African Americans as the Vulnerable Population - Term Paper Example

African Americans as the Vulnerable Population Racial segregation within the US, as a general terminology, incorporated thehypersegregation or racial segregation of opportunities (e.g. transportation, employment, education, medical care and housing), services and facilities along racial lines. This expression primarily refers to the socially or legally enforced African American separation from other distinct races, although it could loosely be regarded as a voluntary separation, as well as the separation of other ethnic minorities from the entire majority mainstream communities and society. Within the United States, racial segregation often implied the physical separation together with provision of separate services or facilities (mostly during the era of Jim Crow), although it could also refer to other distinct racial discrimination manifestations. For at least two hundred years before the beginning of the civil war, slavery is said to have existed within America. However, after this war, things moved from bad to worse for the black community. The southern part of America, especially, felt that they actually needed to move with speed and come up with legislation that would restrict the movement and association of blacks with other majority races. The former confederates, southern legislatures opted to pass laws popularly regarded as black codes, which immensely limited the blacks’ rights and subsequently segregated them from the white community. There had been no need for separating blacks and whites since approximately 95% of the blacks had been salves. However, they were still separated at taverns, theatres, schools and other social places. The blacks, therefore, witnessed a series of segregation tendencies from their white counterparts and with time, they got to adopt the situation. It is with this regard that congress swiftly moved to respond to this legislation in 1866 and managed to seize the responsibility of remaking the south. The Republican group demanded that the remaking of the south be marked by the viability of freed blacks in the society (John, 1997). By 1868, most of the laws, which happened to discriminate against the blacks, were effectively repealed. Things began to look up, although by the year 1977 Democratic parties effectively regained power over the south and thus brought reconstruction to an end and resulted to a state of devastation to the blacks. This was due to the fact that all the efforts that had been made had been thwarted and reversed; the rights to hold political offices, to vote, to participation had all come to an abrupt end. The south, on the other hand, reinstated the ethnically discriminatory laws. Their two key goals that they wanted achieved were: segregation and disenfranchisement. In order to snatch away the power gained by the blacks, the Democratic Party started to take away of the rights of the black to voting through enforcing poll taxes, demanding for a fee within the voting booths (and the fees were often too expensive to be afforded by most blacks) and a literacy test. Because teaching blacks had been illegal, most of the adult blacks had been former slaves and illiterate. The other segregation laws enabled the democrats to come up with laws that distinctly segregated schools together with other public facilities. Furthermore, the decision of the Supreme Court with regard to the1896 civil rights case further worsened the situation, with the Plessy v. Ferguson case being ruled in favor of Plessy who advocated for segregation that turned out to be standard all through the south, as well as reflected the institutionalization of Jim Crow Period. In a attempt to take care of southern whites’ support, Truman evaded all civil rights issues for blacks. However, he could not be able to stay withdrawn for a long period of time, and the 1947’s Presidential Committee on Civil Rights came up with a comprehensive report titled, To Secure These Rights, advocating for the elimination of eliminate segregation. Within 1948, Truman successfully endorsed the report’s findings and advocated for the eradication of segregation within federal hiring practices (John, 1997). Moreover, he issued an executive, comprehensive order to bring the acts of segregation to an eventual end within the military facilities, an issue that was to be executed and accomplished by Eisenhower. Even though these moves adversely cost Truman the entire support of several southern white population, the increased black voter support made up for his political loss. In 1957, there was an emergence of the Civil Rights Act, which Eisenhower opted to support and, therefore, signed into law. This act actually called for the eradication of discrimination among the American public places including schools, hospitals and even work places. This move actually resulted to the permanent creation of Civil Rights Commission together with a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice focused on frustrating the efforts to take away the rights of the blacks to voting. This actually granted authority to the federal courts to register all eligible black voters (Caro, 2002). Initially proposed by Herbert Brownell, the then Attorney General, this Act characterized the exact first situation since Reconstruction, which the federal government had undertaken fundamental legislative action to entirely protect all the civil rights. Even though the influential southern congressman had witted down the bill’s initial scope, it still incorporated a variety of significant provisions for the specific protection of the blacks’ voting rights. It essentially empowered most federal officials to move and prosecute individuals who conspired in abridging or denying other citizens’ right to vote. Furthermore, it also resulted to the creation of a 6-member US Civil Rights Commission empowered to investigate allegations of any voter malpractices or infringement. However, perhaps most significantly, this 1957 act signaled a dramatically growing federal commitment and responsibility to the civil rights’ cause. Having been formed after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, the act seemed to have gained root since the decision seemed to favor the rights of all African Americans. The court had ruled by overturning the Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 and ordered that the public discrimination of schools was entirely unconstitutional claiming that separate schools were obviously and inherently unequal. With this, the court ordered the immediate desegregation of states and this order was supported by Eisenhower, giving wings to the Civil Rights Movements to sprout and create the aforementioned act. The then federal law dated from the time of Reconstruction following the period of Civil War. The 14th amendments within the American constitution that were subsequently ratified within 1868 and 1870 granted congress the authority to enforce all civil rights with legislation; this authority acted as the constitutional aspect of the entire act. This act was split into court distinct sections; the first section created the Civil Rights Commission mandated to investigate any violations of the civil rights, the second section created a deputy civil rights attorney general that resulted to the civil rights section’s elevation (Robert & Anthony, 2001). The third section, on the other hand, comprised of a broad language, which expanded the department’s power and authority to enforce all civil rights via criminal proceedings. The eventual fourth section demanded the attorney general to draw civil law suits and acquire preventive court orders (injunctions) for the subsequent protection of voting rights. Led by Georgia’s senator, Richard Russell, the Southern Democrats bloc attempted to thwart the efforts made by the act. This group had entirely blocked all the pieces of the 1875 legislation that supported the civil rights of the blacks. Illinois’ Paul Douglas and California’s William Knowland, the liberal Democrat and the Republican leader respectively were the most vocal individual supports of this bill within the senate (John, 1997). Even though neither William nor Paul had been a particularly ardent leader, it seemed that they controlled most public opinion together with senate votes. While the coalition supporter of the bill had not been a closely unified group, southern senators in the opposition side were. Several individuals believed that the bill would eventually die at the senate regardless of its immense support since the southern senators would definitely filibuster to defeat it. Even though the bill eventually succeeded to be law, it was extremely limited to the voting rights of individuals and not the entire civil rights of individuals. This, therefore, resulted to the enactment of other civil rights acts that sought to determine the generalized rights of the minority group (blacks). The 1957 Civil Rights Act could be said to have been the eye opener to most of the American legislation regarding the freedom of the blacks to association, voting, movement and many others (Caro, 2002). References Caro, Robert A. (2002). The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3: Master of the Senate. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Doar, John. "The Work of the Civil Rights Division in Enforcing Voting Rights under the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960." Florida State University Law Review 25, no.1 (1997): 17. Post, Robert, and Anthony Appiah. (2001). Prejudicial Appearances: The Logic of American Antidiscrimination Law. Durham: Duke UP. Read More