'As reconstruction was happening, some Amendments were passed that affected the slaves in a few ways. Amendment 13 abolished slavery so that meant they were to be freed from their white masters. The 14th Amendment provided guaranteed rights and securities to all those freed. Also the 15th Amendment guaranteed voting rights account of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude, & Black Codes restricted Black rights in the South. Reconstruction gave slaves the freedom to be on their own and guaranteed all rights and securities they would have deserved but if they had lived in the South, they wouldn't get any of these rights as they would be restricted. I think those who didn't live in the South, were better off but those unfortunate enough to live in the South, they wouldn't be so much better let alone experience any change in rights or freedoms.'
→14th Amendment: Gave African Americans equal rights as a white man.
↓→15th Amendment: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on the account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." (
Topic.01 by Mr. Meechin on Prezi) So that meant everybody could vote right ? Wrong. People in the South were required to take literacy tests and pay a poll tax if they wanted their voices to be heard.
Even though they were free, they were still poor with no money or way of payment so they practiced a thing called sharecropping. Sharecropping is the act of living on another's land and giving 50% of their grown crops as payment. Now even though they were technically declared "free" it didn't seem to be as free as one would have hoped. Those 50% of crops as payment left a black man with merely enough to sell for money and to make a living. Another challenge for them is trying to grow as much crops as they can on land that might not be so prosperous. For example, if one was struggling to get his crops to grow because his soil was infertile or the weather wasn't as good, or even, he didn't have the tools to get started! One can only do as good as the materials handed to him. Let's say a man managed to grow 500 crops of food on a fairly fertile land. He would then have to give 50% of that crop to the white man who is letting him use his land for him to live and grow. That, at the end, would leave him with only 250 crops to make to turn into an income, but it wasn't always easy.
But during the Civil Rights Movement, the term "equal rights" began to slowly, but gradually, take shape & live up to its meaning. African American children were now allowed to attend the same schools as white kids and everybody rode the same buses BUT black & white people had separate sections for public services such as restaurants, stores, bathrooms, etc and blacks were to sit in the back of the bus while whites sat in the front. So on December 1, 1955 a woman by the name of Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man because she has decided that on that day, she decided to forget about everything and stood for what she believed. "He said would I stand up, and I said, 'No, I will not.' Then he said, 'I'll have you arrested.' And I told him he could do that. So he didn't move the bus any further. Several black people left the bus". (
Interview w/ Rosa Parks)
Then finally, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous
"I Have A Dream" speech was one that people will never forget. He was fighting for the citizenship rights of the Negro man, "There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges". (
I Have a Dream Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. He was then shot and killed after walking off from finishing his speech.
img src: "http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/cons/features/0206_01/slide4.gif"
"http://teacher.scholastic.com/rosa/boycott.htm"
"http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm"
