A major limitation that has cost numerous groups of people their basic rights, injustice, and even their lives remains a constant struggle to contain. Discrimination, a pestilence since the beginning of society, is the root of prejudice, preconceptions, and power disparities. To simplify the myriad that is discrimination, two types are constructed: de facto and de jure. De facto discrimination involves segregation in cultural, social, and economic factors. It tends to be very subtle and is engrained in societal structures. On the other hand, de jure discrimination encompasses the direct prejudice against certain groups of people by governmental laws, policies, and officials. This type is usually very overt compared to de facto discrimination …show more content…
Biracial couples could face criminal charges, marriage invalidation, and loss of custody rights. Not to mention the huge social stigma it posed. Society would ridicule and exclude interracial couples. Furthermore, when the Reconstruction era ended in 1876 a presidential election occurred. Rutherford B. Hayes won the election by saying he would end reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South if he was voted for. During this time, southern states started to retract any civil rights protections put in place during the Reconstruction Era. Eventually, this resulted in the creation of Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow laws enforced the segregation of whites and African Americans in essentially all aspects of life: restaurants, bathrooms, theaters, transportation, etc. Restrictions on voting were put in place, such as literacy tests and taxes. African Americans weren’t allowed to learn to read and write as slaves, so therefore, they couldn’t pass the literacy tests to be allowed to vote. Jobs were also extremely hard for African Americans to come by or get a decent amount of pay, so paying the voting taxes prevented many African Americans from …show more content…
As described earlier, de facto is the type of discrimination that is intrinsically engrained into society, and, therefore, much harder to combat. This type of discrimination can occur in the workforce. When an employer is exploring potential hires, they discard individuals due to their race, gender, or age. Whether unintentionally or not, a black person may be hired instead of a white person because the company aims to increase its diversity. Not solely because he is more qualified. Similarly, if two people are up for a promotion, a man and a woman, the boss may unconsciously choose the man due to the stereotype that men work harder and are smarter. This instance could also go the other way. If the boss is a woman, she might be inclined to promote the woman instead of the man solely because she’s a woman. While it’s illegal to discriminate against pregnant women or women who may soon become pregnant, employers tend to hesitate to hire those women. This is due to the woman needing maternity leave, etc. This issue was addressed by the government under The Pregnancy Discrimination Act to prevent the hire, termination, promotion, or incompetent compensation of a pregnant/childbearing-age
Reconstruction(1865-1877) was the time period in which the US rebuilt after the Civil War. During this time, the question the rights of freed slaves in the United States were highly debated. Freedom, in my terms, is the privilege of doing as you please without restriction as long as it stays within the law. However, in this sense, black Americans during the Reconstruction period were not truly free despite Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. While legally free, black Americans were still viewed through the lens of racism and deeply-rooted social biases/stigmas that prevented them from exercising their legal rights as citizens of the United States. For example, black Americans were unable to wholly participate in the government as a
After a war that claimed the lives of more men than that of all other wars combined, much of the country was left in ruins, literally and figuratively. Dozens of towns in the South had been burned to the ground. Meanwhile, the relations between the North and South had crumbled to pieces. Something needed to be done so that the country could once again be the United States of America, not the Divided States of America. The years from 1865 to 1877 were a time of rebuilding – the broken communities and the broken relations. This time period was known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure on the basis that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were passed should have given protection and freedom to the African American people, instead, it actually hurt them because the laws were not enforced, and eventually lead to the organization of white supremacy terrorist groups.
During the Reconstruction Period, many Southern states passed laws that productively disenfranchised African Americans. The Civil Rights Acts of 1875 should have protected blacks against discrimination in public places when Reconstruction ended in 1877. Segregation lived throughout the South. The Democrats wanted to stop the blacks from voting so they could take away all the rights blacks had achieved. African Americans were so furious because all of their hard work was crumbling right before their eyes. There were many laws passed to keep African Americans separated from the public such as the Jim Crow Laws. They also imposed a poll tax, a literacy test, proof of residency, and other requirements for voting. They knew this would have a huge effect on African Americans because they could not afford to pay the poll tax, and it was illegal to teach African Americans so most of them were illiterate. Everyone started to see what the lawmakers were doing and how far they were willing to go to disfranchise black voters. Many Northern legislatures were enraged with how the South was taking ...
The social conditions throughout the era were extremely poor. Legal discrimination was around and African Americans were denied democratic rights and freedoms. The southern states would pass strict laws to normalize interactions between white people and African Americans. For example, Jim Crow signs were placed above regularly visited places by everyone, such as water fountains, public facilities, door entrances and exits, etc. Even the most basic rights such as drinking from a water fountain was taken away from African Americans. They would also have separate buildings for African
Back in the early 1800’s, America was having a hard time accepting others. The Americans did not like having immigrants living in the same area, and they really hated when immigrants took their jobs. Many Americans discriminated against African Americans even if they were only ⅛ African American. Americans were not ready to share their country and some would refuse to give people the rights they deserved. This can be seen in the Plessy vs Ferguson and Yick Wo vs Hopkins. In Plessy vs Ferguson, Plessy was asked to go to the back of the train because he was ⅛ African American.
In 1863 to 1877 Reconstruction brought an end to slavery, it paved the way for the former slaves to become citizens. The African Americans wanted complete freedom. However, that right became a setback and were seen as second class citizens. Before the end of the Reconstruction, a legislation was passed called the Jim Crow law. The law enforced the segregation of people of African descent. The legislation was a system to ensure the exclusion of racial groups in the Southern States. For example, separate transportation law, school division, different waiting rooms both at the bus terminals and hospitals, separate accommodations, marriage law and voting rights. The Jim Crow law was supposed to help in racial segregation in the South. Instead,
The Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War was created to represent a period of political, economical, and social reconstruction of the Northern Union and the eleven Confederate states of the South. Though the conclusion of the Civil War and commencement of the Reconstruction Era represented the conclusion of slavery throughout the United States, it did not guarantee African Americans racial equality and freedom from prejudice and segregation in Southern states of the U.S. The few advancements during the Reconstruction Era, such as the establishments of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments failed to out weigh the extreme segregation caused by the early Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, gruesome violence derived from lynching tactics of Southern, white conservatives, political disasters caused by the restrictions on voting rights, and social injustice that the African Americans of the nineteenth and twentieth century experienced. Throughout the period of racial prejudice and unequal rights among races, the lives of African Americans were greatly influenced by black leaders who provided hope for a future Civil Rights movement and solutions to racial injustice in their modern day society.
The Black population and the Hispanic population faced great discrimination and prejudice. Since, these populations were not considered to be part of the white folk, they did not have much freedoms or privileges. America viewed the Hispanic and Black population as not being a part of the US.
In American history, many men and women have been confronted with hardships such as inequality and discrimination. The early American colonist had to fight for their rights: this applied to white men. African American men would have to wait another 90 years befor their rights. Women would have to wait even longer.. Three documents that express a similar desire to obtain freedom, equality, and independence are “The Declaration Of Independence,” by Thomas Jefferson, “The Declaration Of Sentiments,” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, and finally, “A Disappointed Woman,” by Lucy Stone. The rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, logos, diction, analogy, and imagery, help contribute to the authors arguments regarding the themes of freedom, equality, and independence. “The Declaration of Independence,” is an outstanding model of how rhetorical strategies can be used to express the needs of equality.
Reconstruction was intended to give African-Americans the chance for a new and better life. Many of them stayed with their old masters after being freed, while others left in search of opportunity through education as well as land ownership. However this was not exactly an easy task. There were many things standing in their way, chiefly white supremacists and the laws and restrictions they placed upon African-Americans. Beginning with the 'black codes' established by President Johnson's reconstruction plan, blacks were required to have a curfew as well as carry identification. Labor contracts established under Johnson's Reconstruction even bound the 'freedmen' to their respective plantations. A few years later, another set of laws known as the 'Jim Crow' laws directly undermined the status of blacks by placing unfair restrictions on everything from voting rights all the way to the segregation of water fountains. Besides these restrictions, the blacks had to deal with the Democratic Party whose northern wing even denounced racial equality. As a result of democratic hostility and the Republican Party's support of Black suffrage, freedmen greatly supported the Republican Party.
The Reconstruction Period which may also be known as the Radical Reconstruction took place from 1865 to 1877 (Foner, 439). Throughout this time a coherent definition for Freedom was not yet established leading to many disadvantages mainly to the African American communities. During this time political, social and economic issues affected the South. Therefore, regaining order in the Confederate state became important to the Union. By 1865 Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau which brought a successful outcome, but was not sufficient to cure all established problems. According to Eric Foner the Freedmen’s Bureau was seen as a government experiment with the idea of establishing a sense of equality between social interactions. Not only this but it offered assistance to the poor and aged it brought about peace between the whites, blacks and freed people it helped establish equality between different social classes in the presence of courts. Many expectations were placed when established, but unfortunately not all were accomplished. Even though notable outcomes were seen, by the end of 1877 African Americans experienced disenfranchisement, segregation and racism. By making use of Ways of white folks written by Langston Hughes and Give me Liberty by Eric Foner both authors help depict an accurate idea of African American and White social and cultural interaction.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, a big question was left: what does the future look like for freed slaves in America? For so long - 246 years, since the first African slave arrived in Virginia in 1619 - Southern African Americans were forced into slavery. However, in 1856, as a result of the Union’s win in the American Civil War and the determination of many, they were finally free - at least legally. The Civil War left a big dent on the South and tension was rising between whites and blacks. In the meantime, African Americans needed help, or else they would fall into the trenches of the American society once again. This was a time of crucial social change for Southern blacks, and the effects of Reconstruction on white and black race relations in America are still apparent and alive today.
Jim Crow Laws, enforced in 1877 in the south, were still being imposed during the 1930s and throughout. These laws created segregation between the two races and created a barrier for the Blacks. For example, even though African Americans were allowed to vote, southern states created a literary test exclusively for them that was quite difficult to pass, since most Blacks were uneducated. However, if they passed the reading test, they were threatened with death. Also, they had to pay a special tax to vote, which many African Americans could not afford.
For this paper the topics that will be discussed are going to cover the Reconstruction era and the Civil Rights movement. These two topics are important to understand the impact that they had on society and the country as a whole. A nation that is still struggling to understand its own identity, during these periods there was a clash of visions to create what America’s image is today. Even though these events occurred one hundred years apart, the message was clearly related on the idea of equality. These events single handedly fought for social tolerance amongst black and white Americans, without these events who knows how our country would have developed.
The Effects on the American People during Reconstruction The Reconstruction era, spanning from 1865 to 1877, was a transformational period in American history. Reconstruction was marked by significant political, economic, gender, and racial shifts in the aftermath of the Civil War. Politically during Reconstruction, there was the major struggle to integrate the Confederate states back into the Union and the making of the rights for the newly freed African Americans. Economically, the South was faced with the huge task of rebuilding the infrastructure of the Southern states and transitioning from a slave-based economy to a free labor economy. Gender shifts for all women, particularly African American women, as they navigate their new roles