Equality Case

African Americans faced discrimination on the foundation of their skin color. For years, African-Americans played a primary position in American history. African Americans back then have gone through a lot to get where they are now. They were once slaves at some point in time and had no rights to anything. When they were let free they were still being discriminated against and still hated. They fought in race riots and lost ones that were close to them. They gave speeches that will never be forgotten and stood for what they believed was right. They stood for equality and respect. African Americans did a lot to end the segregation and discrimination of our nation and have earned the respect to be equal.

So you ask what the difference between segregation, discrimination and isolation is. Well segregation is the separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area by separate and educational facilities or by other discriminatory means. Discrimination is prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment. And isolation is simply being set apart from others (Webster.com). Now that we know the difference it will be easier to understand the rest of the paper.

The first step for the African Americans was to first become freed from slavery. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared that "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free(Carnahan, 2007)", although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery. On December 6, 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. It was the Constitutional end of slavery in the United States, bringing the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation into law. It was not merely a positive prescription against slavery; it was a normative statement about the core value of freedom.

The Jim Crow Laws were designed to discriminate against blacks even after they were freed. Jim Crow Laws were laws designed to disenfranchise African Americans, became known as Jim Crow laws, or Black Codes (Bowles, M. 2010). Jim Crow laws were boundaries intended to relegate and separate African Americans. The Jim Crow laws were a result of what the whites feared after Reconstruction. Jim Crow laws segregated all public transportation and places like railways and streetcars, hospitals and other public establishments, were designated for blacks. The laws also required blacks to use distinct phone booths and restrooms, and in some cases, didn't give blacks the right to vote

African Americans have served in every war the United States has ever gone to. The African Americans volunteered to serve their country and used the issue as a way to press for equality. Even in the military it was still segregated. There were white units and black units. The African Americans had taken a stand against discrimination while serving in the armed forces. There was a group of African American men that became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American aviators in the United States Armed Forces. While they were fighting Adolph Hitler's Third Reich, they were also fighting a battle of their own. The racism back home and in the American armed forces in which they served. The purpose of the Tuskegee Experiment was to prove to America that people of all races could fight under the same flag for the same reason and come out with a win. On July 26, 1948, the president at the time, Harry Truman signed Executive Order # 9981 desegregating the American armed forces.

The fall of the stock market on October 24, 1929 began the era of the Great Depression. The Great Depression wounded the black Americans more than any other American. The black Americans already had a challenging time finding employment and they were the first to be let go of their jobs. Racial discrimination was the reason that blacks struggled more during the Great Depression. The struggle of the African American's ignited key political developments amongst the blacks. The black Americans boycotted chain stores that only hired white Americans but their customers were mainly black Americans. The efforts to amalgamate organizations and youth groups for blacks led to the establishment of the National Negro Congress in 1936 and the Southern Negro Youth Congress in 1937. In the 1936 presidential election in which blacks voted tremendously for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, blacks changed their political commitment from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in the 1930's. A factor in this development was the feeling among African Americans that many of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs of relief and recovery were particularly valuable to them like social security, unemployment insurance, and the minimum wage.

Race riots were another form of violence (Bowles, M. 2011). The African American people also used race riots to end segregation and discrimination. The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was one of the most Spartan of 25 race riots throughout the United States during the "Red Summer" which means "bloody" after World War I. Most of the racial pressure was on Chicago's south side of the city. The Chicago Riot of 1919 was triggered due to the death of a young African American boy. The boy had gone out swimming when he had drifted away to an all-white area of the beach. He then drowned and the cause was from a white man throwing rocks at him. The police refused to arrest him even after black witnesses had seen the man throwing rocks at him. The anger inside the blacks made them start a disturbance on the beach. The incident spread through the city as random fights broke out between the black and white races. For thirteen days Chicago had no law and order. By the end of the riot 38 were left dead, (23 blacks, 15 whites), 537 were injured and around 1,000 African American families were homeless (Britannica.com). Then yet again another race