African American History - Essay Example

Topic: Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction The history of African Americans in the United s is a historyof long struggles from slavery to freedom. They gained their freedom from slavery after the emancipation proclamation of 1865 by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Thereafter they gained a lot from the Congressional Reconstruction legislature which passed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to U.S constitution as well as the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875. The black males were enfranchised by these amendments although their victory was short-lived due to the hardships they suffered thereafter. In addition to lynching, the blacks were subjected to violence and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, White League and Red Shirts. As such they could not enjoy the civil rights that had been granted to them after a long struggle. To make matters worse, The Jim Crow laws were passed in 1876 legalizing racial segregation in state and local public facilities in the Southern states. As if that was not enough, the Supreme Court declared some parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional in the civil rights cases of 1883. It also made the Plessy V Ferguson (1896) ruling that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional thus legalizing segregation for the next 58 years. It was not until 1954 Brown V Board of Education decision that Jim Crow laws were outlawed. Since legalization of Jim Crow laws and dominance of white supremacy, African Americans began the era of self-help to redeem themselves and gain their rightful place in American society and this was achieved in 1964 with passage of Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This essay will argue that, although African Americans faced many hardships in southern states, “Self -Help" was their key to a better future. As slaves, African Americans were considered as personal property by the slaveholders who were whites. As such, the owners could buy and sell these slaves or move with them to wherever they wished. They also mistreated them and most slaveholders did not allow slaves to marry. Furthermore, most African Americans were separated from their families when slaveholders moved to newly acquired western regions such as Texas. When the Civil War broke out between the North and the South in 1861, the African Americans were a bit relieved as some were freed in the North following the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution in 1863. However, although they were free, most of them were conscripted to fight in the Union army against the confederates hence they were not free as such. Besides, some of them were sold to the South where the need for slaves was high due to the cotton plantations. A freedmen Bureau was also established during Abraham Lincoln’s reign to protect interests of Blacks and assist the freed slaves especially by establishing schools and enrolling them among other facilities as well as redistribution of land following the Homestead Act of 1862 (Franklin 1994).This Act allowed individuals to own 160 acres of surveyed public land in the Western territory after paying filing fee and after five years of residency, to land title or in six months after payment of $1.25 registration fee per acre. However, only those who had never borne arms to U.S government were allowed to occupy that land. This was an effort to allow Blacks to own land after the promise of “40 acres and a mule” by the Republican government. However, since most blacks could not afford the fees, most land went to speculators, miners and railroads. The Reconstruction period (1865-1877) offered hope for the freed slaves especially after the emancipation proclamation of 1865. This proclamation freed all slaves in the North and the South although the south was reluctant to let go of the slaves (Foner, 2002). However, according to Mandle (1994) these freed people were neither slave nor free due to the hard economic and social experiences they encountered at the hands of white Southerners since the civil war. When Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson assumed presidency in 1865, the fate of the African Americans changed. Though he hated the wealthy White Southerners and promised to make them pay for attempting to break the union, his hatred for them was as much as that of the Blacks (Foner, 2002). He considered Blacks as rightless and landless individuals who were not worthy of being in his Reconstruction agenda. This was due to the fact that he himself was a former White Southerner slaveholder. The first item on his agenda was thus to return the confiscated land given to Blacks during Lincoln’s reign back to its owners who were White Southerners in 1865. This supports Mandle’s (1994) claim that Blacks were neither slaves nor free since without land, they were better off as slaves. They still worked for whites in plantations and some migrated to the North to work in industries at poor conditions. More so, Black Codes that dictated terms of work and restrained enjoyment of rights by Blacks were enacted in southern states. For example, vagrancy was considered a crime punishable with a fine (Foner, 2002; Richardson, 2004). Moreover, the Freedmen’s Bureau which protected their interests was dismantled. However, due to pressure from the Republicans he had to accommodate them and this began with the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 according to Richardson (2004 p. 122) gave Blacks “full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for security of persons and property as enjoyed by white citizens.” As a result, blacks could now testify in juries as well as to buy and sell and hold property. The Act also overturned the Black Codes. This Act was essential just in writing as in practice; Blacks in the south rarely enjoyed these rights. Since the states had the privilege of enacting own constitutions and laws, many requirements in these constitutions hindered the Blacks from enjoying their rights. For example, they could only testify against fellow blacks and not against whites as this would amount to violence or lynching. All was not lost though as the Congress passed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the constitution granting citizenship as well as voting rights to the African Americans. The Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1868 and stated that “all persons born or naturalized in the U.S and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of U.S and of state wherein they reside (Foner, 2002, p. 251). This amendment assured the Blacks of their equal citizenship with whites hence could enjoy the rights enjoyed by the Whites. However, this was met by violence, harassment, physical beatings and lynching from the Ku Klux Klan which was dominant in the South. The 15th Amendment was passed and ratified in 1870 and stated that “the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the US or by any state on account race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (Foner, 2002 p. 272). This amendment enfranchised the Black males who had for a long time been denied the opportunity to participate in political life. It also emphasized equality under the law but just like the Fourteenth amendment, it was met with resistance as the southern states introduced literacy tests as well as property and poll taxes to bar blacks from registering as voters or voting. In addition to the discriminatory laws, the Blacks were subjected to violence and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, White League and Red Shirts. For example, in Mississippi during the elections of 1874 and elections that followed used intimidation and threats to bar Blacks from voting hence gaining most seats in the Congress and other states followed suit (Fieldman, 1999; Franklin 2000). As a result of this violence and intimidation, the Southern congress was dominated by wealthy Whites who passed laws which hindered the Blacks from enjoying their rights. Besides violence, threats and intimidation, a new form of farming called sharecropping emerged. In this case, Blacks rented land from landowners and were offered tools and equipments as well as seeds to plant and in return, gave a certain percentage of their harvest to the land owner (Franklin, 1994). This type of farming resulted in the credit system where Blacks were continually in debt. It also led to debt peonage thus limiting the mobility of Blacks as they could not move elsewhere before paying debts. The Blacks in this case were neither free nor slaves in the sense that although they were freed, their rights were still limited hence they were still under the control of Southern Whites. Besides, due to the economic depression of 1873 and heavy taxation, the Northerners had lost hope in the Reconstruction efforts and were now concentrating on their economic issues. This made the Blacks to suffer more under the Southern Whites. With al the help from Radical Republicans, the African Americans could still not enjoy their rights and were under the bondage of Southern whites. As Booker T. Washington often said “only self-help” and “self-reliance” could help them (2010, n.p). The Blacks thus resulted to self-help to protect themselves from violence and also to agitate for their social rights since they had already acquired civil rights. However, people like Washington thought that the Freedmen had started on the wrong footing in the first place since they started agitating for political rights instead of working their way up the ladder through education and hard work (Franklin, 2000 p. 299). He believed that acquiring education was the best weapon to achieving social rights as it offered opportunity for employment. Regardless, Blacks such as Charles Sumner began agitating for social rights such as accommodation, cemetery, inns, schools, transport and other public places and these were granted through the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Act prohibited segregation in public facilities and as well as places. References Fieldman, G (1999). Politics, Society and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949. University of Alabama Press. Foner, E (2002) Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York, NY: HarperCollins. Franklin, JH (1994) Reconstruction after the Civil War. 2ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Franklin, JH (2000) From Slavery to Freedom: A history of African Americans. A.A Knopf Fultz, M (2006) Black Public Libraries in the South in the Era of De Jure Segregation. Libraries and The Cultural Record, 41 (3): 338-339. Mandle, J R (1994) Not Slave, Not Free: The African American Economic Experience Since the Civil War. USA: Duke University Press. Nelson, J (2003) Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New York University Press. Richardson, HC (2004) The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post- Civil War North, 1865-1901. USA: Harvard University Press. Takaki Ronald (2008). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. USA: Little Brown & Company. Washington, BT (2010) Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. MobileReference. Woodward, C Vann and McFeely, WS (2001). The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Zinn, Howard (2010). A People’s History of the United States. New York, NY: HarperCollins. Read More