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Voting rights have been a constant struggle for most people in America. During the eighteenth century, only property owning white men were able to vote. This means that the colored individuals and women were excluded from the basic right to vote. The southern white society deeply opposed the idea of African Americans voting, creating discriminating legislations furthering the problem in a society dominated by White Americans. Lyndon B. Johnson outlines the differences between the law and justice and emphasize the fact that laws must be questioned in order for justice to be served. Laws are created for an equal platform for all citizens of America but some laws do not encompass the entire situation to serve justice.
In the “American Promise: Message to Congress”, Lyndon B. Johnson expands on the fundamental rights America was founded upon and how certain groups do not achieve those equal rights due to race and color of skin. Even after the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were passed, the underlying discrimination among the White American community continued. “Our mission is ... the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man” (Johnson 103). The American Revolution was fought for certain ideals that were set in place for all citizens, but some groups were denied these rights. These minority groups were living in America searching for freedom. America was founded on words like “Give me liberty or give me death,” and “All men are created equal.” “In their [powerful words like these] name Americans fought and died for two centuries” (Johnson 104). Americans of all class, gender, and race have been fighting for and protecting the country for the words the nation stands by. They are not jus...
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...t that to achieve equal rights, there needs to be a change in the political system. In order to provide equality of rights, the Voting Rights Act (1965) was established. The transition from the “struggle for human rights” to equality did not have any clear boundaries. Justice was not completely exercised because most laws contradicted the principles America was built upon. To move forward as a society, injustice can be remedied through challenging the laws created upon the dominant ideologies that were limited to certain groups of people.
Law and justice are two completely separate things as Lyndon B. Johnson clearly outlines in his “Special Message to the Congress.” Laws are enacted to provide equality for African Americans; however, when they are implemented, other factors such as pre-clearance requirements for each state prevent African Americans from voting.
Although the U.S. Constitution states that “all men are created equal,” during America’s early days it only applied to upper class white men. This upsets many people in the United States. When the Constitution first came into play, only the rich white men were treated right. As the years progressed, more and more whites
Lasting hatred from the civil war, and anger towards minorities because they took jobs in the north probably set the foundation for these laws, but it has become difficult to prove. In this essay, I will explain how the Separate but Equal Laws of twentieth century America crippled minorities of that time period forever. Separate but Equal doctrine existed long before the Supreme Court accepted it into law, and on multiple occasions it arose as an issue before then. In 1865, southern states passed laws called “Black Codes,” which created restrictions on the freed African Americans in the South. This became the start of legal segregation as juries couldn’t have African Americans, public schools became segregated, and African Americans had restrictions on testifying against majorities.
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.
She first presented her insights with an elaborate historical background of how, a century later, the Jim Crow Laws are still present in our society. Alexander introduces us to the Cotton family who were denied their right to participate in the American electoral democracy on not only one or two occasion, but on several occasions. Alexander suggests that this denial is a generational wrong by the government, as she highlights the injustices that the Cotton family encountered as black individuals born in the United States. Jarvious Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote because he was a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Ku Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was highly intimidated by the Ku Klux Klan. His father was subjected to a literacy test that prevented him from voting. Now, Jarvious Cotton cannot vote because he, like many other black men in the United States, has been labeled as a felon and is on parole (Alexander 1). According to Alexander, once one is given the title of a “felon” the old forms of discrimination arise: unemployment, housing, education, public services and denial of the right to vote the list goes on and on (Alexander
Throughout history, there has been a struggle for equality and justice. The oppression that African Americans have received throughout the generational period in which they first arrived in America has continued to be a raging war. Article I, Section 8 of the American Constitution enabled Congress to have certain rights and authorities over the laws. In the evaluation of the 1700s, 1800s, 1950s, and 1990s, the prolific effects can be seen through specific Congressional Acts.
After slavery was in abolished between the 1870’s to the mid 1960’s in the Southern States, The Jim Crow laws was the practice of discriminating against African Americans, This Laws were the belief that whites were superior and more dominate to blacks. So they kept public places segregated and placed restrictions upon blacks. Restriction of the right to vote was a version of social control that African Americans were shown the hardships of. As a citizen of the United States of American, you might think you have the freedom to vote. However, if you are a black American and live in the South, you do not.” This is quoted by author Stetson Kennedy in his book called Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was (147). A lot of black Americans that lived in the Southern states were not able to vote, and even if they wanted to or tried to, they had to pass certain tests or even pay outrageous poll taxes that they could not afford. Also, places that were hiring workers were segregated as well; “White southerners would not want to work under black supervisors and most white craftsmen did not hire African...
This sentence, written in the Declaration of Independence, contains some of the most powerful words ever written. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” (US 1776). They invoke feelings of pride and integrity in the hearts and minds of most Americans. However, these magnificent, well-intentioned words that were written in 1776 are over-shadowed by feelings of shame, sorrow and betrayal for how men, women and children were rejected as human beings worthy of equality simply because of the color of their skin. While things have improved for African Americans in the past two hundred years, we still have not gotten it exactly right. The treatment of African Americans is still a source of frustration for those who truly want to believe in the power of the words “all men are created equal”.
Since the beginning of American history, citizens who resided the country lacked the basic civil rights and liberties that humans deserved. Different races and ethnicities were treated unfairly. Voting rights were denied to anyone who was not a rich, white male. Women were harassed by their bosses and expected to take care of everything household related. Life was not all that pretty throughout America’s past, but thankfully overtime American citizens’ civil liberties and rights expanded – granting Americans true freedom.
the laws and male African Americans at a certain age, were now given the ballot.
Frederick Douglas, perhaps the most famous abolitionists in history, made it known that after the Civil War, African Americans should be equal to whites. To Douglas, the definition of equality would be the, “immediate, unconditional, and universal enfranchisement of the black man, in every state of the union.” Douglas reasoned that without this specific right that, “he is the slave of society.” Without the right to vote, African Americans would still be second class citizens to whites, and still subjected to white superiority, especially in the South, which would be very much like slavery. Racism was abundant throughout the United States, so the thinki...
The White House which is strictly political, and white houses which is both political and cultural. It becomes political when the McKay says, “To hold me to the letter of your law” (Locke 134). This line refers to the law of the land but what’s fascinating about this line is that is word “your”. The use of your makes it also cultural because of African-Americans were not politically incorporated. This ultimately became a cultural issue because of the Jim Crow laws. One of the provisions within Jim Crow were the literary test. Which if a person could not read or write, they could not ultimately vote (Ferris 2016). Therefore, since many African-Americans could not vote do to cultural norms, then why should they follow American law if they were not given a
Throughout the history of the United States, racial discrimination has always been around our society. Many civil rights movements and laws had helped to minimize the amount of discrimination towards every single citizen, but discrimination is something that will not ever disappear. On March 15, 1965, Lyndon Baines Johnson gave a speech that pointed out the racial injustice and human rights problems of America in Washington D.C. He wanted every citizen of the United States to support his ideas to overcome and solve the racial injustice problems as a nation. Throughout the speech, Lyndon Johnson used several rhetorical concepts to persuade the audience. He is speaking to all the citizens in the nation and
Nearly three centuries ago, black men and women from Africa were brought to America and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had practiced slavery. African Americans didn’t gain their freedom until after the Civil War, nearly one-hundred years later. Even though African Americans were freed and the constitution was amended to guarantee racial equality, they were still not treated the same as whites and were thought of as second class citizens. One man had the right idea on how to change America, Martin Luther King Jr. had the best philosophy for advancing civil rights, he preached nonviolence to express the need for change in America and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for economic and social equality.
Diversity, we define this term today as one of our nation’s most dynamic characteristics in American history. The United States thrives through the means of diversity. However, diversity has not always been a positive component in America; in fact, it took many years for our nation to become accustomed to this broad variety of mixed cultures and social groups. One of the leading groups that were most commonly affected by this, were African American citizens, who were victimized because of their color and race. It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s during the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place yet, it is the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools. Integration in white schools played a major role in the battle for Civil Rights in the South, upon the coming of independence for all African American people in the United States after a series of tribulations and loss of hope.
Voting rights was one of the number one issues that black people had to face because those who were in charge of the voting poll made it hard for black folks. For example, they ...