Ending Segregation in America
Ending Segregation in America
At the turn of the century the United States was starting to become a symbol of democracy for the world. However, a significant problem was dwelling in the shadows of this great nation. This significant problem was a lack of racial equality with African Americans and the dominant view that privileged White Americans were superior over all other ethnic groups including immigrants. From the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to present day, African Americans have struggled with civil rights and segregation. This paper will address how African Americans have worked to end segregation, discrimination, and isolation to attain equality and civil rights. The specific issues that will be addressed are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the Jim Crow Laws, the creation of the NAACP, and African American advancements from World War I through the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King.
In 1861 the United States entered into a civil war, which has been the bloodiest war in American history. The war started when the Confederate South seceded from the United Sates primarily because they wanted to preserve their rights to keep African Americans as slaves. The Northern states did not agree. Bowles states, “many believe that slavery was arguably the essential issue of antebellum life because it led the nation into two diverging directions that ultimately led to the most deadly war in American history” (2011, p. 27 – 28). After 4 years of battle the North emerged as the victor and set into motion the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, which were written to end slavery in America. However, many southern people did not agree with this and even though they were free, African Americans started a long road to equality.
In 1909 W.E.B. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folks, which Bowles states, “in a brief forethought to the reader,...