The 20th century was an era of innovation, warfare, and communication. For America, this is an age of industrialization, entertainment, and reform. The country had just moved from the Gilded Age with its monopolies to the Progressive Era with all its reforms to the Roaring Twenties, a time of fun and consumerism. Despite this, America was also going through a period of internal racism, disenfranchisement, and hatred especially towards African Americans. This hatred catalyzed the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1900s, along with many other ideals and events. A mixture of failed policies, racist bias, and the exploitation of laws led to the birth of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 20th century.
First and foremost, the failure of Reconstruction and its policies led to the Civil Rights Movement because of the racial social attitudes, limited enforcement of civil rights laws, and weakening of civil …show more content…
The 15th Amendment stated that no one could deny someone's vote based on race, color, or previous enslavement(PBS). Despite this, these clauses were created to exploit the lack of education and literacy of newly freed Black Americans. Namely, literacy tests, which evaluated voters' basic reading skills before they cast their ballots(Fiveable), were designed to be difficult and were subject to discrimination under the administration of white election officials(Fiveable). Case in point, when many African Americans went to vote, they were given parts of the Constitution or other high-level documents to read and many Blacks were either literate, semi-literate, or not at all literate coming out of slavery. Combined with poll taxes and grandfather clauses, these clauses dually gave poor Whites the ability to vote while simultaneously keeping African Americans from doing so, even with some being highly
First and foremost, the failure of Reconstruction and its policies led to the Civil Rights Movement because of the racial social attitudes, limited enforcement of civil rights laws, and weakening of civil …show more content…
The 15th Amendment stated that no one could deny someone's vote based on race, color, or previous enslavement(PBS). Despite this, these clauses were created to exploit the lack of education and literacy of newly freed Black Americans. Namely, literacy tests, which evaluated voters' basic reading skills before they cast their ballots(Fiveable), were designed to be difficult and were subject to discrimination under the administration of white election officials(Fiveable). Case in point, when many African Americans went to vote, they were given parts of the Constitution or other high-level documents to read and many Blacks were either literate, semi-literate, or not at all literate coming out of slavery. Combined with poll taxes and grandfather clauses, these clauses dually gave poor Whites the ability to vote while simultaneously keeping African Americans from doing so, even with some being highly