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America has taken a long route on the way to what is being called equality and equal rights, especially when it comes to race. Most of the problems black people encountered throughout the lifespan of American history were of national importance. The United States has struggled to build a union that is perfect or, at least, somewhat close to perfect, and that reflects in history. Nonetheless, the United States has taken the road of development and exerts strong efforts to achieve what has been missing for a long time. The improvements are visible but the problem of racial inequality still exists and requires national attention as African Americans are more likely to live in poverty, have a worse education than whites, and are imprisoned at a rate six times that of whites, which indicates that the racial gap is not yet closed, and there is a lot of work to be done.
For 83 years, Jim Crow laws parted American people by race in more than 20 states. One of the most important issues was that most American cities and states people lived in isolated vicinities and went to schools that were solely white or black. Another issue was that Jim Crow laws made it unlawful for anyone getting married to someone of another race and commanded that business owners dispersed their customers by skin color and secured their right to reject service to people legitimately because of their race. Jim Crow laws were designed to cast off the liberty and equality of African Americans as they did not have “human rights” because they were not part of the human race. They were brutes and aliens coming straight out of the wilderness (Tischauser 11). Cole and Ring claim that “the story of race as it was lived in the Jim Crow era was in part a matter of place and of time and the United States was not all of a piece, nor was the South” (44) and, at that time, it was a universal truth.
One of the biggest civil rights problems in America in times of Jim Crow Policy was about the status of its black minority and role of gender. There was a time when rape was not treated as a serious crime where the victims were black women, and the suspected attackers were white males. There is a long history of gender and race stereotypes that portrayed black women as accessible and disposed to crime. This kind of discrimination put black women at greater risk of sexual attack and made them defenseless towards the charges against them. Poor women were “erased” from society had no chance of accusing the criminal of rape because courts were reluctant to prosecute the offender. The fact of impunity has virtually guaranteed that authorities would turn a blind eye to the perpetrators (Sani 151). In our days, gender still plays a huge role in the perception of black people (especially in terms of disrespect for black women), and a lot of black members of LGBTQQI are still not tolerated by the community. From intermarriage to cohabitation, from restaurants to prisons – white people were always separated from the people of color in each and every aspect of life and nowadays the society is still divided, despite the efforts made to improve the situation.
As an adequate reaction to inequality and belittling of black population’s dignity, different civil rights movements have appeared. According to Griffith, civil rights movements “became a task of work to create a perfect union” (31). The most well-known and recognizable movement is the one called Black Power. This movement questioned the wisdom and decency of the government (Jim Crow Policy as well) as one of the goals was to initiate black people’s way towards progress and prosperity. The Black Power appeared as a response to violence towards black people, yet at the moment, we witness not so many cases of police brutality mostly due to the fact of insufficient public resonance. Many of the movement’s frontrunners arose from the middle class, but the majority of the movement were regular people. A lot of those ordinary people sacrificed their lives for the sake of a greater motive. The Black Power received a moderate response from both the government and the nation, as the changes proposed by the leaders of the movement were too radical. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, The Black Power overruled the bravery and tolerance of Martin Luther King’s approach that implied a diplomatic response to the inequality.
The impact of the protests, both violent and nonviolent, became tangible as the number of protestants grew and the question of inequality became not of local importance but national. The significance of the movement echoes the idea that implied that blacks would be willing to grieve the disgraces of racial discrimination to show their ability to love even in a situation when they are openly hated and humiliated. But this kind of behavior was more of an approach to start up a peaceful confrontation and not a plea to white people to accept black people on identical terms just because they had morals and principles, too (Harris 192). Black Power movement unleashed fundamental criticism of American society’s dominant standards and values, and black people were, in turn, openly criticized for mimicking white values and culture rather than accepting and appreciating their own.
Compared to Jim Crow Policy, Black Power movement became the antipode for the latter as it presumed and emphasized civil rights, even as it was asserted and systematized around black autonomy within a background of being both black and American. It was an integration of two apparently opposing views – black autonomy and racial assimilation – that counterfeited a new politics which saturated a new America. What is more, it was Black Power, not a daydream of a racially unified America, that eventually became a predominant expression among African Americans (Bell 12). Currently, another movement has become popular among the people of America and is called #BlackLivesMatter. It is a movement that questions people for ethical and politically aware involvement in a world where black people are steadily under attack. It is a statement of black people’s value to the culture, humankind, and a proof of flexibility in the face of fatal harassment.
Racism and gender or racial inequality have always been substantial problems for any society. This paper dwelled on how momentous the racism was to the United States and performed an analysis of the most prevalent cases of gender and racial discrimination of black Americans, comparing the Jim Crow policy to the reactionary movements. This paper also sheds some light on the Black Power movement and explains its background, reasons for its apparition and considers the consequences of the emergence and the development of the movement. After investigating the subject of Civil Rights of African Americans and their role in the United States formation, it can be concluded that African Americans are an integral part of American culture and, despite all the difficulties, American Society is committed to and will strive for racial and gender equality in all spheres of everyday life no matter how hard it is going to be, and how many obstacles are going to be overcome on the way to the bright future.
Works Cited
Bell, Joyce. The Black Power Movement and American Social Work. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. Print.
Cole, Stephanie and Natalie Ring. The Folly of Jim Crow: Rethinking the Segregated South. Arlington, TX: University of Texas, 2012. Print.
Griffith, Joanne. Redefining Black Power. Reflections on the State of Black America. San Francisco: City Light Books, 2012. Print.
Harris, Fredrick. The Price of the Ticket. Barack Obama and Rise and Decline of Black Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
Sani, Shehu. Hatred for Black People. Bloomington: XLIBRIS, 2013. Print.
Tischauser, Leslie. Jim Crow Laws. Denver, CO: ABC-CLIO, 2012. Print.
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