The Thirteenth Amendment and Slavery in The United States

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Recommended: Describe the cause and nature of slavery within the United States

In 1865, congress passed the thirteenth amendment, which was ratified on December 6, 1865. The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery in the United States permanently. It was thought by many African Americans that there would finally be peace, and that they too would be treated as fairly as the whites. This was sadly not the case. African Americans were brutally segregated and entrusted to hard times and conditions. Whites began to insist on racial segregation, which had been practiced before, and gave the feeling of superiority to the whites over African Americans. Many whites resisted the social changes, leading to revolting movements such as the Ku Klux Klan, whose members attacked African americans to maintain white dominance. This sparked the civil rights movement. Also called “freedom struggles”, these movements took place to obtain equal rights for African Americans. The sit in’s had a major impact on the psychological impact on African Americans. Not only was it the first African American sitting in, but other students started to follow the path of the Greensboro four and started to participate in sit ins as well. The sit in’s allowed for the civil rights for African Americans to be finally broadcasted live throughout the world. Even though the protesters heckled and beaten, they still sat and never moved, showing the resiliency of the protesters, and was a great role model for other African American protesters who decided it was time to fight against discrimination and fight for rights.

On February 1st, 1960, four African American college students from North Carolina A+T College, an all black college, went to be served at Woolworth’s restaurant. The restaurant was open to all customers, but only served whites at th...

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Schoolmeester, Kelly. “Greensboro, Nc, Students Sit-In for U.s. Civil Rights, 1960.”

nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu. January 02, 2010. Accessed May 22, 2014.http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/greensboro-nc-students-sit-us-civil-rights-1960.

Theoharis, Jeanne, and Athan Theoharis. These yet to Be United States: Civil Rights and Civil

Liberties in America Since 1945. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003.

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