African Americans in the Post Civil War Era
Jefferson Davis stated in the pre-Civil War years to a Northern audience, "You say you are opposed to the expansion of slavery... Is the slave to be benefited by it? Not at all. It is not humanity that influences you in the position which you now occupy before the country," (Davis, The Irrepressible Conflict, 447). The Northerners had not freed the slaves for moral issues; the white majority did not have anything but its own economic prosperity on its mind. The African Americans gained their emancipation and new rights through the battling Northern and Southern factions of the United States, not because a majority of the country felt that slavery possessed a 'moral urgency'. As the years passed and the whites began to reconcile, their economic goals rose to the forefront of their policy, while racism spread throughout the country and deepened in the South. Even with all of the good intentions and ideals expressed in the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, blacks watched as their freedom disintegrated through the late 19th Century as a result of the Supreme Court decisions that limited the implications of the new amendments. After the passage of these amendments, two of the three branches of government disconnected themselves
"The object of the amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished form political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either." With the Northern 'victory' in the Civil War, African Americans were forever 'freed from the bonds of servitude'. However, the freedom that they were released into closely resembled their years of servitude, filled with degrading poverty and little chance for advancement. Although the Radical Republicans had embarked on a costly Reconstruction plan and set up legislation meant to protect black civil rights, the blacks did not thrive. The Supreme Court successfully chipped away at any progress made by the Republicans. Rulings made in the later half of the 19th Century reduced the scope of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, and lead to the further subordination of the Black race by Southern State governments. Southern whites were allowed to set up a system that kept blacks as prisoners without any say on their future. The social practices, including segregation, curfews, violence and disfranchisement that the Blacks suffered left them anything but free as the 20th Century dawned. The amendments to the Constitution had been made, but the whites did not take the time after 1866 to abolish the prejudice that came with slavery, giving testimony to theory that the North engaged in the Civil War for economic, not moral reasons. The application of racism after the Civil War was just as rampant, but much more subtle than before the Civil War, making it much more difficult to confront, and resulting in a century of unequal education, inferior treatment and segregation. Since the late 1860's, Southern states had attempted to remove the franchise from the black citizens. Once more, they were aided in their goal with the Supreme Court rulings that limited the implications of the 15th Amendment. The latest addition to the Constitution stated that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of
Some common words found in the essay are:
Supreme Court, American Citizens, Rights Act, Republicans Rulings, Northern Southern, Klan Klan, Jim Crow, Republican's Congress, Board Education, Civil War, supreme court, jim crow, civil war, blacks south, civil rights, crow cars, jim crow cars, white southerners, plessy vs ferguson, cummings vs, vs county, 13th 14th 15th, limited implications, county board education, vs county board,
Approximate Word count = 1530
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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