few states even elected a majority if black delegates” (Hillstrom 55). Although, many states were electing African Americans, there were still wide discrimination against elected black officials, in which case Congress has to provide
Furthermore, only males were permitted to vote. Any women, regardless of race, were prohibited from voting until many years after the Civil War. Five of the 16 northern states allowed restricted black male voting. Of 11,000 blacks in New York City, only 100 could vote. The reason behind this is that you have to pay a $250 property requirement in order to vote.
First of all, political and judicial rights in the North allowed some africans to vote but some had restrictions. From the source of, North of Slavery, University of Chicago Press, 1961, the region that allowed more black males to vote was New England. Those states were Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Massachusetts was the only state that allowed black males to do jury duty. The Mid-Atlantic
The lesser problem was the right of the African Americans to vote the south did not like it but it was the least of their problems that the south had going on. Although it was not the main reason reconstruction ended, The right for voting for African Americans was stil...
by using several different methods to persuade the public’s opinion and the U.S Congress to agree with them.
During the 1920's America experienced an increase like no other. With the model T car, the assembly line, business skyrocketed. Thus, America's involvement in World War II did not begin with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Starting in October 1929, the Great Depression, the stock market crashed. It awed a country used to the excesses of the 1920's. These are the events that lead up to the crash.
Many people bought houses, but then the stock market crashed in 1929, and it happened overnight, and it didn't end there either. After it crashed it continued to decrease due to investors still attempting to trade, causing the stock market to go further into a depression. After the crash, Wall Street went into a panic and continued to trade more, wiping out 13 million clients (A&E networks). Some people were able to withdraw their money from the stock market before things got too bad, but the majority of the American population lost their money and went bankrupt. Many people blamed President Hoover for the depression because he refused to help and believed the government should not be responsible for the stock market crash.
Recently, there is a spike of historical films being released lately. One of the films is an Academy Award nominee for “Best Picture,” Selma. The film, Selma, is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The film shows the struggles of the black community face with the blockage of their voting rights and the racial inequality during the civil rights movement. Selma is about civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. heading to the rural Alabama City, Selma, to secure the voting rights for the African American community by having a march to Montgomery. It shows the struggles from what the African American community had to endured during the 1960s. Selma shows a social significance to today’s current events, specifically
In the latter half of the 18th century, freed slaves possessed the right to vote in all but three states. It was not until the 19th century that states began to pass laws to disenfranchise the black population. In 1850, only 6 out of the 31 states allowed blacks to vote. 1Following the civil war, three reconstruction amendments were passed. The first and second sought to end slavery and guarantee equal rights. The third, the 15th amendment, granted suffrage regardless of color, race, or previous position of servitude.2 The 15th Amendment monumentally changed the structure of American politics as it was no longer the privileged whites who could vote. For some it was as though hell had arrived on earth, but for others, it was freedom singing. However, the song was short lived. While many political cartoons from the period show the freedom that ex-slaves have for voting because of the 15th Amendment, they often neglect to include the fact that many African Americans were coerced into voting a certain way or simply had their rights stripped from them.
The observer can see this through the explicit cinematography of the movie and depiction of the Great Depression made by the director. However, the director left out a key aspect of the events of the depression, the stock market crash. Perhaps, this catastrophic event was irrelevant to the plot and message of the movie, but it is important to the actual Great Depression of the United States. Furthermore, the nation of 2010 is well on its way to repeating history. There are frightening similarities between that dreadful time of the 1930’s and the present that should not be overlooked, or the United States might condemn itself back into that horrific state it has so long tried to avoid.
When the stock market started failing, many factories closed production of all types of goods. Businesses and banks started closing down and farmers fell into bankruptcy. Many people lose everything, their jobs, their savings, and their homes. More than thirteen million people are unemployed. The Great Depression caused major political changes.
Individuals like the two young and rambunctious mortgage consultants portrayed in the film gave loans to anyone and everyone that could sign the paper, regardless of the recipient’s ability to pay the loan in full. It is doubtful that all consultants fully understood the ramifications of their actions, but undoubtedly the overall disregard for consequence was the start of the collapse. Mortgage consultants mislead and tricked people into loans they could never afford by playing on their desire to live the American dream. Distributing adjustable rate loans to individuals without jobs, without collateral is unconscionable. Unfortunately, from their perspective they were helping these individuals. In a twisted way, these consultants were acting ethically from a utilitarian point of view. The consultants won because they received utility in the form of a bonus for distributing the loans, and the loanee won because they could now afford the home of their dreams. What the consultants didn’t consider in their calculations were the long term results and utility of their actions, unethically building the flawed foundation of the housing