AFRICAN AMERICAN RIGHTS RISE AND FALL

African American Rights Rise and fall

African American Rights Rise and fall

Introduction

The period 1865-1896 saw huge changes for the black population of the Southern states. The Southern black population had great expectations for the post civil war period. They believed that every man would get freedom, equality and 'forty acres and a mule.' Unfortunately, emancipation didn't bring much of what they had hoped for. Equality, like the 'forty acres and a mule' was very hard to come by.

Analysis

When the Civil War ended in 1865, the Union side faced a huge problem. If they granted the black population full civil rights, they would almost certainly anger the Confederacy whites, and reuniting the country would prove more difficult. At the same time, if they let down the Afro-Americans they would be selling out on one of the key principles they had fought the war over. What resulted was a period that saw much initially given to the blacks, but by 1896, several of the rights they had gained had been eroded away (Blumberg RL. 1984). Racist attitudes in both the North and the South were slow to change and did much to hinder progress. Once the Civil War was long over, and many of the key reformers such as Sumner were gone, people in the North were much less keen to enforce civil rights upon the South. The Supreme Court, the head of the American justice system, was no help to the blacks at all; it in fact did its best to nullify the effects of anti-racist legislation. The 1896 Plessy Vs. Ferguson ruling which justified segregation, marked just how limited the equality given was. However, despite the many set backs, and the tail off in positive developments, the Black population was better off at the end of this period than at the beginning (Bobo L. 1997).

With emancipation came rights. The freedmen were now recognized as American citizens, and as such theoretically had the right to vote, to move freely wherever they wanted, and to do as they liked. In the years following the Civil War, Congress passed many laws designed to protect black civil liberties. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment was designed to protect civil rights and the Fifteenth Amendment sought to ensure that everyone was allowed to vote (Branch T. 1988).

Along with these amendments to the Constitution came the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which stated that any infringement upon the rights of former slave would be a crime punishable by law, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Legally recognising these rights was a huge step towards theoretically allowing the Afro-Americans equality and adding power to their cause. However, in reality the powers of these laws were greatly limited. Many of the Southern states refused to enforce them, and the actions of the Supreme Court went a great way to nullify their effectiveness (Carson C. 1981). Right from the start, most of the white people in the ...