However, just because of the new amendment it was not going to be taken seriously by citizens because they did not change their beliefs. The controversy that the blacks faced when they were newly emancipated was very violent because they did not have the respect of the whites and they would not be treated equally. To continue, the first state to create laws governing the issue of free blacks and restricting what they could do in everyday life was Mississippi. They wanted to restrict what they could do... ... middle of paper ... ...eliefs on how blacks are received. The Emancipation Proclamation was a major turning point in our country’s modern history, but reconstruction caused major conflicts that to many years to resolve.
Ostracism in and of itself is a condition no human wants to experience but compounded with disrespect and abuse, it describes the condition of the African Americans prior to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth , and Fifteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment supposedly outlawed slavery; however, whites still found ways around the law in order to keep blacks below them. The Fourteenth Amendment granted blacks citizenship, but they were still denied basic rights. The Fifteenth Amendment granted blacks the right to vote; however, most blacks were incapable of voting due to specific obstacles. Jim Crow Laws were an extreme obstacle in the integration of African Americans.
The federal government was still inconsistently protecting the rights of blacks. The senate hired a pro-segregationist which angered African Americans. The movement also tended to ignore racism in the north. African Americans were also frustrated with the amount of white back lash and violence they were receiving from the movement. “The Basics of Black Power”, an article that opposes the SNCC, states “ Black people cannot relate to SNCC because of its unrealistic, nonracial atmosphere; denying their experience of America as a racist society.” (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 2) This is what lead to the black power movement, people felt like the only way to fight racism is with violence.
The discouragement came from the dominant White American extremists. The racial divide in the United States during the 1960’s was an eye opener for activists, whether black or white. The segregation between the two colors was a disgrace, the United States was supposed to be the land of the free but unfortunately some were too closed minded to see this. The events that took place during the 1960’s started a new revolution to a new era. Though it took a lot of time and hardship, segregation between the Whites and the Blacks were slowly but surely coming to an end.
People worried mainly about how blurring the lines between White and African American territory would cause property values to plummet and destroy the community. This of course was a valid fear at the time because nobody liked the idea that they could wind up living next door to someone who did not share their skin color. Fear is what caused the incident at Garland Street. It was not simply the idea of an African American moving into a White covenant, it was fear. Often times, the fear of another is what led to violent clashes like in the Detroit Race Riots of the 1960's.
Skepticism about government is, in many respects, part of the DNA of Americans. This skepticism is not without reason – the actions of American politicians in the 1960s and 70s caused much of America to wonder about the motives of elected officials. However, such skepticism is rarely brought up when discussing the government’s participation in denouncing oppression against the African-American community. Most assume the government enforced equal opportunity for minorities out of compassion and humanity. However, much like the other major actions of the government during that era, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a groundbreaking law condemning segregation, was not devoid of personal motives.
They also believed that judges were very racist. One of the main problems though was the fact that blacks couldn’t vote unless they took an IQ test, which the whites made impossible to complete. Without the vote, blacks couldn’t change the racist sheriffs, politicians, police officers etc. In 1960’s, blacks began to disagree among themselves about the best ways to gain more civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King started to find himself in a position where he no longer had the control that he used to over the black’s civil rights movement and also found that his idea of bringing the changes peacefully falling away beneath his feet.
Nevertheless, many eligible black citizens were prevented from voting; especially in the Southern states of America. Long-standing Southern congressmen exploited their authority to halt legislation that would help blacks. The power of the state governments allowed the continuation of white supremacy and discrimination; the state governments controlled education, transportation and law enforcement. As a result, enfranchisement did not bring greater equality to the black community in America. However, external events such as the two World Wars and the Great Depression encouraged greater equality between blacks and whites.
Many people were threatened, beaten and harassed by a group known as Ku Klux Klan trying to fight for what was right like voting privilege. Although, they struggled to get their voice heard it was worth the probable cause even if that meant putting their life in danger. The South did not come easy especially for minorities living in America like Edesha said, Whites had sworn since before reconstruction that we blacks would not only know our place but stay in it forever. This showed that after slavery was abolished some white people did not want to make a change in society under the law some whites still wanted to be separated from all blacks and those who did not fit their description. It seems like the whites were afraid that African Americans would someday take over and treat them the same way they were being treated, and that was mentally, verbally, and physically abuse just cause of their skin color and ethnicity.
Segregation is not something that America, as a whole, would be okay with now. It would create an awkwardness around the country, especially because of all the different races living here now. The insight from the book on the case of Plessy v. Ferguson goes to show what "Jim Crow Laws" are. Jim Crow was the powerhouse behind all of the sequester of blacks and whites in the U.S. The laws were the brainchild from it, too.