A brutal past

In today's society we are said to have equal rights for all people of the united states regardless of race, gender, or color. Some say we do not but some say we do, I think we do because we have a colored president. Another debate is that which event contributed more? The freedom from slavery due to the civil war. Then others believe the civil right movement of the 1950's and 1960's contributed more. I am not saying either did contribute more because they are equally important, without both it would not be the same. However there are similarities between the two.

Lets start with the civil war and the freedom of slaves. After Lincoln was elected the south began to succeed from the United State and form the Confederacy. Even then the war had not begun, it took a raid on an armory by a radical abolitionist by the name of John Brown. This sent us into the war. Afterward the slaved were allotted freedom but that is about it. They were now freed from slavery and on their own, that however did not change peoples minds about them, southerners still hated them and refused to give them any rights. Most slaves were not allowed to get normal jobs and had to resort to sharecropping which in easy terms is glorified slavery. A white plantation owner would let you live on their land and let you farm so much of it in a certain way, in exchange for at least half of the crops at harvest. If they did not follow strict guide lines they would face monetary punishments and sanctions. Once you signed a contract you were stuck there until it was fulfilled or face prosecution which could lead to death. Also lynching started to become more popular.

Now, lets fast forward fifty to ninety year to 1950 where a new era is beginning which would be known as the civil rights movement. Life for the African Americans has improved but is still in a poor unequal state thanks to segregation throughout the south. There are more jobs and homes, there are also towns and sections of towns with only black or white families. Lynchings are still taking place and now the second Ku Klux Klan has risen bringing hate crimes throughout the south such as, burning churches,running over Negros, burning crosses. Some of the time they would preform these acts just to scare African Americans from voting.

Now while history is easier to record now than is was during the reconstruction we still have to look at this with open eyes. The civil rights movement lasted  roughly 20 years while the reconstruction lasted a mear 12 years. There were many people killed throughout both times for different and absurd reasons such as looking at a white woman wrong, back talking a white man, being the son of a murderer, going to Sunday school, wanting to vote. Both times had radical racist that thought they could bypass the government with sharecropping and segregation of public places. However though in the civil rights movement it was illegal to commit a hate crime. Not many acts were actually convicted because of corrupt judges and juries but the government was trying harder at least.

Overall I think the treatment of African Americans has been poor for all of time and now they are finally getting to a point where they are close to equal, we are not quite there yet but we are getting very close. I think the civil rights movement was a bit harsher than the reconstruction but it was also longer. Our lesson needs to be to look back at the past and make sure we work hard to eliminate an recurrence of this in the future.









Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King_-_March_on_Washington.jpg

Reconstruction, was it really that grand?

After the north won the civil war the reconstruction period begins. In this period slaves are given freedom but they are still looked down on from the white man. This makes it hard for them to find work and get homes. The white man decides to offer them home and land in exchange for work and half or more of the crops they raise on the land. These families were not paid anything for the work they did so in the end it is very similar to slavery because it was the only option they really had if they wanted to survive. I believe the slaves did not gain much from the reconstruction and freeing, we do not see real changes until the civil rights movement.

Since when is murder forgivable?

When is someone allowed to kill without any punishment? Apparently following the civil war the south was granted "amnesty" which means forgiveness, so they were basically forgiven for the 360,000 deaths they inflicted on the north. I think that is absurd, do I think the south should have died for it, no, but just forgiving them was a very light punishment. It is in my opinion that the south should have faced sanctions like countries face today from the United Nations.

One wrong action and you could change the way your race is viewed

In todays world stereotypes are widely know by most people, and for good or bad they are there. How did they get to be so well known? Some examples are Asians are smart, African Americans like  fried chicken and are athletic. We all assume these things when we think about it, but why?. I think the reason we use stereotypes abroad is because of the influence media has on us. When you watch TV, you hear on the news of new research out of Asia proving a math theory or see a commercial with Chad Ochocinco in it. Then you watch a movie and see a Sunday afternoon lunch of fried chicken. We see stuff on TV, on the internet, in the paper and we automatically assume its true for everyone. I guess the major flaw is that we assume, we all know what happens when we assume.

History, the recipe for the future

Its a simple  but almost stupid question. Does history matter? The answer is obviously yes or we wouldn't keep it now and teach it in school. I guess though a bit more explaining is necessary. The perfect example is a society that tries to eliminate another race. Romans tried to rid the Christians, although they didn't succeed it was recorded. Even though it was recorded it repeated itself when Hitler tried to eliminate the Jews. So yes history is important because we need it to try and prevent history from repeating itself again.