Through amendments and acts, the American government has worked towards reducing racism towards African-Americas. Unfortunately, there continues to be bigotry among Americans; however the number of people who are racist has been significantly reduced over the past fifty years. Hopefully, in the upcoming fifty years, the presence of prejudice in the U.S. will disappear completely.
The American government began taking actions against racism during the times of the Civil War, when a war was waged between the North and the South over whether or not the South could secede from the Union and permit slavery. The North eventually won the war, and with the 13th Amendment, slavery was outlawed in the United States. This was the first step towards equality for African-Americans. Unfortunately, African-Americans faced severe intolerance after the Civil War, as many white people found it hard to accept a former slave as their equal citizen. .
African-Americans rights were further strengthened with the 14th and 15th Amendments. The passing of these amendments shows the progress the U.S. has made in recognizing equality among all races. The fourteenth Amendment gave blacks the right to due process in the United States justice system. The fifteenth Amendment gave African-Americans the right to vote, therefore under the eyes of the law, proclaiming blacks as equals to whites. Unfortunately, in the South, Jim Crow laws were enacted, severely restricting blacks" new found freedoms. Jim Crow laws sought ways to prevent blacks from voting in any type of political race, with laws like the grandfather clause, which meant if your grandfather had voted, you could also vote. This was obviously a problem because former slaves" grandfathers had been slaves themselves. Another unfair voting restriction were literacy tests that only blacks were forced to take. As slaves, blacks were not permitted to receive an education, resulting in the imminent failure of these tests.