How To Achieve The American Dream

The American Dream is “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative” (Oxford). However, this opportunity was limited to the whites when the Dream was introduced. A major necessity for achieving the American Dream is the having a proper education. However, at the time before the Civil Rights Movement, schools were segregated based on race and African Americans had a disadvantage in achieving the American Dream. In this time, the only prestigious school for African Americans was Howard University, which could only accept a certain number of students each year. Additionally, African Americans were discriminated through the segregation of public facilities and cruel treatment by the whites and the police force. …show more content…
According to some, the American Dream was “achieved at the expense of the American Negro” (Cambridge). Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of Between the World and Me, discusses the idea of democracy and the American Dream and its impact on African Americans. The author displays an effective framework to better understand our nation’s history and crises. He converses on the discrimination African Americans