African Americans in the mid-Twentieth Century

The Pursuit of Civil Rights : African Americans in the mid-Twentieth Century

Having been discovered by Cristobel Colon and named after one of his comrades , Amerigo Vespucchi , America has become a place to which thoughts of all oppressed turned . Despite being a continent of Indians and exiled criminals , it was still extremely luring to those who dreamed of better life without poverty and need to obey the ways of conservative society of the old Europe . America , and later on - the Unite States , was dreamed of as a place where nor hunger , nor poverty

, nor old laws would put obstacles before hard-working and honest men . Land of opportunity ' was the US 's second name and the first opportunity many men left their home for was a promise of liberty , freedom from unfairness of their homeland . Here it metered not whether one had been rich or poor , a catholic or a protestant - everyone was equal . Ratified on July the ninth of 1868 , Amendment XIV of the United States Constitution confirmed a long dreamed of equality : All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside . No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities or citizens of the United States nor shall any State deprive any person of life , liberty , or property , without due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws Thus , equality was made into a countrywide law and America gained even more resemblance to the perfect community from Thomas Mohr 's fancies where decency and honesty have been treasured above all . However , being an immaculate dream for whites who sailed over the ocean from the Old World , it turned out to be a prison for blacks enslaved and brought to work in the place , from which no returning home was possible . After the Great Civil War and the victory of the North blacks of USA were granted the long expected freedom and , as it is visible from the Amendment XIV of the US Constitution , equal rights with their white former masters . This way the unfairness which ruled the continent for many decades was , as politicians of those days viewed it abolished . However , blacks did not stop being treated as inferior second sort people . Whenever the Constitution claimed equal rights for everyone , in fact by majority the black were referred to as those who do not deserve the right to be as important as the white

In the middle of the twentieth century , when , as it seemed , the modern world had become much wiser being brought up on the ideas of humanism it became obvious that injustice did not vanish . Moreover , it hid itself under the wing of law , thus remaining seen but tolerated . In the land of the free it bloomed and nourished itself on the ground of racial discrimination . Former slaves , members of black communities...