African Americans 1877 to Present - Research Paper Example

African Americans 1877 to Present Introduction African Americans have gone through many important phases since they came to America as slaves. Abolishment of slavery ended with the Civil War that destroyed the south. This article is going to provide a series of events that happened in relation to African Americans from 1877 to the present day America. The most significant changes and events include The Harlem Renaissance and The Black Power Movement that were important in bringing the difference and letting African Americans gain civil rights in the country. The process of change and the events will be a discussed in the article. Body The Compromise of 1877 occurred when the Democrats agreed they would not block Hayes victory as long as the Republicans removed their federal troops from the South. Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida became democratic states as a result, and it was the end of the reconstruction era. The Southern white people resulted in violence and intimidation against African Americans because of the end of the reconstruction period. Blacks were kept from exercising their democratic right to voting and white supremacy was dominant in the area. There were many Supreme Court decisions that limited the reconstruction amendment laws and were against the Black community (Campbell & Fraser, 2008). The 14th and 15th Amendments give African Americans the right to be American citizens and protect them using the constitution. They were also not allowed to vote. Southern Democrats had made a promise to the government to protect the rights of the Black people, but they did not honor the promises. The federal government stops interfered in the affairs of the South, which led to discontent among the Black community, who were not allowed to vote in any election. The results of the Reconstruction era led to the massive exodus of African Americans from the South and many migrated to Kansas. The African Americans, however, got hope as the first Black women’s college open in 1881, the Spelman College. There is also the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute that began in the same year in Alabama. It was one of the few Institutes for higher learning for the African Americans. In 1982, the American Colonization Society that founded Monrovia in 1847, the present-day Liberia continued with the movement of African Americans to Liberia. The leader of the Society Robert Finley believes the migration of African Americans back to Africa would be a solution to the problems they were encountering in America. More than twelve thousand slaves were successfully relocated back to West Africa voluntarily and ruled Liberia for more than 130 years as the popular minority. The Supreme Court in 1896, Plessey vs. Ferguson comes up with a ruling suggesting that racial segregation was a constitution that paved the way for the Jim Crow laws in the south of America. There was intense segregation of the black community resulting from the laws. Black people were not allowed to attend the same schools, hospitals, cafeteria or any other gathering that the white men were attending. There were clear rules on what the Black community entitlement was and what the white community was entitled to have as their own. Several movements resulted from that segregation in the establishment of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance became dominant in the 1920s and 1930s. It was an intellectual, artistic and literary movement that was the beginning of the new Black community culture identity. The flowering of the Black man culture in terms of art and music was popular mostly in Harlem, New York City (Shawn, 2000). Many of the black community that came to New York during the mass migration of 1014-1918, settled in Harlem District. The music that was most common, was jazz. The jazz music made the area a sophisticated art and literary center. The magazine “Crisis” was an influential periodical in making the art and literary center popular. The magazine urged the Black community to have racial pride among them. “Opportunity” magazine was another magazine that encouraged African American racial pride. “The New Negro: An Interpretation” (1925), is a book edited by Alain Locke that was also influential during the Harlem Renaissance times. Artists and writers who mostly resided in Harlem district began to make original work that was highly refined responding to the intellectual atmosphere at the time. The original work was about the life and times of African Americans. The work of the writer’s attracted many black readers as well as publishers. The white people were new to the culture and did not know much about the Black community. The writing and the art, thus attracted a lot of white readers also. The Harlem Renaissance, however, faded in the early thirties with the onset of the Great Depression (Shawn, 2000). There was an economic crisis in the United States that was as a cause of the crash in the US stock market. It inflicted much tragedy and poverty among the people. The writers and artist of Harlem District were part of the people to suffer from it. The 1931 brought about the indictment of nine boys in Scottsboro, Alabama under the charges of two white women. The evidence against this is blurred and slim; the Southern jury sentenced the nine boys to death. The Supreme Court, however, overturned the jury decision and each time there was a retrial. There was a third trial that ended with four of the boys getting freed and the other ones to a long prison term. There is progress, however, in breaking the color barrier as Jackie Robinson plays in the Major League Baseball. Malcolm X, a prominent African American activist became the minister for the Nation of Islam in 1952. He leads the group and tells the Black Community that only they can save themselves from the white people. Segregation in schools becomes legal by the courts after that, and the Black children are allowed to school with the white children. A young boy, however, is brutally murdered by two white men in August 1955. The two white men that committed the crime get acquitted of their crimes by an all-white jury. The decision by the jury sparks much anger from the public, and it leads to the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks on Dec 1, 1955 refuses to give up her seat on the front of the bus for a white passenger on the “colored section” of the bus. Parks get arrested for her actions and, as a result, the Black community carries out a successful one-year boycott of the bus. The buses in Montgomery get desegregated in December 1956 because of the movements. Martin Luther King establishes in 1957 civil rights movement, Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Nine boys are not allowed to enter their school compound in September of the same year from Governor Orval Faubus orders (Stephens and Scheb, 2007). The kids manage to finish school and graduate from Central High despite much violence in their final year of school. The federal troops had to go intervene on behalf of the boys. The civil rights continue to the sixties as four students begin having a sit in the segregated white people area at Woolworths lunch counter. The four Greensboro students are eventually served lunch at the same spot six months later. The four boys, encourage other African Americans in the south to carry out a nonviolent protest in the south. James Meredith then goes ahead to become the first African-American to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Martin Luther King continues to lead his people through the civil rights movement but gets arrested in 1963 for the anti-segregation protests. Martin Luther King writes from jail, encouraging his people to have a nonviolent kind of protest. The President signed the civil rights act in 1964. Martin Luther King then goes ahead to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions. The same year sees Sydney Poitier win an Oscar and becomes the first African-American to win such an award as Malcolm X is assassinated on February 21, 1965. Martin Luther King leads a demonstration across the bridge in Selma, and they get violent attack by federal troops in what is now “Black Sunday” (Stephens & Scheb, 2007). Martin Luther King then got assassinated in 1968. The Black community eventually gets their right to vote. Colin Powell went ahead to be the first Black secretary of state in 2001. Halle Berry wins Best Actress Oscar and becomes the first African American to win it. Condoleezza Rice became the first female Black secretary of state in 2005. Barack Obama is elected as the US president in 2008, becomes the first African-American to achieve this feat, and is the 44th President of the United States of America in 2009. Important several events follow like Eric Holder Jr. being the first African-American Attorney General of USA in 2009. Recent actions in the Black community saw Michael Brown; an unarmed African American teenager gets shot by a white policeman. The courts acquit the policeman of his charges that spark riots in Ferguson and protests in cities like Chicago. There is currently an ongoing riot in Baltimore, Maryland against racism with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter trending on social media (Boyle, 2015). Conclusion African Americans fight for their civil rights throughout since 1877. There have been significant differences made throughout the whole years, and the Black community now have acceptance in the USA. History has been there throughout their trials and tribulations and winning the struggle. The struggle is not yet over, and people should live together peacefully regardless of their skin color. References Boyle, M. (2015). War Zone: Baltimore Erupts into Violence, Chaos as #Blacklivesmatter Riots Rage. Retrieved on April 25, 2015 from www.breitbart.com Campbell, J. M. & Fraser, R. (2008). Reconstruction: People and Perspectives. New York: ABC-CLIO. Print. Shawn, A. (2000). Rhapsodies in Black: Words and Music of the Harlem Renaissance. Los Angeles: Rhino Records. Stephens, O.H. & Scheb, J. (2007). American Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties. Michigan: Cengage Learning. Read More