How the Black Americans Struggled to End Discrimination and Attain Civil Rights - Research Paper Example

?How the Black American’s Struggled to end Discrimination and attain Civil Rights The struggle by the Black-American to attain equality and end segregation and discrimination has a long history. The blacks were denied access to so many things and they never had the same privileges as those the whites received. Their basic rights such as voting were denied. Many black activists have struggled in the fight to ensure that their brothers and sisters get respected and that they receive the same treatment as the whites. This struggle led to death of many people who were against the discriminatory practices of the whites. Various methods have been evident in this struggle with others being dropped because of their incapability to address their needs. Most of these methods have worked and they have contributed to the success of the liberation of the black population from the discriminatory practices of the whites. There are various methods and tactics that were used to achieve equality and end discrimination and isolation especially after the end of civil war in America. The most common were based on two philosophies and were seen as very effective in achieving their intended outcomes. But, as we shall see, these methods emerged as ineffective and other tactics had to be thought of to help in the struggle. The first method or philosophy was based on Booker T. Washington ideas who advocated for the philosophy of accommodation (Dautrich, Yalof, Prindle, Newell, & Shomaker, 2010). This philosophy promoted vocational training for the African American’s and was against the aspect of confrontation with the white power structure that was in place in the post-civil war America. He believed that the practice of thrift, industry and Christian morality will eventually earn the blacks their rights (Sitkoff & Franklin, 2008). This was a very passive approach to dealing with the various problems that they faced as black American’s but Washington urged them to accept the current conditions of the state. He urged them to even tolerate racial segregation and other forms of discrimination. According to Washington and his philosophy it was only through engaging in law abiding practices and standing by their former white oppressors that the black American’s would get prepared for the exercise of the franchise. He said in his speech at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition on September 18, 1895 in all things that are purely social they could separate just as the five fingers, but remain united as the hand to all things that are essential to the mutual progress (Sitkoff H. , 2010). According to various authors this philosophy of struggle fit well in the within the then dominant conservative political and economic structures of the time. His critics on the other hand saw Washington as accepting second class citizenship for his race. The speech especially symbolized his acquiescence to segregation and the erosion of Black’s rights (Korstad, 2008). Washington’s philosophy continued to influence people to avoid confrontation and only engage in peaceful activities but this stretched the people to the limit with the various discriminatory practices that were seen as continuing to be stringent (Peterson, 2003). This was evident keeping in mind that there was no other person that could help the Black Americans to advocate for their rights as the only person who was of great help Frederick Douglas died in 1895 and so they had to adopt this philosophy of self-help (Peterson, 2003). The second philosophy was in contrary to the above passive philosophy of accommodation. The agitation philosophy urged the African Americans to challenge the discriminatory practices that were affecting their lives such as racial segregation and injustice through various forms of political activity. The person that is most accredited for supporting this philosophy is W.E. B. Du Bois (Dautrich, Yalof, Prindle, Newell, & Shomaker, 2010). During the early 20th century, he and his colleagues proposed a specific platform of, legal, political and social reforms. These were aimed at achieving social, economic and political equality for the Black American’s. Du. Bois saw the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People NAACP in 1910 (Dautrich, Yalof, Prindle, Newell, & Shomaker, 2010). This grew out of a series of meetings, primarily involving white liberals and former members of the Niagara movement. People started to see the political domination of Washington after the creation of the NAACP. This movement was immune to the Tuskegeean control of political patronage and philanthropic purse strings; this is because it embraced the more militant civil rights philosophy and also because it was run by the white liberals. The making of Du Bois as an officer of the organization undermined Washington’s political prestige especially his reputation as the spokesman for his race (Dautrich, Yalof, Prindle, Newell, & Shomaker, 2010). His political agitation is seen in the establishment of a monthly journal called the The Crisis that provided a platform for the expression of the issues of the day. He struggled to gain full authority of the editorial content of The crisis together with other conservatives of the NAACP board. He won this and used this opportunity to advance a fairly militant, somewhat radical civil rights agenda with specific endorsement of political agitation. The push for black Americans equality continued and their demands included the unfettered right to vote and an immediate end to all segregation. The agitation philosophy eventually replaced the accommodation as the dominant mode by which the Black American sought equality in twentieth century America (Sitkoff & Franklin, 2008). At the beginning of the early 20th century it was evident that the accommodation method could not work effectively. The agitation method that used force could not achieve much and also faced many problems especially because of the varied divisions that existed in the Black community with the emergence of various leaders. Therefore other methods and tactics needed to be thought of that would help unite the black community in addressing their problems. Several tactics though not new were also incorporated into the major modes identified above especially the agitation mode. These tactics have worked for a long period of time and have brought the privileges enjoyed by the blacks today (Sitkoff & Franklin, 2008). The first tactic is that of working within the political system. Many notable people in the black community have used the political process to implement reforms that have been necessary in ending discrimination and isolation. In the recent past for example the Black Americans have used their substantial power as a voting bloc to influence the outcomes of elections. Within the black community there are other smaller groups that have expanded their influence more directly over public policies and programs and this has been done through lobbying and petitioning of government officials. In some cases some of the black Americans have been elected to high public offices that have helped them in advocating for the rights of the Black people (Peterson, 2003). Such people included Pinckney Benton Stewart who became a senator in 1868 and served as a governor in 1872. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1872 and to the U.S senate in 1873. He is seen among the first people in the government to advocate against the discriminatory practices of the white people. He is particularly remembered for his advocacy against slavery. Another person is Joseph Rainey who was the first African American to serve in the US House of Representatives. He is seen to have contributed a lot in the enactment of legislations that to protect the civil rights of southern blacks and promoting the southern economy. The second tactic is litigation. The black Americans used litigation when the political arena failed to provide adequate remedies to discrimination. There are many notable law suits that were brought to court that marked the end of some practices. A movement that was mainly associated with litigation is the NAACP. It was founded for the purpose of ensuring that the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all Black Americans (Sitkoff & Franklin, 2008). It focused on legal challenges to discrimination and segregation due to the fact that the political arena was not producing any meaningful gains. Civil rights legislation at this time had proved to be ineffective with many of the southern legislators either ignoring or circumventing the laws (Peterson, 2003). NAACP won many legal battles that gradual broke down the racial barriers in education and other sectors of the economy. The first such landmark ruling was in Missouri ex. Rel. Gaines v. Canada in 1938. This invalidated the exclusion of the black students from the University of Missouri’s school of law. Another case is in Spuel v. Bd. Of Regents of University of Oklahoma in 1948: this case rejected Oklahoma’s attempt to create a separate law school for the blacks by roping off a section of the state capitol for black law students and assigning three law teachers to them: the ruling stated that such a law failed to comply with the constitutional requirement of equality (Dautrich, Yalof, Prindle, Newell, & Shomaker, 2010). A landmark ruling that saw the blacks get equal education was in the case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. This ruling rejected the “separate but equal” doctrine completely and declared that in the field of public education having separate educational facilities is essentially unequal. These rulings marked a steady progress in the fight to end isolation and discrimination and led to the Black American’s attaining access to equal education just like the white students (Dautrich, Yalof, Prindle, Newell, & Shomaker, 2010). The third tactic is through legal boycotts. The black Americans used this tactic to end discrimination in various states. They organized boycotts that saw segregation come to an end. The first such boycott is seen in Montgomery, Alabama bus boycotts. This campaign lasted for a year and was primarily intended to oppose the city’s policy that facilitates racial discrimination on its public transport system. The boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. Ralph Abernathy and others caused crippling financial deficit to the Montgomery transport system (Dautrich, Yalof, Prindle, Newell, & Shomaker, 2010). This is because the blacks were the bulk of the systems paying customers. This meant that it was going to be difficult to run the system. The events that led to the boycott began when Rosa Parks, a black woman was arrested for refusing to surrender to her seat to a white person. This caused anger and many people were against the arrest and together, they began the boycott. It culminated in a court case where the Supreme Court declared that the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated bus were unconstitutional. This was another step forward in the right direction as the struggle to end segregation and attain equality continued (Korstad, 2008). The fourth is civil disobedience, protests and marching campaigns. Martin Luther king realized the importance of nonviolent means to achieving equality and these were based on Mahatma Gandhi ideas. He saw the effects that the boycotts had on ending the segregation in the transport system in Montgomery and thus saw this as a viable means to achieving the long sought equality. This was followed by the Birmingham march in 1963 (Peterson, 2003). He non-violent confrontation that ensued between the protesters including school going children and the police attracted sympathy from the north. This made the then President John F. Kennedy to pass new civil rights legislations. There began other smaller protest insurgencies as a result of this which culminated in the March on Washington (Mathews, 2011). In his speech during the March martin Luther king talked of his idea of having a dream where the nation will come to understand that all men are equal. This march though perceived negatively by others resulted in the passage of the civil rights act of 1964 that outlawed segregation in all public facilities, ended racial discrimination in employment and education. Another campaign was the Selma Montgomery march that was a culmination of the Black American struggle. Congress passed the voting Rights act in 1965 that saw many blacks register as voters (Korstad, 2008). The struggle has not been easy as it has been seen above. There are still other methods that are being used today to continue with the struggle to have equal rights and access to public facilities. The work of other black Americans in the government has led to many positive changes in public policy with back Americans being allowed equal rights as the whites. In conclusion it is evident that the Black Americans went through a tough time in ensuring that they end segregation and attain equality and civil rights. In doing these many people died and other political figures were assassinated. But the struggle continued with the support of other white sympathizers. The various methods and tactics they used have been essential in their attainment of civil rights. Some of these methods were seen to fail but the idea of non-violent protests propagated by martin Luther king brought many successes to the black community ensuring that they get the rights they fought for a very long period of time. References Dautrich, K., Yalof, D. A., Prindle, D. F., Newell, C., & Shomaker, M. (2010). The American Government: Historical Popularand Global perspectives. Boston: WadsWorth, Cengage Learning. Korstad, R. (2008). Civil Rights Unionism and the Black Freedom Struggle. American communist History, 7(2):255-258. Mathews, A. (2011). Struggle in the South. Cobblestone, 32(4): 33-35. Peterson, T. E. (2003). The American Democracy. New York: MacGraw Hill. Sitkoff, H. (2010). Toward freedom land: the long struggle for racial equality in America. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. Sitkoff, H., & Franklin, J. H. (2008). The struggle for Black equality. (E. Foner, Ed.) New York: Hill and Wang. Read More