Between the late 19th and early 20th century, a more diverse America, specifically in the South and West, had begun to noticeably come into existence. In South America, a number of African Americans are known to have first been present as slaves to the white men for many years, until after the North’s success in the Civil War. Moreover, soon after China’s devastating loss in the Opium War against the British, as well as around the time of the California Gold Rush, copious amounts of Chinese immigrants were found to be overflowing into the Western part of America. With the United States becoming noticeably more of a diverse group of peoples, the white men who felt they were superior to a majority of other races can be perceived to have been widely discriminatory against a multitude of them. Specifically speaking, African Americans in the South and Asian Chinese American immigrants in the West had both experienced some degree of racial conflicts originating from certain contributing political, economic, and social factors.
After the Civil War had ended, the destruction of African American slavery as a political system had been accomplished. With the 13th Amendment having been ratified, slaves gained their freedom from the white man’s control. Also, with the 14th Amendment, anyone who is either born or naturalized in America is thereby an American citizen and deserves all of the rights that are granted by the Constitution. In addition, with the 15th Amendment, anyone who is a citizen of the U.S. has the right to vote no matter their race, color, or previous servitude (Davidson 339). However, despite these adjustments to the Constitution, it did not mean that as soon as the Amendments were to be ratified that all African Americans wo...
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... African Americans and Chinese Americans to become completely equal. Through the economical factor, both African Americans and Chinese Americans were unable to obtain the jobs they imagined since certain whites who felt superior believed only their race deserved them. Meanwhile, white landowners became wealthy due to the cheap labor from African Americans and Chinese Americans, which also allowed for an increase in white’s land value. Through the social factor, both African Americans and Chinese Americans were able to live their lives as long as they separated themselves.
Works Cited
Davidson, James W., DeLay, Brian, Heyrman, Christine L., Lytle, Mark H., and Stoff, Michael
B. “U.S. a Narrative History.” New York: McGraw-Hill. 2012.
Takaki, Ronad. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Revised ed.
New York: Little, Brown, 1998. Print.
1868 marked a proud year for African Americans with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to Constitution. It proclaimed that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”1 This essentially color blinded government, and granted all citizens (a category which finally included African Americans) what is described in the document as indisputable equality.
...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.
Although many laws were passed that recognized African Americans as equals, the liberties they had been promised were not being upheld. Hoffman, Blum, and Gjerde state that “Union League members in a North Carolina county, upon learning of three or four black men who ‘didn’t mean to vote,’ threatened to ‘whip them’ and ‘made them go.’ In another country, ‘some few colored men who declined voting’ were, in the words of a white conservative, ‘bitterly persecute[ed]” (22). Black codes were also made to control African Americans. Norton et al. states that “the new black codes compelled former slaves to carry passes, observe a curfew, live in housing provided by a landowner, and give up hope of entering many desirable occupations” (476). The discrimination and violence towards African Americans during this era and the laws passed that were not being enforced were very disgraceful. However, Reconstruction was a huge stepping stone for the way our nation is shaped today. It wasn’t pretty but it was the step our nation needed to take. We now live in a country where no matter the race, everyone is considered equal. Reconstruction was a success. Without it, who knows where our nation would be today. African American may have never gained the freedoms they have today without the
...to the foundation of American Society. We continue to support and maintain these social norms through deliberated and non deliberated ways, forced servitude and the advancement of racial legislation fostered racism in the United States. The most intellectuals of their time, contemplated to the degree of what the New Worlds people were considered to be human. Some Europeans had hope for Natives and possible guidance, but it became evident, that profit and status were more viable entities than any sort of human decency or equality. As minorities began to unify and protest discrimination, legislation was built off of Anglo-Saxon domination and ideologies, only to continue to delay the growth of colored people. Laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act, Separate but Equal, and Jim Crow Laws are just a few examples of such legislation inflicted upon colored groups in America.
Despite the 14th and 15th constitutional amendments that guarantee citizenship and voting right regardless of race and religion, southern states, in practice, denied African Americans the right to vote by setting up literacy tests and charging a poll tax that was designed only to disqualify them as voters. In 1955, African Americans still had significantly less political power than their white counterparts. As a result, they were powerless to prevent the white from segregating all aspects of their lives and could not stop racial discrimination in public accommodations, education, and economic opportunities. Following the 1954 Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, it remained a hot issue in 1955. That year, however, it was the murder of the fourteen-year-old Emmett Louis Till that directed the nation’s attention to the racial discrimination in America.
After the abolishment of slavery at the conclusion of the Civil War in April of 1865, the United States saw an influx of new laws and policies that were meant to ensure the easy settlement of the freed slave. From earning the right to have full citizenship to gaining the right to vote, the decades after the Civil War proved to be essential for the African American especially for the men. Although there were many obstacles originated from deep rooted racism and classicism, a new legal race still managed to emerge. Yet, in order to fully understand how the African American race went from slave to a successful and free race, one must look at the political and social climate that was occurring after the Civil War. What laws were at the forefront
“The early Chinese immigrants came to America in search of gold, and the rest of them who came to help United States to build railroad; afterward some of the Chinese immigrants they sent large amount money back to their family, some of Chinese immigrants who stayed in United States”( Manuel). That’s how Chinatown was built. In our lecture, I studied that many of Chinese immigrants who were coming in the 1840s to 1860s were to look for gold, just like people were coming to California from all over the world to look for gold, At that time, China was controlled by Qing dynasty, and people who were living Guangdong province were suffering poor disease, and war, so they did seek a place to make large amount money. Later on, they had a new mission, the Chinese immigrants built railroad for American. The Chinese immigrants found that the American people did not like them at all, even though they were working diligently. In our lecture, we see many photos of old Chinese immigrants, the photos of building the railroad, the photos of digging gold, and the photos that when they were treated unfairly. Chinese American should not forget those tough, being discrimination, and poor days; Chinese American should thank their predecessors. But today, everything is changed; Chinese
It was during the 1850s that the number of Chinese-Americans increased. Why is this? The answer is tree simple words: “The Gold Rush”. Almost everyone and their mother grew really excited by the prospect of making it big in new frontier that was “The West”. In addition, some adventurers and travelers were enthusiastic about the idea of expansion in itself. Many people heard the call of Manifest Destiny. With these large droves of Ch...
African Americans have a history of struggles because of racism and prejudices. Ever since the end of the Civil War, they struggled to benefit from their full rights that the Constitution promised. The fourteenth Amendment, which defined national citizenship, was passed in 1866. Even though African Americans were promised citizenship, they were still treated as if they were unequal. The South had an extremely difficult time accepting African Americans as equals, and did anything they could to prevent the desegregation of all races. During the Reconstruction Era, there were plans to end segregation; however, past prejudices and personal beliefs elongated the process.
After hundreds of years of slavery in the western world, the end of the American Civil War brought forth a new age of questions which debated what rights qualifed as unalienable civil and human rights, and who should be afforded them. Whether it be the right to marry, the right to own land, the right to work, the right to vote, or the right to be a citizen, African Americans had to fight for and prove that these were rights that could not be denied to them as freedmen in America. After the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, there was a great split in opinion between white and black Americans about what American freedom entailed and whether or not African Americans had fair access to it.
The eastern frontier became the start of the “melting pot” due to many settlers coming in and settling in different areas in America. However, once people start migrating towards the west, everyone started to travel together and settle in together with people who were of the same race or ethnic group. Because many people settled together in the western frontier, racial tension rose between each group. For example, before the migration into the frontier, there was already discrimination between the whites and the Natives and blacks. Some wondered which race was better than the other, Natives or blacks, and what about Asians, how superior are the Asians, or the Hispanics (52). In the western frontier,...
Today we live in a world of which some have come to understand where it all came from. So many different little contributions have accumulated over the years to create “today” in the United States of America. Not one factor is more important than the next, however, some have had a larger, lasting impact today. Immigration and racial discrimination have played the most important role as to why American society has altered. In 1917 America entered World War one. By doing this America played a grave role in conquering Germany and ushering peace to Europe. However, the Great War also meant that the US would change dramatically through historical issues and changes which resulted in American society. Industries had started to realize that it was not as simple as it was before to abstract the immigrants. As the country developed and became more successful it attracted outsiders who were searching for chances. During the 1920’s the United States began to confine immigrants due to cultural and economical purposes.
According to Lee, Chinese, Japanese and South Asians were among the largest groups of Asians to migrate to and throughout the Americas in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Lee, 2). We first read about the Asians immigrating to the western states before WWII. What we did not go into was their immigration into other countries such as Mexico, Canada and Brazil. Before WWII, Japanese settled in Latin America. During the war, 33% of the Chinese lived in Latin America and the Caribbean, 46% in the United States, and 21% in Canada (Lee, 4). After the 1882 exclusion act, Chinese began to migrate to Canada and Mexico and crossed the border into United States illegally. In Latin America, Brazil and Peru followed in the anti-immigration footsteps of the United States and established their own anti-immigration laws in 1926 and again in 1934 which forced the Asian populations to go from Brazil to Paraguay and Argentina, from Peru to Bolivia. The total exclusion of Asians under the United States immigration act of 1924 prompted similar policies in Canada, Brazil and Peru in the 1920s and 1930s. Lee dubbed these movements the Domino effect of immigration since they kept moving from country to country, being chased out by discrimination and anti-racial laws (Lee, 20).
It isn’t just that Chinese-Americans have developed a “‘how dare they look down on me’ mentality and an iron will to succeed.” It’s more that the second wave of Chinese immigrants—those who have formed the foundation of current Chinese communities—were professionals (nurses, doctors, and engineers) who brought wealth and education with them. (Most of the first-wave Chinese, who were poor railroad workers and miners, died or were sent back.)
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