The African American experience in America has been a treacherous journey.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a small number of blacks earned their freedom, acquired property, and obtained access to American civilization. Most slaves migrated or attempted to migrate North where slavery was less of a way of life. In the early 1800s, many whites and blacks called for an abolishment of slavery. That sparked the creation of the Civil War. Many African Americans from the North volunteered to fight for the Union. Although, some were unable to volunteer, they helped by being spies and guides on Confederate territory. Once African Americans defeated the Confederacy, they remained in the South to guarantee slaves were awarded their newly won independence. African Americans then began to construct their own churches and schools. Many southern whites reacted by joining hate groups such as the Klu Klux Klan and organized raids and lynching’s. White hate groups burned African American owned homes, churches, and schools. Many African Americans were burned alive, hanged, and even hacked to death. They lived under a constant threat of violence and began “The Great Migration” north in the beginning of the 1890s.
After the Civil War, African Americans were left under the belief that they had won their freedom, but the U.S. government did little to assist them. Instead of creating laws to protect African Americans, the southern legislatures constructed a set of laws called the “Black Code” that impaired the rights of blacks, leaving them under the control of whites. The change of status of African Americans took much more than a war. . Less then 10 years after the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was joined with the U.S. Constitution. It was the only legislation established to boost the status of African Americans, but unfortunately for the next 100 years blacks became regular victims of violence and discrimination as they tried to climb up...