America, the great country founded upon the ideals of freedom and equality for all, sadly associates “all” only with wealthy white landowning citizens. When Reconstruction ended in 1877, the Fourteenth Amendment promised black citizens equal protection under the law. With the beginning of the Progressive Era, lasting from the 1890s to the 1920s, African Americans expected significant improvements in their political and economic standings. However, white Americans influenced by racial ideology challenged the freedmen’s rights and restrained black involvement in politics. Playwright August Wilson illustrates the oppression imposed upon the black community in The Piano Lesson by revealing the discriminatory practices targeting black people. The
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Although African Americans achieved minor civic rights and financial improvements from 1868 to the 1930s, The Piano Lesson exemplifies their continual struggle against overwhelming political and economic burdens through racially biased justice systems and spiraling debt cycles.
Due to discriminatory American justice systems, African Americans, as shown in The Piano Lesson, struggled with political prejudice despite attaining gains from the newly acquired citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment aimed to give black citizens equal protection under the law, denying states the right to “enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States” (Americans 103). As equal citizens under the law, black people began to endeavor for office positions in attempt to amplify the African American voice within the government. However, the Fourteenth Amendment never clarified on the selective enforcement of state laws, allowing white lawmakers to utilize this loophole and continue to politically discriminate against African Americans. Telling a parable in which a white man sells his land to a black man but gets …show more content…
However during the Progressive Era, these changes played an insignificant role in the treatment black people received in society. White Americans still believed at heart that African Americans were naturally and justifiably inferior, placing black citizens at the bottom of the political and economic structure. Fearful of losing the capability to exploit black laborers, white Americans built an impenetrable wall to keep their economic and political standing far from African Americans. The Piano Lesson explores this wall through the experiences of its characters, and reveals the helplessness of the black community in a predominantly white society. What it meant to be an American from 1877 to the 1930s would be defined by white citizens as the optimistic ambition for a bright future of prosperity, while for black citizens, the struggle through a slew of broken promises and the hopeless fight for social
Although African Americans achieved minor civic rights and financial improvements from 1868 to the 1930s, The Piano Lesson exemplifies their continual struggle against overwhelming political and economic burdens through racially biased justice systems and spiraling debt cycles.
Due to discriminatory American justice systems, African Americans, as shown in The Piano Lesson, struggled with political prejudice despite attaining gains from the newly acquired citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment aimed to give black citizens equal protection under the law, denying states the right to “enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States” (Americans 103). As equal citizens under the law, black people began to endeavor for office positions in attempt to amplify the African American voice within the government. However, the Fourteenth Amendment never clarified on the selective enforcement of state laws, allowing white lawmakers to utilize this loophole and continue to politically discriminate against African Americans. Telling a parable in which a white man sells his land to a black man but gets …show more content…
However during the Progressive Era, these changes played an insignificant role in the treatment black people received in society. White Americans still believed at heart that African Americans were naturally and justifiably inferior, placing black citizens at the bottom of the political and economic structure. Fearful of losing the capability to exploit black laborers, white Americans built an impenetrable wall to keep their economic and political standing far from African Americans. The Piano Lesson explores this wall through the experiences of its characters, and reveals the helplessness of the black community in a predominantly white society. What it meant to be an American from 1877 to the 1930s would be defined by white citizens as the optimistic ambition for a bright future of prosperity, while for black citizens, the struggle through a slew of broken promises and the hopeless fight for social