Inequality In America

Words: 639
Pages: 3

Not only were black people enslaved, but even after their supposed liberation, people, businesses, and even the government have collectively attempted to drown out the voice of black Americans. From school, work, and even just to the streets of a town, it's not debatable that African Americans have had to work to get where they are. Both individuals and groups worked together to put black citizens on the same ground as white Americans, but it has been anything but an easy ride. Without a doubt, African Americans have been grossly denied equal rights and opportunity since the first black people appeared in the United States

"Separate but equal" ideology only worked for so long. After black people began to realize that "separate but equal" actually meant "separate because you're lesser," real change started to occur. Drinking from separate but equal water fountains, attending separate but equal schools as stated in the first listed document, and sitting in separate but equal seating areas on the bus all became a lot less equal. White people didn't want black children in their schools, they didn't want black mouths on their drinking fountains, and they didn't want to sit somewhere a black person might
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The extent of inequality towards African Americans reached much, much further. White people were picked over black people in businesses across the country to maintain a status quo. Black citizens were turned away from their constitutional right to vote on both state and local levels. However, this was soon fixed with the introduction of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In fact, in document five, the significance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is clearly evident. African Americans could no longer be forced to take unfair literacy tests that their white counterparts were not held to and both segregation and racial discrimination were slowly dying