A Tireless Road1

A Tireless Road
HIS204: American History Since 1865
February 10, 2014

A Tireless Road2
It was long and tiring for African Americans on the road to freedom. Slavery was abolished in 1865 but not as they had hoped. It took many decades for it to come full circle and be properly finished. There were so many people and events that finally led to the complete freedom and equality for African Americans. I believe that the most significant events that led to a final resolution were the Amendments and Civil Rights Acts passed and signed by our government. Although, it was hard for proper implementation of the laws at first, I believe that they were all extremely important building blocks for the movement to finally get to where it is today.
The first event that started the Civil Rights Movement was the abolishment of slavery. Ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment did just this, it restricted state power federally and outlawed involuntary servitude. What this meant is that nationwide, it was illegal to claim ownership over another person. “Although its full effect was not achieved for nearly a century, it began the process of dismantling involuntary servitude as a widespread form of labor relations” (Rutherglen, 2012). With that being said, this was the first real law of its kind, so its implementation was crudely regulated. Yes, slaves were free to now go about and live as they see fit, however, even with freedom they could not regulate their own lives, there were still no laws stating that they had to be treated fairly without prejudice. This became a big problem for African Americans because the 13th Amendment gave them a promise of freedom, yet they were still having to involuntarily submit themselves to the white man. Even though they now had their “freedom” they still could not freely choose their own path. They were not allowed to seek education at the same schools as whites, or move into white neighborhoods, or work where white people felt they should not work, or eat at the same diner, or even drink from the same water fountain as white people did. The 13th Amendment may have been the first stepping stone but the
A Tireless Road3 government and the country still had an enormous amount to learn about how to properly integrate them into society while cutting the throat on racism. It was not an easy road but it had to start somewhere and the 13th Amendment was the first federal recognition of freeing and uniting all of the peoples of this nation under the same flag of freedom.
The second event to further the Civil Rights cause was the ratification of the 14th Amendment on June 9, 1868. This Amendment bestowed citizenship upon all peoples in the nation whether born here or naturalized. It gave everyone the right to be an equal citizen within the state in which they reside, and that state cannot make any law which shows prejudice towards any one race. No citizen under this Amendment can be deprived of their rights without due process of law. “No state is allowed either to make or enforce any law that abridges the privileges or immunities of one citizen of the United States as compared to another” (Calabresi, 2011). This was a huge step for the equality of African Americans. Since they were granted their freedoms with the 13th Amendment they were still not being treated as equal citizens. The fact that they now would have the law behind them granting them fairness and justice the road was now going to become a little easier for them to travel. However, even though legally under the law they could not be unfairly treated by the state in which they lived, they were still being heavily mistreated by the private sector of society.
The third event which furthered the scope of the Civil Rights movement was the 15th Amendment ratified on February 3, 1870. This Amendment gave African American males the right to vote. It outlawed any discrimination against race, color, or prior indentured servitude at the voting polls. With that being said, the true rights to vote without interference for African Americans was not fully recognized and enforced until the mid 1900's. Even though it was now legal for them to vote they still encountered heavy resistance from the private sector of the
A Tireless Road4 nation. Racial groups like the Ku Klux Klan were preventing African Americans from voting by violence and intimidation (Swinney, 1962). Also, a poll tax was initiated in many of the southern states. What this did was make it law for every man that wanted to vote to pay a fee in order to do so. This was a way for the south to hinder the African Americans from voting. The majority of African Americans lived within the poorer population of society and could therefore not afford to pay the tax to vote. So, just like previous Amendments, although they were given new freedoms and rights they still were not able to exercise them without resistance.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 gave African Americans the right to full privileges of public facilities, such as, inns, theaters and the right to public conveyances on land and water. The Act also made it legal for African Americans to be able to serve jury duty. Before this Act there were separate public facilities for whites and blacks. This was not freedom and equality. How could the government grant freedoms and laws that protected those freedoms yet not properly regulate such laws? This new act was now making the right of equality really start to impact society more as a whole, instead of allowing private prejudices to keep going on. This was extremely difficult for the rest of society to accept. They truly felt that as long as African American facilities, schools, and so forth, were just as capable and equipped as white ones then there should be no reason to integrate them. What they failed to understand is that in continuing to treat African Americans as second class citizens then there would never be any type of true equality or mutual growth of races within our nation. However, even though the Act was passed and put into effect even Northerners had an issue with allowing African Americans to become part of and integrate themselves into all aspects of white society. This is why in 1883 the Supreme Court declared the Act unconstitutional. The freedoms granted by the Act were not re-administered again until the Act of 1957, 73 years later (Wyatt-Brown, 1965).
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The next big step in equal rights was the organization of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization was founded in 1909 with the goal of securing the rights that the 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteed. The organization played a huge role in the final achievement of equal rights for African Americans in this country. The organization did an amazing job of keeping up with the changes that the country was going through and modifying their objectives to meet and incorporate those changes. It was very important for the NAACP that they upheld the laws that were in place. What I mean by this is that they their goals did not focus too much on the advancement of equality but more so on the fact that they really fought legally for the laws already passed be upheld and adhered to (Bracey & Meier, 1993). They found it difficult enough to get legislation to enforce equality laws much less trying to get new ones passed. This makes a lot of sense. How could the nation advance if we could not even stick to the achievements already met? They really wanted to show that morally, racism is wrong, and wanted “to teach the conscience of America” (Bracey & Meier, 1993).
The Executive Order 10925 was signed on March 6, 1961 by President Kennedy. This was a huge step in the direction of equality for all. It prohibited the federal government from discriminating on the basis of race, religion or national origin when hiring for government positions. I believe that this was the first big step for the federal government to practice what they had been preaching. Equality was finally being pursued amongst the government sector instead of just the public and private sectors. The government could now show that they fully accepted what they themselves had been fighting so hard for. Kennedy was the first president in a long time to really start fighting for equality. Executive Order 10925 proves his commitment to equality. “The size and character of the rate of numerical growth of Negro employment during the first year of the Kennedy Administration is impressive” (Hope & Shelton, 1963).
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The 24th Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1964 under the Johnson Administration. This Amendment called for the abolishment of the poll tax. As I stated earlier in this essay, the poll tax was a tax issued by a state to hinder the ability of the poorer class, which most African Americans were part of, from being able to vote. President Johnson, in his statement to the nation on January 23, 1964, said, “In a free land where men move freely and act freely, the right to vote freely must never be obstructed” (Johnson, 1964). What a powerful statement and so true. The ability to vote has always been the most prominent of freedoms separating us from so many other countries. It is in voting which has made us the great nation that we are today. It is one of the many beautiful freedoms that our flag protects. So, how can a nation that has been through so much to gain their freedom from oppression keep people oppressed? It was in this Amendment that the country could finally see that African Americans were equal in every aspect and that their opinion mattered just as much as the next persons.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was probably the most important event for the complete freedom and equality for all men in this country. It was the “prohibition of all official race discrimination” (Graglia, 2014). This meant racism and prejudices were not going to be tolerated at all, under any circumstances. It was the biggest step towards equality, yet it was going to be hard to completely implement all at one time. Under this Act desegregation would have to happen immediately, in all aspects of life. There was still segregation in schools, neighborhoods, and bussing, to name a few. To completely desegregate immidiately was not possible, it was something that was going to take a while to achieve. However, with this Act it was now possible for it to start and for all races to finally start to live and work and educate themselves within the whole of population. The Act also implemented the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). What this commission sought to do was enforce the laws against discrimination of any
A Tireless Road7 sort in the work place. Whether it was in a federal or private organization, the EEOC oversaw all of the discrimination cases. This power was given to the attorney general by President Johnson, he became the “watchdog of this task” (Bowles, 2011).
The battle for equality was the longest cause ever to face the American people. I truly believe that the government was to blame for so many of the failures of the movement. As discussed in this essay, there were many great Amendments and laws passed to secure the freedoms and equal rights of the African Americans. However, the government did not do the job of properly implementing them. If the government had been steadfast on their commitment and not waivered, then equal rights would have been completely enforced a lot earlier than they were. The road was long and the battle rigorous but in the end, even though it a lot longer than it should have, complete freedom was granted and there is now equality for all.

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References
145 Statement by the President Announcing the Adoption of the 24th Amendment to the
Constitution. January 23, 1964. (2001). American Reference Library-Primary Source
Documents, 1.
Bowles, M.D.(2011). American History: 1865-Present/End of Isolation. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education
Bracey, J.H., & Meier, A. (1993, Feb.). The NAACP as a Reform Movement, 1909-1965: “To
Reach the Conscience of America”. The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp.
3-30.
Calabresi, S. G. (2011). Does the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee equal justice for all?.
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, 34(1), 149.
Graglia, L.A. (2014). The Supreme Courts Perversion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Harvard
Journal of Law & Public Policy, 37(1), 103-111.
Hope, J., II., & Shelton, E.E. (1963). The Negro in the Federal Government. The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 367-374.
Rutherglen, G. (2012). The Thirteenth Amendment, The Power of Congress, and the Shifting Sources of Civil Rights Law. Columbia Law Review, 112(7), 1551-1584.
Swinney, E. (1962, May). Enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment, 1870-1877. The Journal of
Southern History, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 202-218.
Wyatt-Brown, B. (1965, Dec.). The Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 763-775. University of Utah.