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African American Civil Rights Essay

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Leo Dold
USH – Maloney
March 5 2016
Civil Rights In the United States
African Americans in the United States had struggling for equal rights since the end of the Civil War. Although the North's victory in the civil war was a step towards freedom, it in no way granted African Americans civil rights. Institutions such as the Jim Crow Laws reinforced racial inequality even after reconstruction. They served to segregate the races and promoted an inherently unequal system. African Americans fought to their best abilities for civil rights during the Reconstruction period after the civil war. Despite this, the Civil rights movement only began to gain momentum in the 1950s because of the Great Migration, World War II, and the NAACP's victory in Brown …show more content…

Thought African American soldiers were welcomed into certain branches of the armed forces, there was still discrimination and segregation within the army (Black, White & Beyond). In some cases, captive Germans were treated with more respect than African American soldiers. Many soldiers noted the irony and hypocrisy of fighting for freedom and democracy when they couldn't enjoy those same privileges in their own country. Wars were being fought to liberate others when the soldiers themselves were in fact not free. Eventually, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 to desegregate defense industries ("Executive Order 8802." Encyclopedia Britannica Online). This action alone allowed more than 200,000 northern blacks to find jobs in various defense industries, boosting the average income of African Americans considerably. After World War II, many wondered how the United States could fight for freedom abroad when so many still lacked freedom at home. The hypocrisy of the war and activist pressure led President John F. Kennedy to endorse the civil rights movement fully in the early …show more content…

Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that became the most important momentum builder for the civil rights movement (Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education: The Supreme Court Rules on School Desegregation). In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine previously established by the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that took place more than 50 years prior. In declaring that segregated schools were inherently unequal, the Brown v. Board of Education decision opened a floodgate for more attacks on southern Jim Crow laws. Empowered by Brown, blacks such as Rosa Parks lit the first sparks of real protest that led to the desegregation of public facilities. With African American civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, The nation made great strides towards opening the doors of education to all students. With court orders and active enforcement of federal law, Integration would continue into the late

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