The victory of the northern states in the American Civil War brought with it one of the biggest changes in United States history: the freeing of the slaves. The economic system was turned on its head and the first major breakthrough for the African Americans was achieved. For generations, black people had been owned by white men, and that was no longer the case. Black people were officially their own people, which was huge progress in the fight for their equality. The end of the fight, though, still has not been reached. Generations of racist legislation and powerful individuals with no regard for the rights of black people kept black people indebted to white people, prevented black people from voting, allowed lynching, and, today, cause black people to get arrested and murdered by white people at staggering rates. The Civil War was only the beginning of the ongoing and far from over fight for black civil rights. Though technically free after the Civil War, black people were often still bound to plantation owners during reconstruction. Slaves who had had no freedom beforehand did not have jobs and were therefore not able to up and leave their homes. Plantation owners who were looking for cheap labor after losing their slaves took advantage of this situation and created sharecropping, which allowed for freed slaves to rent land in exchange for tending the crops and giving a share of what they harvested to the owner (“Sharecropping: Slavery by Another Name”). There were good years and bad years for harvesting, and if sharecroppers were unable to produce a certain amount of crop in one year, they became indebted to the landowner and were unable to leave the plantation. Laws catering to the landowners were put in place that prevented sharecroppers from being able to move off of the plantation if they were in debt and also made it illegal for sharecroppers to sell any part of their own crop (“Sharecropping: Slavery by Another Name”). The freedom of former slaves was of no use to many sharecroppers who were bound by law to remain on the plantations despite their desire to leave. Black people’s vulnerability post-war was exploited and used to hold them hostage on plantations in a way that resulted in hardly any loss for the landowners, a definition that is strikingly close to slavery. The laws to keep black people on plantations were passed by a democratic system that didn’t allow black people to be a part of it. Post Civil War, freed slaves were not allowed to vote. The democratic republic of America excluded black people entirely from its system of voting and lawmaking until the 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3,
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Groups of black college student, using nonviolent methods advocated by Martin Luther King Jr., staged sit-ins, walking into white-only eateries, sitting at the counters, and ordering coffee. The first sit-in was February 1, 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the sit-in movement spread from there (“The Sit-In Movement”). Throughout the country, black students would enter white-only restaurants and refuse to leave until served. The demonstrations were completely non-violent; even when met with violence from white onlookers, demonstrators would “curl up into a ball on the floor and take the punishment” (“The Sit-In Movement”). Eventually, after the arrest of 1,500 students, many southern restaurants began to change their segregation rules. The success of this movement was discussed by leaders of the nonviolent civil rights movement and lead to the creation of Freedom Rides in 1961, where groups of both black and white students would share busses riding through the south (“The Sit-In Movement”). Through repeated demonstrations by groups of black people and aid from white allies, segregation laws began to be removed and legislation set in place for the sole purpose of oppressing black people was changed. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, outlawing literacy tests and providing federal monitoring to make sure states weren’t using other means to explicitly keep black people from being able to register to vote (“Fifteenth Amendment”). The 60’s were a hugely pivotal time for black civil rights in America and marked the beginning of the modern era for African
Groups of black college student, using nonviolent methods advocated by Martin Luther King Jr., staged sit-ins, walking into white-only eateries, sitting at the counters, and ordering coffee. The first sit-in was February 1, 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the sit-in movement spread from there (“The Sit-In Movement”). Throughout the country, black students would enter white-only restaurants and refuse to leave until served. The demonstrations were completely non-violent; even when met with violence from white onlookers, demonstrators would “curl up into a ball on the floor and take the punishment” (“The Sit-In Movement”). Eventually, after the arrest of 1,500 students, many southern restaurants began to change their segregation rules. The success of this movement was discussed by leaders of the nonviolent civil rights movement and lead to the creation of Freedom Rides in 1961, where groups of both black and white students would share busses riding through the south (“The Sit-In Movement”). Through repeated demonstrations by groups of black people and aid from white allies, segregation laws began to be removed and legislation set in place for the sole purpose of oppressing black people was changed. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, outlawing literacy tests and providing federal monitoring to make sure states weren’t using other means to explicitly keep black people from being able to register to vote (“Fifteenth Amendment”). The 60’s were a hugely pivotal time for black civil rights in America and marked the beginning of the modern era for African