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Civil Rights

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Submitted By Shane30303
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Shane Kearney
Mrs. Graziano
English 11
14 May 2015
Civil Rights
Throughout history, a continuous problem we encounter is racial inequality. In the United States alone, black students are more than three times as likely to attend schools where less than 60 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements to teach. But, though this is still a problem, it pales in comparison to what went on previously in history. It is an ongoing issue that many have tried to solve, including Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln. Though Lincoln did not actually believe that blacks and whites could live together due to the stubbornness of the citizens of the United States, he freed all of the slaves in hopes to end the war. Although we still experience many instances of social inequality in the United States today, the words of the most famous civil rights activists still apply to this day, and we are a far more accepting when it comes to the rights of everyone. The United States today is the most accepting it has ever been because of words of the greatest Civil Rights activists.
The 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was the man who freed the slaves on January 1, 1863, and took the first step towards equality for all. Lincoln said, “And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free”(57). Lincoln did not fully believe that by freeing the slaves, that everyone would accept it, and could move past it. Although, what he did achieve, was ending the Civil War. The blacks were still mistreated, and were not equal, but they were not owned by anyone.
Abraham Lincoln also said that, “the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof,

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