What are the historical causes of racial inequality in the United States? How has American democracy tried to achieve racial justice and equality? How has America changed from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement? Your essay should include: slave codes, Jim Crow laws, Non-violent civil disobedience, Reconstruction, 14, 15 amendment, Plessy vs. Ferguson, Brown vs. Board of Education, Loving vs. Virginia, Bakke vs. Board of Regents at UC Davis.
Essay.
America has been tainted with racial inequality, discriminations, segregation and hatred throughout its history. Blacks had been mistreated from the beginning of British North America in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Virginia. (Rein) Since then, racial inequality has been an issue in American history shown by slavery; slave codes in which slave-owners had absolute power over their slaves, Jim Crow Laws, and numerous Supreme Court decisions such as the Plessy vs. Ferguson.
Near the end of the Reconstruction Era (1877), freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote was granted under the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. This was a period of hope and progress for Black Americans. However, Blacks were faced with racism and discrimination in the South when the Jim Crow Laws (slang term for a black man) came into effect in 1876. These laws affected Black Americans. Americans were mandated and segregated from public facilities. They were segregated from schools, restrooms and hospitals; and total institutions like prison and churches. (crf-usa.org) .
Movements to obtain civil rights for Black Americans have had a special significance and after the Civil War a new movement for civil rights began. Many Black Americans from 1896 to 1954 were fighting for their rights and many cases went to the Supreme Court which were denied. The Brown vs. Board of Education case is an example of a major turning point in their civil rights issues.