Climbing Up To Glory Essay

Some might argue that the right to free speech or the right to own property is what makes someone a true American citizen. In Wilbert L. Jenkins’s book, Climbing Up to Glory: A Short History of African Americans During the Civil War and Reconstruction, the right to vote is considered a major accomplishment when gaining the rights of an American citizen. These voting rights are so important that African Americans fought constantly to acquire them. Even as whites built barricades to stop the newly freed slaves from voting, African Americans rose above to claim their voting rights and political interest.
Ever since the founding of the United States of America, it was common to see a slave of African descent in a white American citizen’s household.

Along with intense days of labor, abuse, and malnutrition, these slaves simply had no rights. This was because people of African descent were not considered a citizen of the United States of America, but rather a tool for the whites. This all changed in 1863 when all slaves were freed due to the passing of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln gave African Americans the right to be free citizens of the United States no matter what the heritage, complexion, or origin of that person might be. Yet, as newly minted citizens of the United States, there were still restrictions to what they were able to do; such as the right to vote. Therefore, the African American citizens protested anything that would pose a threat to their unfamiliar rights of being an American citizen and they would not stop until they got what they sought.
On the 30th of March in 1870, the freedmen’s prayers were answered. Every male citizen was granted the right to vote in the United States of America due to the Fifteenth Amendment. This new Amendment stated that “the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (218). African American males now had a right to vote for the political party, both local and national, of their choice. They now felt as if they were true American citizens because they were equal to the white men on the voting ballot.
As things were beginning to look up for the newfound American citizens, white and outraged Southern citizens came up with several loopholes to stop their former slaves from voting.

First came the poll taxes, which required all voting citizens to pay a fee when they entered their ballot. Of course, most of the newly freed slaves had no money to spare and therefore, were not able to submit their ballot at the poll booths. Then there was the literacy test that filtered out the voters who could not read, which made it illegal for them to vote. Most African Americans at the time did not have enough education to pass the literacy test since they only knew labor their whole lives and were often beaten if they attempted to learn. With the literacy test in place, only a few, educated freedmen could pass the test and enter the voting booth. With the literacy test set in place, some whites could not vote so the grandfather clause was passed. This allowed the illiterate whites to enter the poll booth without being questioned. The clause stated that if an American, male citizen had a grandfather who could vote, that citizen could also vote without even looking at the literacy test. In 1870, this was the first generation of African Americans who could vote, so none of their ancestors voted before, and therefore, this clause was not applied to

them.
Even though the whites found many ways to stop African Americans from voting, a few of them were still able to reach the poll booth and submit their ballot.

Southern whites were upset that even a few of the former slaves could make the same political decisions as them. So many whites set out to go to even the longest extents to stop this unspeakable menace. Organized with the goal of stopping every dark colored person from voting, the Ku Klux Klan, which was first formed in 1866, made a statement by intensifying their violent and intimidating acts. Their major goal was “to intimidate blacks so that they would fear for their lives and stop supporting the Republican Party” (222). To accomplish this, the Klansmen set out wearing their full white cloaks to whip, shoot, and rape the freed slaves who were still able to vote. They made camp at the poll stations used by African Americans and gave traumatizing warnings to the freedmen who were able to vote. The Ku Klux Klan greatly reduced the number of freedmen from voting yet some of them were so determined that they found ways to submit their ballots and suffered the consequences shortly after. This is a great example of how determined African Americans were to exercise their voting

rights.
Southern whites were not the only people who were determined to control the male, black citizens’ voting tendencies. Another opposing threat was living in the same house as the freedmen and even sharing the bed with them. Men were the only ones to vote at the time no matter what their heritage was. This small factor did not stop the wives of able voters from telling their husbands the “correct” view on political issues and who to vote for. If their husband talked about potentially voting for the Democrat party, some women, determined to change their husband’s mind, “formed political clubs and … denied their would-be Democratic husbands the pleasures of the bedroom” (226). The women also threatened to beat their husbands if they were to vote against the party that freed them, the Republican Party.
On top of being able to vote, another wonderful thing about the United States government is the opportunity to be part of the government system. African Americans were not able to play an important role in the government until the 2nd of March in 1867 when the Reconstruction Act was passed. This act divided the old Confederate states into five military districts. To achieve this, loyal voters were registered from which delegates were selected. Yet there was a part of the Reconstruction Act that roughly stated “that the electorate who chose delegates to the state constitutional conventions had to include blacks” (211). In other words, African Americans were guaranteed a position in the Southern states’ government. Although the freedmen were promised to have some power and speak in a higher-power position, they were never quite equal to the white governors. Power was lost when they had to go against a white governor who had opposing thoughts.
Almost every newly elected colored governor came from a slave background and the freedmen saw this as an opportunity to possess some leverage in the government. Yet when it came time to pass new laws, they treated freed slaves the same way that the whites did. This happened because the elected African Americans turned their back on their heritage for their own interest in engrossing wealth.
When the Southern whites realized that there were blacks in office, they picked up their attacks. The Ku Klux Klan murdered male African Americans as a sign that they will not give up until white men held all political power once again. Not only were men effected by the Klan but these hooded men would also rape colored women. When using black citizens as a message was not enough to cleanse the government of African Americans, the Ku Klux Klan then targeted the African Americans in office. Their family and homesteads were a main target to personally threaten the African Americans in office. Others were beaten, run out of town, or, in some cases, murdered.
In the end, after years of fighting back against brutal acts, discrimination, cults, and political bills, African Americans finally got the complete right to vote freely and hold government positions. Even though African Americans should have legally been able to vote since 1870 by the Fifteen Amendment, they never stopped fighting and eventually were able to be true American citizens by exercising their right to vote. In present day America, African Americans have the right to vote and can freely hold positions in the government, but many American citizens feel like there is still a strong sense of discrimination due to their ancestry. Will America face another uprising due to discrimination eventually? Is there still an act of discrimination to African Americans in a free country?