...Devin Sheridan The South After The Civil War The Union victory in the civil war lead to economic decay, social disorder, and political turmoil. Reconstruction was the time period from 1865-1877 which sought to rebuild the south, and with reconstruction brought all new challenges. The unions total war tactics destroyed southern plantations, cities, and factories. Economically, the south post-civil war had a hard time importing and making money off of its main cash crop, cotton. Inflation was also an issue due to the decrease in worth of currency in the south. Socially, emancipated slave’s sought work and validation for the rights they deserved. Politically, the confederate government gave no power to the states and federal government, so it...
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...Education and Poverty in America Historically, education has been considered the “great socioeconomic equalizer” of American society, allowing all children an equal opportunity to succeed. Furthermore, a high-quality education is considered both a human and civil right however, educational experiences for children living in poverty continue to be substantially separate and unequal. In the United States, poverty is a common social, political and economic issue that has troubled Americans for years. Despite being better off today nearly 50 million Americans, including more than half of which are children currently live in poverty. In his poem, “Cause I Ain’t Got a Pencil,” Joshua T. Dickerson describes the damaging effects poverty has on...
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.... African American and Hispanics are two immigrant groups that have become assimilated into American society. Assimilation, as referred to in the text, is changing or adopting new customs and beliefs to fit in or become apart of a major or dominant culture. The United States, unlike any other country, has many races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, and opportunities. Other ethnic groups believe that the only way to advance in life is by adopting new cultures and becoming apart of the norm. A vast majority of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans arrived in America to flee hardship and to find a way to make a living. California and Texas combine for more than half of the Hispanic residents in America (Guisepi, n.d). There are about two thirds of Puerto Ricans that reside in the U.S. who are currently in the New York City area, including nearby New Jersey. Most Cuban Hispanics...
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...Bobby Thrush-Louis AMH2020 Depression and New Deal Minorities 4/14/15 At the end of the 1920s, the United States was the largest economy in the world. With the destruction brought by World War I, Europeans struggled while Americans flourished. Then, in the flash of darkness, everything went downfall. The stock market crash of 1929 was a snowball effect that put us into the worst crisis in history. But then, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sparked an idea, the New Deal, it was the set of federal programs launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after taking office in 1933, in response to the calamity of the Great Depression. The new deal had four major goals and achievements: Job creation, investment in public works, civic uplift, and obviously economic recovery. The new deal stabilized banks and all the financial mess from the stock market crash. One in four Americans, were out of work by 1933. The new deal created agencies that would aid jobs to millions of people and this also organized the rights for workers to organize unions. The New Deal built transportation landmarks and public landmarks that would help to bring back America. There was more positives than anything in the new deal; in addition, the new deal improved the lives of ordinary people and reshaped the public outlook. New Dealers and the men and women who worked on New Deal programs believed they were not only serving their families and communities...
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...The African American Literature unit shares the stories of many peoples lives through novels, poetry, essays, articles, and films. Many of these people were put in a rough situation because of of how they started out in life. many of them come from poverty which can restrict the opportunities they have in life. Economics play a key role in the African American literature as it effects the lives of many people. This was found in pieces of literature such as the article "How Poverty and Racism Persist in Mississippi", the novel The Water is Wide, and the poem "Note on Commercial Theater". First, the article "How Poverty and Racism Persists in Mississippi" shares the story of the author and his life as a child growing up in poverty. He tells about the struggles he went through such as only eating beans for days on end and constantly being hungry. As a child that just seemed ordinary to him as he didn't know anything else. As he is now grown up and a writer for The Atlantic, he knows different and is able to recognize the position of what he was in. Not only did he live that life, but many others did as well. Thirty two percent of African Americans in Mississippi live in poverty which is much higher than the national average....
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...It is apparent to most that African Americans have faced profound adversity in their quest for equality. In the late 19th and early 20th century blatant discrimination plagued many aspects of life for the newly freed blacks of America. Economic inequality, social injustice, formal legislation and lack of opportunities were but a few of the trials and tribulations African Americans endured. Through these challenges numerous leaders emerged to pioneer the pathway to equality with the main goal of improving the quality of life for blacks in America. Many great leaders approached this great and historic debacle with differing leadership styles, strategies, and philosophies that have shaped the progression of the African American race in the United States. This paper will examine the similarities and differences and the effects of opposing leadership styles, strategies and philosophies of prominent African American activists such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois. In accompaniment, an original argument on the best strategy for the advancement of African Americans will be explored. Educator, renowned speaker, former slave, mentor, mentee and African American spokesman are but a few adjectives to describe Booker T. Washington. Washington’s strategy for the advancement of Blacks was largely ingrained with subservience, patience, perseverance, and hard-work. It is widely argued that his unusually charmed and positively affected past with Whites shaped his outlook, strategy...
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...on Race: African Americans Frederik Seixas ETH 125 Jennifer Friedrich, Ph.D. 01/26/2014 It is an undeniable fact that, throughout history, the African American community has dealt with its fair share of discrimination. This is of particular historical significance to those living in the United States because it is an essential component of the founding of this country, and will continue to be a reoccurring theme in the curricula of educational institutions and in the headlines of current events. Historically, Africans were first brought into the Jamestown colony in 1619 for the purpose of harvesting tobacco (Slavery in America, 2012). Their arrival had a huge influence on the course of American history, so much so that it is no exaggeration to say that, without the presence of the African American people, our country would not be what it is today. Unfortunately theirs is a tale of enslavement and mistreatment, and with current-day discrimination still posing a threat to this particular race, it is impossible to deny that African Americans have weathered some of the most horrifying struggles possible. In many ways, the battle for freedom and equality is still very much alive, and, as a historian, I simply cannot ignore my duty to share the story of one of the most resilient races our country as ever known. Let us begin with some historical references on the matter of the African American community's experience in the United States. In terms of politicAfrican Americans were enlisted...
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...the effects of various actions and decisions of past government leaders and ordinary citizens in the shaping of the America we see today. Throughout human society, the conflicts, issues, and divisions among peoples, which one observes at any point in time, are not matters of chance, but are products of history, and forces of human undertaking. Today, American society is faced with a residential, geographic phenomenon among urban and suburban communities that disadvantages African American citizens through the discriminatory denial of residential and economic freedom, a Constitutional promise that is guaranteed to all Americans. Modern America is confronted with a socially and geographically segregated society structured on the hierarchies of race, having the greatest consequences for African American communities, the most segregated racial group in American society. The Great Migration of the early twentieth century was a symbolic beacon of hope for African Americans leaving their homes in the rural South to a new land of promise in the urban North. While this migration created vast amounts of opportunity for African Americans that could have not existed in the Jim Crow-era South, the movements of these people would carry the racial divisions and hostilities of society to the level of a national plight. Northern whites implemented various practices in order to manipulate urban housing markets in the effect of restricting the residential mobility of African Americans and...
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...way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media have fostered a distorted and pernicious public perception of African-Americans. 1 The history of African-Americans is a centuries old struggle against oppression and discrimination. The media have played a key role in perpetuating the effects of this historical oppression and in contributing to African-Americans' continuing status as second-class citizens. As a result, white America has suffered from a deep uncertainty as to who African-Americans really are. Despite this racial divide, something indisputably American about African-Americans has raised doubts about the white man's value system. Indeed, it has also aroused the troubling suspicion that whatever else the true American is, he is also somehow black. 2 Racism Before attempting to understand racism and mass media, one must understand the history of racism. Race has become an institutional part of American society. From the Founding on, race has played an integral part in shaping the American consciousness. David Goldberg's Racist Culture argues that racial discourse may be interpreted as aversive, academic, scientific, legalistic, bureaucratic, economic, cultural, linguistic, religion, mythical, or ideological. 3 He also stresses that racialized discourse and racist expressions towards African-American have been...
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...these policies may have created a permanent shift in American society which, as a result, disenfranchised minorities since they went into effect over thirty years ago. This particular idea or theory is exceptionally contradictory and has been distorted by not only various media outlets but by subsequent pro-Reaganomics politicians over the years. A closer look at the actions taken place under Reagan’s administration will explicate Reagan’s administration detrimental effect on members of minority groups which, in some cases, still affects these groups today. These policies include but are not limited to the reduction of social programming, the impoverishment of black people, the “War on Drugs”, the administration’s response to crises such as AIDS, and its approach to Civil Rights and LGBT rights (or lack thereof). When former President Ronald Wilson Reagan was first elected into office in 1980, the country’s inflation rate was the highest it had been since 1947. After his election, President Reagan wasted no time in implementing his domestic policies for the economy. His economic policies were based on a school of thought called supply side economics. His economic plan included the following propositions: “reduce the growth of government spending, reduce marginal tax rates on income from labor and capital, and reduce regulation, and control the money supply to reduce inflation”. As a result, the administration afforded the American taxpayers the...
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...The result of drug abuse among the African American society is embarrassing and degrades our race as a whole. Drug and alcohol addiction has continuously been one of our society’s most complex and ongoing problems, which targets mostly the black community. Substance abuse is not appealing especially to African American because they are more dependent for care and treatment. In the African American society today major problems that affect our community are increasing in rates because of drug abusers. However, the inferior impact on our race that it causes and the consequences it creates. Cultural biases and the constant emphasis on typical American values and lifestyles may contribute to drug abuse within the African American community. The psychological well being of African Americans today is consistently disagreeing with the constant reminder of their place in society. The inferior place is of course the place in which many African Americans allow themselves to be put in. Experts on drug abuse disorders agree that poverty and other socioeconomic factors have a great impact on the rise of drug abuse in the African American community (Britt 8). These common mistaken ideas by experts have a great impact on the way African Americans view themselves. Rather than suggesting to that, the several socioeconomic factors are the cause of drug abuse from an outsider point of view. Experts should do their research from within the black community. Research in substance abuse often does...
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...upheaval and economic turmoil. The United States was experiencing a drastic change as new ideas and problems arose throughout the country. These problems and ideas not only swayed public opinion, but also influenced action (Rauchway 1). Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, lived though all of these events and felt their effects growing up while living in the Deep South. Looking at her only novel, it can be concluded that the similarities within it and reality are no coincidence. The Historical events that occurred during Harper Lee’s lifetime clearly influenced her writing of To Kill a Mockingbird as elements of the Scottsboro Boys Trials are undoubtedly evident in the trial of Tom Robinson, the Jim Crow Laws are unjustly in effect towards the African-American population of Maycomb, Alabama, and the deleterious economic hardships faced after the Great Depression are present in the citizens of the town throughout the novel. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and the lawyer defending him. This fictional trial is in fact an almost exact recreation of a trial that Harper Lee lived through: The Scottsboro Boy Trials of 1931. Both the fictional and real trials of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Boys share several similarities, two of which are the race and crime of the defendant and the all racist white jury. The Scottsboro Boys were a group of “nine African American youths” who...
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...the federal government intercede to secure African Americans' rights. What were some of the long-range effects of that government posture? The Union Victory in the Civil War in 1865 granted freedom to approximately 4 million slaves, however, the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period 1865-1877 brought a lot of challenges. In 1865 and 1866 under the supervision of President Andrew Johnson, new Southern state legislatives passed the “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans. During the Radical Reconstruction in 1869, new enfranchised blacks had a voice in the government for the first time in American history, winning election southern state legislatives, including U.S. Congress. However, forces like Ku Klux Klan reversed changes brought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent reaction that restored white supremacy in the South. In 1865, President Andrew Johnson announced his plans for Reconstruction. According to him, the southern states had never given up their right to govern themselves, and the federal government had no right to determine voting requirements. Under Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction, all lands that had been confiscated by Union Army would be reverted to their prewar owners. Due to Johnson’s leniency, many southern states in 1865 and 1866 successfully passed laws known as the “black codes,” which were designed to restrict freed blacks’ activity and ensure their availability as...
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...the economic fortunes of African Americans changed dramatically during the twentieth century. African Americans moved from tremendous concentration in Southern agriculture to much greater diversity in residence and occupation. Over the period in which income can be measured, there are large increases in black incomes in both relative and absolute terms. African-Americans had learned to read and write at a minimal level. Throughout the South, it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write. New generations of the descendent of African-Americans...
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...meant that blacks did not have the same rights and privileges to use public areas as whites did. The main idea behind the Jim Crow laws was "separate but equal". It was a legal way to continue the discrimination against the African Americans in the southern states. (The rise and fall of Jim crow2010) You can say that the effect of these laws developed two different societies in the US. The African Americans were deprived from the same conditions and other governmental services the white people received. It turned out that the races were separated in many aspects: education, welfare, health, culture etc. They even deprived them of some civil rights they own being citizens like voting. Until 1964 these laws were governed and you can say helped maintain the gap between the races(Cope 2010). Booker T Washington believed that equality could be achieved through vocational education. Basically what he believed was the blacks would be accepted by the whites if they showed them they could be as literate and socially acceptable as they were. Instead of forcing and protesting for equal rights he urged blacks to focus on education and their farming and work ethics. ("Booker T Washington", 2012) WEB Dubois believed in full political, civil and social rights for African Americans in 1903, Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk. The Souls of Black Folk is Du Bois's best-known book. It has also been one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du...
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