African American history of Alabama

by Danielle L. McGuire and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration by Michelle Alexander both have a straight forward approach on the view of stigma and constant racial caste systems placed on African Americans. The books share many comparable factors because the condition based on the fact that African Americans “civil” state never changes. The book At The Dark End of The Street and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration the emphasis on racial identity comes to play the idea for proper justice of a…

do have that chance -- and I’ll let you in on a secret -- I mean to use it. And I hope that you will use it with me.” (Lyndon Johnson). On March 15, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson, the president at the time, gave a riveting speech to congress and to the American people to try to quell the violent demonstrations for racial equality and establish equal voting rights for all. Throughout his speech, “We Shall Overcome”, Mr. Johnson used a wide variety of persuasive techniques to ensure the success of the…

May 14th, 1961, a date that marked the start of one of the most important movements that occurred in the Civil Rights Movement, the Freedom Rides. Seven African Americans and six whites left on a bus from Washington D.C. that was bound for the deep south (CORE,2014). Their goal was to test the supreme court ruling of the legal case Boynton v. Virginia 1960, which declared that segregation in interstate buses and railroad stations was unconstitutional (CORE,2014). The Freedom Rides were so…

explores the idea of how an unjust law is no law at all, as he is accused for being a criminal for breaking an unjust law, only set for African Americans. Examples of how inequality was at the time, are shown as an example of “Funtown” talking about how a little girl can’t go, because of her skin. It seeks to put the reader in the shoes of an African American, and make an understanding for why all groups should be equal. However, Barack Obama 50 years later made a speech on what happened in…

“The Struggle for Black Equality” by Harvard Sitkoff, summarizes the key elements in the fight for the civil rights of African Americans from 1954-1980. The book was set up in chronological order, each chapter embodying the new step to gain equality. The first chapter is titled “Up from slavery,” it consists of the small actions that took place slowly to assure the equal rights. By the end of the first chapter, the concept of equal rights was introduced more prominently, opening people's eyes to…

riveting tale of African Americans post-Emancipation Proclamation. Blackmon writes the stories of black individuals and how they continued to face the same predicaments of their predecessors, only this time as convicts instead of slaves. Using testimonies from African Americans, plantation owners, and a combination of newspaper and court documents, Blackmon sets up the perspectives of the prisoners from this era. Blackmon also brings up some of the issues that African American woman of the time…

white Americans made the decision to segregate themselves from black Americans with the belief that education could be equal when separate. Brown vs. Board of Education (May 17, 1954), now acknowledged as one of the greatest Supreme Court cases, unanimously ruled that “separate but equal” public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. This court case was not just about children and education; it was about creating equality within a society that had claimed African Americans were…

intervene to change the broken systems.(Mandell & Schram, pg ) One of the most influential system change efforts to occur in the history of the United States is the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1950’s through the 1960s. In focusing on the Civil Rights Movement during the Kennedy Administration Era, I hope to construct an analysis on the root of poverty within the African American population, and the process put forward to change the Government system. The purpose would be to demonstrate how…

Black or African American? When you hear people talk about the black or African Americans’ what and whom do you think about? The “African American” portion sometimes reminds people of slavery, death, and racism. When people hear about “black” people, they think of a different kind of person; they think of a hard working person that has a family that has rebounded from tough times. However, these names can also be switched and can be known for bad things as well as any other person or certain…

Martin Luther King Jr was a very prominent person during the era when White people discriminated against African Americans. He shaped the United States into what it is today. The letter written by Martin Luther King Jr, talked about the many struggles African- Americans had while living with discrimination in the United States. Many people that lived through discrimination could agree that many of the different laws that were passed did not help with being discriminated against. As Mr. King…