The Opposition of Equal Rights
Throughout the course of history African Americans have bravely fought to gain the same rights that white folks had. Even though the constitution grants and promises equal treatment under the law for all men, it sure didn’t feel like it. African Americans felt out of place in their communities due to the fact that they weren’t being treated as equal as whites, especially in the south. The white southerners felt that anything African Americans were trying to obtain was a problem. So why did white southerners restrain African American from having equal rights? The answer to this question lies in the economic field and on a hysteria that African American where going to become more inferior then they are. After African Americans received their freedom, most of the white southerners were angry. They were furious because all the “workers” were gone. Emancipation had hurt the rich white southerners economically because most of their income came from the slaves working in the plantation. During the reconstruction period white southerners had restrained African Americans in many ways and one way was financially. There was a system put in place called share cropping. Share cropping meant African Americans had to work for a certain amount of crop that the white southerners had or they purchase it from them. During this period most of white southerners would not give African Americans the total amount of crop that they work for. Another way that white southerners made it difficult for African Americans to obtain land or purchase any amount of land. This was all done because whites in the south didn’t want African Americans obtain rights or to be as equal as they were. There is a hysteria that whites were afraid of African Americans at that time would obtain enough power to over throw them and become the dominant race. This was a lie but at the time it was considered be a realistic thing. By thinking like this the white southerners implemented a lot of things. Black codes was one of the laws that they implemented in the south to regulate and manage the lives of African Americans in the south. Also groups like the KKK where its members were mostly white southerners were opposed to every African American trying to gain something for their benefit. The KKK also intimated many African Americans during the time of election and important events. They went as far as to killing many African Americans and whites from the north that wanted to help African Americans. These extreme measures and actions taken by the KKK had one goal and that was to deny African Americans to have anything equal as any whites. Whites especially in the south tried to suppress African Americans economically and not letting accepting in society to keep the idea of them being inferior to them. With them thinking this way, they past many laws against African Americans and made it harder for them to obtain anything they wanted. Many political figures in the Republican Party black made many efforts to help African Americans obtain equal rights throughout the country for blacks. But as much as the Republican Party wanted to help African Americans, the more furious white southerners would get and the more they wanted to oppose to the idea that African Americans should have equal rights.