The Civil Rights Movement

(Rena Schlid)

(Rena Schlid)

Jennifer Campos Olvera, Writer

The Civil Rights movement was a very important time in history due to that it was a rough time for African Americans. Since they were fighting to be the same as any other American and be respected. Many Americans were against the fact that African Americans wanted to be treated the same as any other American. Many people were upset about slavery being abolished, especially people from the south. It affected them the most because their whole economy was based on slavery and the slave trade. Due to that, they wanted to make it so that the lives of African Americans were even more challenging.

The Civil Right movement was an important time in history that took about a decade to achieve. The Civil War ended slavery, but it didn’t end discrimination towards African Americans and didn’t give them the same rights as white Americans. Later on, in 1868 and 1870 the 14th and 15th amendment were made that protected African Americans under the law and gave them the right to vote like any other American. African Americans were dealing with so much prejudice and violence against them in the mid 20th century, especially since people from the south weren’t pleased about African Americans being the same as them legally. Southern people were so upset that they made it so that Africans Americans couldn’t go to the same schools as them, get married to any white American, use the same public bathrooms, or be able to vote because of their supposed lack of literacy knowledge.

Due to African Americans being discriminated, they would be given only the less paying jobs and were not allowed to serve during World War 1. Later on, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made an executive order that allowed African Americans to be able to serve in government jobs and allowed them to serve in World War 2. Then, President Harry Truman made another executive order that made it so that there wouldn’t be any discrimination in the military towards any people of color. Overall, African Americans faced a lot to be legally considered the same as any other American.

Throughout the time that it took to legally make African Americans the same as any other American, they had to face many obstacles. Many things had to happen so that African Americans were viewed as something else other than subhuman, the civil rights movement made a huge impact in the past and to this day as well. Even though amendments were made and laws of discrimination were also made, to this day racism is still active. Everyone has freedom of speech some overused their rights to discriminate against others and many have to realize that not everything has stayed the same and racism should not be supported. This has always been a controversial topic and to this day there are still people who are racist and contribute to racist agendas. But, there has been major improvement in finding racial equality.