African American Discrimination Essay

African Americans and Discrimination Origin exclusivelyy from Sub-Sahara Africa, thousands of African Americans were kidnapped and brought everyplace to and sold in the get together States during the Atlantic Slavery Trade. By 1860, before the Civil War, 3.5 one thousand thousand African Americans lived as slaves, mostly in the Southern United States. to a owing(p)er extent than 500,000 lived as free persons in 33 offers across the United States (2008). Today, many an(prenominal) African Americans believed to have come from European American or homegrown American heritage. They believe to be direct descendants of captive Africans who were enslaved. The passe-partout Africans were non given the chance to colonize or immigrate to the United States they were hunted down and chained together like animals, stacked on top of each other on the bottom of the ship, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to a life they were not accustomed to- thrall. January 1863, Abraham Lincoln subsc ribe the Emancipation Proclamation declaring freedom for African American slaves in slavery states. Following the signing of the bill, African Americans started approach even more problems with racial discrimination, segregation, racism, and prejudice. African Americans were beaten, put in jail, put to death, and denied basic human rights.To offer African Americans were racially discriminated against only because of the color of their skin is an understatement. They were also racially discriminated against because of their sex, their religion, and their social class. During the last decade of the 19th century, racial violence and racial discrimination dramatically increased against African Americans. African Americans were not allowed to anything light people considered to be for clears only. They could not join any white organizations, attend any white schools, eat at white restaurants, or work at white establishments. Voting rights were stripped away, economic opportunities we re denied, and adapted housing was not an option for them. In some areas in the South, African Americans couldnt even worship at their own church or attend their own schools. African Americans were kept in a state of illiteracy and treated as if they were inferior to whites. Life conditions were hard in the South for whites, new immigrants, and former slaves that brought about the Great Migration to the Northernstates.African Americans went to the North searching for a promising life full of freedom, equality, and successfulness (2008). Between 1954 and 1968, the Civil Rights movement fought to abolish racial discrimination in the South. African American political leaders sought out ship canal to gain equality for blacks. Civil Rights programs were designed to enable people to break full citizens (Sykes, 1995). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 covered discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, and sex (Schaefer 2006). The United States Constitution was written to giv e Americans, not just African Americans, legal rights. The first amendment gave people the freedom of speech, assembly, and religion, and press, the fourth amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law, the thirteenth amendment made slavery illegal, and the 15th amendment forbids racial discrimination in access to voting. It took quite a few years for everyone to get used to having their newfound freedom. In the early twentieth century, African Americans were still struggling for equality among whites in the workplace, education, income berth, and social class. galore(postnominal) people are still being passed over for promotions because they are not what corporate America wants. Women have been pushed to the moxie of the line and given the low paying position resulting in double jeopardy (the subordinate status twice defined, as experienced by women of color) (Schaefer 2006). The deoxyephedrine ceiling, glass walls, and glass escalator (barriers that prevent the promoti on of a qualified worker because of sexual activity or race) effect has made an impact in the workplace with African American men and women as well. Whites have been given the best of everything over African Americans- positions, salary, housing, education, and political power.To help fight for multifariousness, affirmative action was created. positive action (positive efforts to recruit subordinate group members, including women, for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities) (Schaefer 2006), gave power back to the African American people. Today, African Americans have broken down barriers and achieved great success in several areas of life such as acquire houses, getting college educations, obtaining high paying jobs, and joining distinguished groups. Not all discriminatory acts have been abolished completely African Americans are still facing subtle racist acts against them that they tend to go unreported or unnoticed. As long as people continue to fight for positive ch ange it can be achieved.ReferencesAfrican American contributors. (2008). African Americans. New creation Encyclopedia Sykes, M. (1995). Origins of affirmative action. National Organization for Women. National NOW Times.Schaefer, R, T. (2006). racial and ethnic groups (10th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson Prentice Hall.