Segregation in the United States

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Segregation has been a major issue for hundreds of years, it wasn’t until 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed that African Americans and other races were to be treated as equals the sad truth, however is that it’s not over. When people think of segregation they think of separate water fountains, schools, bathrooms, busses, and even churches. Segregation is not something of the past like many of us would like to believe. In fact it’s an ongoing problem still today. In Little Rock Arkansas we see “one of the longest-running and most notorious school desegregation cases in the country” (Elliott). To understand continued segregation one must understand the history and the key people who played their part in it. The escape from Britain led to a different kind of enslavement in the new world. Africans arrived with Spanish and Portuguese explorers in 1619 and were sold by the captain of a Dutch man-of-war to settlers at Jamestown (Drewry). This was their first encounter with the American culture, needles to say it wasn’t the warmest welcome. As time went on Americans found it beneficial to prohibit the African Americans rights to learn to read and write “For many slaves, the ability to read and write meant freedom—if not actual, physical freedom, than intellectual freedom”(I Will Be Heard). To eliminate even this variety of freedom the Supreme Court passed a bill in 1830 to prevent all people from teaching slaves literature: “Be it enacted by the General Asembly [sic] of the State of North Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that any free person who shall hereafter teach or attempt to teach any slave within this State to read or write, the use of figures excepted, Shall be liable to indictment in any... ... middle of paper ... ...003.web.1/9/14 ""I Will Be Heard!" Abolitionism in America." "I Will Be Heard!" Abolitionism in America. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2014. Lewis, David Levering. "King, Martin Luther, Jr." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. "Parks, Rosa Louise (1913–2005)." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 24 Jan. 2014 Rubinstein, William D. "Jackie Robinson And The Integration Of Major League Baseball." History Today 53.9 (2003): 20. History Reference Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2014. "U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction." The New Book of Knowledge. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. "5.9 A Bill to Prevent All Persons from Teaching Slaves to Read or Write, the Use of Figures Excepted (1830)." A Bill to Prevent All Persons from Teaching Slaves to Read or Write, the Use of Figures Excepted (1830). N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

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