Essay On African Americans After Reconstruction

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Since the Reconstruction Era many years ago, the role and place of African Americans has significantly shifted. (pg. 589, pg. 1128) After 150 years of fighting for racial equality and de-segregation, African Americans experienced a great victory with the first black president in the White House, Barack Obama. (pg. 1228) In order to facilitate this transition from racial injustices to equality, a variety of social, cultural, and political changes were required. In the words of African American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., "there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression." (Montgomery Bus Boycott) The road from racial discrimination to equality was long and winding, requiring endurance and resistance against the black codes, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and racial riots and violence. (pg. 589, pg. 668-669, pg. 800) The era of Reconstruction began after the Civil War that divided America into two ended. (pg. 579) As the name suggests, Reconstruction was a period in which America was reconstructed and repaired from the war. (pg. 579) Although blacks were freed from slavery after the war, white southerners made sure that “the ex-slave was not a free man; he was a free Negro” with the black codes. (pg. 589) The black codes enforced widespread racial discrimination and white supremacy by drastically limiting …show more content…
(pg. 1052) Various black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. rose up to speak against the cruelty of the separate-but-equal ideology, especially in education, that was entirely separation and no equality. (pg. 1054, pg. 1056-1057) Racial segregation in the South was overtaken by the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” (pg.

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