The Granting of Civil Rights, Essay Example

The civil rights struggle for African Americans has been as bitter and contentious as that of any ethnic group in American history. The oppression of African Americans extends to the official Federal laws and policies enacted against them. The legal persecution and oppression of African Americans is a well-documented segment of America’s past and is partially evidenced by the many legal actions that were used against African Americans by the United States government. The eventual gains of African Americans that were made by the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-twentieth century reflected a case of popular will preceding public policy in terms of racial discrimination. The schism in American culture between those\ who held conservative positions on the idea of racial integration and civil rights reached a culmination in both public activism and political friction during the decade of the nineteen-sixties.

In the nineteenth century, African Americans had been held, legally, as slaves to wealthy white owners. Even as Late as eighteen ninety-six, the United States Supreme Court backed the idea of racial segregation. In the case “Plessy v. Ferguson […] the Supreme Court expressly declared that under the 14th Amendment no person was denied any of his rights if the States provided separate but equal facilities” 1. This is an example of how African Americans were stripped of their rights through the legal actions of the American government. The idea of racial segregation led to many abuses against African Americans, particularly in the Southern states of the country. In this states, racial segregation was coupled with a remarkable degree of violence that was enacted against African Americans.

So much violence was enacted against African Americans in the South that the chapter -section “Letters From Mississippi” offers a letter from a participant in the Civil rights movement that offers the observation that “Mississippi is the only state where you can drag a river any time and find bodies you were not expecting” 2. The climate of prejudice against African Americans was so extreme that they were often mutilated and murdered by whites. The policies of segregation that were backed legally by State governments and the Federal government stood as the key pillars of the racially oppressive climate that persecuted African Americans. The struggle for civil rights was born out the long-lasting abuses that were perpetuated against African Americans due to the long-lasting policies of segregation.

One example of how bad racial segregation could become under state-sanction was the way this policy was conducted in Alabama. Chapter 28 details specifically that the capital Alabama was “the most segregated big city in America” and that in Birmingham “African Americans endured total segregation in schools, restaurants, city parks, and department store dressing rooms.”3  These policies led directly to racially based abuse and violence. The policies of segregation also led eventually to coalescing the Civil rights movement and bring about important victories for African Americans.

It is very possible that the struggle for civil rights that was undertaken by African Americans is one of the most profound components of America’s heritage. It is likely that “The mass movement for civil rights was arguably the most important domestic event in American history.” The victories of those who fought for civil rights were long in coming, but they eventually were gained through the relentless pursuit of popular and political reform that advocates for civil rights, of all races and social backgrounds, insisted on attaining. Eventually, even the previously held convictions of the Supreme Court were overturned and racial segregation ended.

Two very important victories that came during the peak of the struggle for civil rights in the nineteen sixties were the adoption of the Civil rights Act and also the Voting Rights Act by the federal government. In the case of the first law, the states were no longer able to practice segregation against African Americans or any other minority. In the second piece of legislation, the  discriminatory policies that were used by various states to deprive African Americans of their right to vote were outlawed. The two laws, both of which were signed by president Lyndon B. Johnson, are an example of how rights were gained by African Americans. Chapter 28 insists that these two laws “testified to the power of an African American and white liberal coalition” 5. The idea of any coalition is that it is used to express popular will and to acquire strength through numbers. The gaining of civil rights for African Americans is a process that is ongoing but achieved significant results in the enactment of these two laws.