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African American Contributions To The Civil Rights Movement

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African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of African-Americans struggled to live a good life in America. This paper highlights the many contributions of African Americans that have influenced the culture, enriched the society with their achievements, and shaped the history of the United States. The ending of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century is the period of establishing the foundation of equality. The African American culture flourished and began to merge with the white culture, i.e. the popular culture. Since being granted their freedom after the Civil War, the African Americans achieved greatness in the areas of science, …show more content…

Music became the driving force of building the foundation of equality as it said “Blues that brought blacks and white togethers” (3). While the legal and economic standoffs between the African Americans and whites continued in the courts and streets, there was a new current of voices rises: searching for a way for the harmony within the nation. If the African American were to attain the equality in education, justice and job, they would know how to organize themselves into the local and national political organization. In the late 1890s, African American Movements for equality increased in the south. The whites in south instituted Jim Crow laws which effectively took away the rights granted by the Constitutions. Moreover, the Supreme Court case of “Plessy vs. Ferguson” mandated the doctrine of separate but equal facilities for the different races. This allowed the states the rights to discriminate and segregate within their borders. …show more content…

When the African Americans joined the Civil War in hopes of having a better and easier way of life and after the war, it was a totally opposite of what they expected. The reconstruction period involved many layers of conflicting interests and goals among the key players: blacks and whites, radical reformers and radical traditionalists, Northerners and Southerners, presidents and legislators, owners and laborers, missionaries and generals. The 13th Amendment of 1865 abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment of 1868 provided equal protection under the law and the 15th Amendment of 1870 allowed all men, regardless of social or financial status, the ability to vote (3). The reconstruction period was revolutionary as the victory of the North, the destruction of slavery, the preservation of the union in legal framework undermined the structure of American Democracy and its

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