Since the AAA textbook created an awareness of major problems in American government, it is important to note that since the creation of the colonies, not all Americans have possessed equal civil rights. Civil rights have been an important part of American government and history since the 1700s, beginning with the creation of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence states “all men are created equal” with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Preamble), but allowed the practice of slavery amongst African Americans into the Civil War. Progress to aid the civil rights of African-Americans was little to none until Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, “which freed the slaves held in the states still
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The Supreme Court established that the Fourteenth Amendment was not violated by the train segregation because accommodations were equal, creating the rule “separate but equal” (Ginsberg et al. 119). This injustice and segregation of the African-American community, known as the Jim Crow era in the south, continued on into the twentieth century. African Americans were not hired by employers, were paid lower wages, and could not attend the same schools as whites up until the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. This movement began in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955; all African-Americans were required to sit at the back of the bus and give their seat up to any white person during this time (Civil Rights: Law and History). African Americans began a peaceful bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that lasted for 381 days, and buses in Montgomery were eventually desegregated (Civil Rights: Law and History). Mrs. Parks started a widespread movement for equality across the south, including the passage of many Congressional acts, that still remain effective today for all minority
The Supreme Court established that the Fourteenth Amendment was not violated by the train segregation because accommodations were equal, creating the rule “separate but equal” (Ginsberg et al. 119). This injustice and segregation of the African-American community, known as the Jim Crow era in the south, continued on into the twentieth century. African Americans were not hired by employers, were paid lower wages, and could not attend the same schools as whites up until the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. This movement began in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955; all African-Americans were required to sit at the back of the bus and give their seat up to any white person during this time (Civil Rights: Law and History). African Americans began a peaceful bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that lasted for 381 days, and buses in Montgomery were eventually desegregated (Civil Rights: Law and History). Mrs. Parks started a widespread movement for equality across the south, including the passage of many Congressional acts, that still remain effective today for all minority