...How far did US presidents hinder rather than help the development of African Civil rights in the period from 1865-12? It can be said that US presidents significantly hindered rather than helped the development of African Civil Rights in the period from 1965-1912 because the Presidents after Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant did not sustain the 14th Amendment which said that African Americans were equal citizens with equal rights and the 15th Amendment stated the right to vote was not to be denied on the account of race, colour or previous conditions of servitude and loopholes allowed the southern state governments not to enforce the amendments, in which the Amendments were flawed in the fact that the southern states where able to find these loopholes and to exploit these loop holes so that the African Americans did not receive their Civil rights. A major loophole was in the 15th amendment as it did not forbid states to introduce literacy, property and educational tests for would be voters and did not guarantee all men the right to vote and did not outlaw voting discrimination on the grounds of gender and property ownership so southern states devised complex rules and imposed additional voting requirements. Therefore this enabled the southern governments to introduce black codes which included grandfather clauses, poll tax and literacy tests which denied the African Americans of their civil rights such as blacks where banned from schools and not allowed to vote and had no...
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...To what extent did the aims of the Campaigners for Civil Rights remain the same 1865-1992? Throughout the period 1865-1992 Civil Rights Campaigners changed their aims across the Period from the idea of Assimilation led by Washington with the Atlanta Compromise to Black Power and Marcus Garvey, moving the focus away from political issues and instead focusing on the economic implications of Black Civil Rights. Whilst all campaigners were fighting for Civil Rights for African Americans their ideas were influenced by their aims and the actual period in which they were working. Assimilation was the idea of bringing blacks and whites together and therefore giving equality to both sides. Book T Washington as a civil rights leader was involved in the Atlanta compromise between Washington and other African American leaders. It meant that Southern Blacks would work and submit to White political rule but in return they received a basic education and due process in law. Washington realised that to expect equality at the time was unreasonable yet he provided many African Americans with a technical education and above all else a role model. Although it still wasn’t equal it was progress in achieving assimilation despite Du Bois opposing the idea strongly. Along with Monroe he took issue with the compromise believing instead African Americans should engage in a struggle for Civil Rights. Du Bois called it the compromise to denote the agreement and after Washington’s death in 1915 supporters...
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...It is very clear that we have civil rights movements today. We have the anti-gun rights, black lives matter, blue lives matter, and the LGBT movement. It is almost like a war, because everybody is turning against each other and some actually end up killing each other. Let’s start by talking about the LGBT movement. I understand that they all deserve rights too, but people these days are just taking it too far. The black lives matter and the blue lives matter are in the same group. The whole black lives matter movement is starting to get out of hand. In my opinion they have taken things way too far. It’s okay to want rights and fight for them, but it’s getting to the point where enough is enough. The violence between blacks and whites needs...
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...Over our country’s young existence, the democracy that America is so proud of has often had flaws, hypocrisy being one of them, that can be illustrated in many ways. The hypocrisy that can be inexplicable at times, is illustrated in some of the realities depicted in the following articles and film clips described. W.E.B. DuBois describes the phenomenon where after the Civil War, there was still a great divide. It was even physical where different demographics of the white population and the black population in the south would live based on “social grades common to all communities” (DuBois Ch. 9). Though one difference is that the “best of the whites and the best of the Negroes almost never live in anything like close proximity” (DuBois Ch. 9). In the South after the Civil War, the African-Americans were often taken advantage of. The Crop-Lien system, which was a credit system for farmers to obtain supplies and food from local store keepers, took advantage of the black farmers. DuBois describes how if they weren’t able to pay their debt, then the storekeeper would just take what they feel is owed to them without any warrant or law to back them up. This would leave many black farmers in debt and stuck at the bottom of the economic ladder. When it came to politics, many black people felt that why should they bother. If “reputable men leave politics alone”, then “politics becomes disreputable” (DuBois Ch. 9). They felt that the laws were created by people who had no...
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...Gay Marriage Should gay marriages be legal? Clearly we as a nation are undecided on this issue. 36 states have passed legislation banning gay marriages, yet the state of Vermont recently passed a law that allows homosexual couples the right to participate in civil unions. Some other states are also debating whether or not to allow these couples to marry. Unfortunately, the dispute has left the United States homosexual community in an awkward position. There are some people who think that gay people have no rights and should never be allowed to marry. Other people believe that gay people are just like anyone else and should enjoy the same rights and privileges as heterosexuals do. I think that the United States should allow these couples to marry just like any other couple. There are many opponents of gay people as it is, and they all have their reasons to dislike the idea of letting them get married. One of the main reasons is that the primary purpose of marriage is procreation. Because gay couples are unable to have children, they should not be allowed to marry (Schiffen 495). Another main argument is that the word marriage means the union of one man and one woman. This is a long-standing theme of most major Western religions. Under a proposed bill known as the Defense of Marriage act, marriage is defined as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” Furthermore, it defines a spouse as “ a person of the opposite sex...
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...The instances of genocide in the late 20th century stand as a testament to how unreliable the nation state can be when inalienable and human rights are concerned. As is shown in the case of Rwanda, non-state actors have taken steps to trample on these rights even when the victim technically has citizenship in a country. Additionally, the nation-state can reinforce the actions of the non-state actors through either sponsorship, or even inaction in the face of genocide. Civil society actors have taken steps to act where the nation-state has failed to do so out of what Ayers identifies as labeling the conflict as internal or a civil war. Ultimately, both Ayers and Power agree that labeling genocide as what it is, and taking other steps outside of raw military force can go a long way in preventing the atrocities of the 20th century. More specifically, since the nation-state alone cannot be trusted to handle these situations, civil society must take steps to better the diplomacy of the nation-state, along with creating an international community that can work together to remedy the problems of human and inalienable rights violations. In her article “Raising the Cost of Genocide,” Samantha Power examines the historical response to genocide by discussing the ways in which western powers have avoided responsibility for 20th century atrocities. She begins her article by explaining the invention of the word genocide as a word meant to “send shudders down the spines of those who heard it...
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...Civil disobedience is a positive outlook obeying laws and orders. Civil disobedience can be used during everyday life; but can be negative when the public is misinformed, punishments are taken way out of hand causing other issues, and misinterpret what civil disobedience really is. Civil disobedience can be taken and viewed from everyday live if it's positive or negative in the view of others. Civil disobedience can be misinformed by the public; meaning that people use assumptions to assume what a person's intentions really are. An example can be in Antigone a king named Creon is misinformed about who buried his nephew. He felt one of his nephews should not get a correct burial because he felt the intentions of him for fighting his brother were wrong. Going in to be king, Creon stated a speech (1.40-45) saying that Polonesis should not be buried that he should lay in the field to rot. Another good example is from an article about a football player taking a knee during the national anthem. People did not like his way of protesting saying that “not standing during the national anthem is a signal of allegiance to one's nation”. When in the end the football player did it to show...
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...require, to be followed when issuing one of these orders. The purpose of a CLETS order is when evidencie is shown that violence and abuse is of a more serious criminal nature has occurred and still is occurring, then the court may issue a CLETS restraining order. This is also more severe as it will include criminal penalties, prosecution, and or fines or both if the restrained person violates the order in any way once the CLETS order has been issued. The State system known as the CLETS system links up to multiple law enforcement agencies all over California and will allow these agencies, to pull the same information right away if needed, even if the order was issued in another jurisdiction. It allows the officers or agencies to know that the CLETS order is valid and...
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...being the world best boxer but also being known for being a familiar face in the civil rights movement. Pre-war struggles and the events of the Second World War set the conditions for a mass civil rights movement, beginning in the early 1950’s, which would last nearly three decades. It brought about a lot of struggles, particularly for African Americans. Although Ali didn't deal with the majority of the issues that most lower class African Americans had to deal with, Ali still felt the need to defend his people using his celebrity status as a way for people to listen. (Pierre) Minority groups within the United States struggled for nearly a century to gain racial equality. In the mid 1940s a movement began assembling that would later bring about change, it was known as the Civil Rights movement. It reached its apex in the mid 1960s, around the same time a heavy-weight fighter named Cassius Clay was making his bid for a belt. In 1964, the young boxer shocked the world, making his conversion to Islam and his new name public. He announced that he had become a member of the Nation of Islam, a group that would influence his ideology and involvement with Civil Rights. (Pierre) It is widely believed that Ali joined the Nation of Islam because of his friendship with another Civil Rights activist of the time, Malcolm X. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam urged blacks not to cooperate with the Mass Civil Rights movement and not to coalesce with their white...
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...of governments and the authority of state over the individual. In this world there needs to be rules established and certain freedoms giving up for the exchange for protection and security. This is known as the social contract theory, which was originally founded by Plato. But such ideas has been expanded and taken one step further by many philosophers. This idea of a social contract is one of our most essential foundations of our American political system. The debate of how much of our liberties needs to be taken away to ensure our security has been a long lasting one. One of our most iconic founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, said, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” When we give governments power, they will use them for their own self-interest and when needed for their preservation. In the last decades there have been many technologic advances and our government need to adapt to these changes. The Patriot Act was but into law because our congress believed it was the right course of action to protect our nation’s security. Nonetheless, The Patriot Act undermines one of our most fundamental civil liberties and questions the integrity of our American democracy. Six weeks after September 11, 2001 congress passed a new law named, The Patriot Act (The Uniting and Strengthening America by Proving Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001). After these attacks, the nation’s...
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...of the reconstruction amendments enfranchised the blacks, but the reality was still the same. In the wake of the Civil War, the Reconstruction Period made an attempt to grant rights to all, but ultimately failed due to the intimidation and deterrence socially, along with the economic downturn. The failure of the reconstruction to grant rights socially was mainly caused by the intimidation and actions by the south to take away rights from the blacks. There were several laws and enactments which disenfranchised...
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...Civil Liberties and Civil Rights August 25, 2012 I chose the civil liberty of Freedom of Religion. I chose this topic because I feel it is very important in our world today. Today we live in a world where there are many, many religions, and where I am of the Christian religion, I respect those of other religions also. I feel like as humans, we all need something to believe in, and that is what makes me respect other religions. We all have a right to believe in what we want, whether the person beside you believes in the same thing does not really matter. To narrow it down, “The Free Exercise Clause” is also important, because with all of these religions that people are free to follow, comes different ways of following them. Say for example, a religion practices sacrificing animals, that is illegal under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. This act states that it is illegal to sacrifice any animals under a religious belief. This also relates to religions that use illegal drugs. If the drug the religion is using is illegal, then yes, it is still illegal to use it even if for religious purposes. I think this is good, because things could get out of control really easily because of people hurting others and saying that it was their religious beliefs that had them do it, and also some could use illegal drugs and blame it on their religions. Sadly, I am certain people have actually tried this sort of thing. In Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) there is a public policy...
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...Civil Rights The struggle for equality has been a battle fought for hundreds of years amongst Native Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans. When we hear the words civil rights often we conjure images of Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his soul-stirring “I Have a Dream” speech before the nation’s capital. The truth is, minorities have been fighting for their civil rights way before the 1950’s in fact it dates way back to the early 1880’s when Native Americans lost their lands, family, culture but most importantly their rights as human beings. America deprived Native Americans of their rights and ways of living by recruiting the young children to try and stop them from growing up to become “savages,” as the USA described them and instead civilize them and turn them into men of class. The USA though they were doing the Native Americans a favor by civilizing them when instead all they were doing was destroying the most valuable thing a man has in this world which is his family. If being taken away from your family wasn’t bad enough students at federal boarding schools were forbidden to express their culture, everything from wearing long hair to speaking even a single Indian word. They lost not only their language, but also their American Indian name. In my opinion I don’t see how the USA was doing Native Americans a favor by the intent to completely transform people, inside and out, language, religion, family structure, economics, the way you make a living...
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...How successful was Martin Luther King’s campaign for civil rights in the years 1955-1968? During this time period, Martin Luther King had many successes and failures in his campaign for civil rights. King played an iconic role in all the work he did for African Americans, his achievements for the Black people were outstanding. On the other hand there are ideas that contradict his greatness on making such an impact to civil rights. We are able measure MLK’s achievements, by analysing how successful he was with his campaigns. Success can be given upon by the result of the predicted outcome compared to the true outcome. In this case it’s whether King’s ambitions for the movement came to be achieved or if his campaigns failed. For this we shall be studying his achievements and failures in the civil rights movement between 1955 and 1968. You can also look at how much awareness of the campaign was made to America, along with this the consequences of the campaigns and what resulted after them. You can use all of these criteria to judge how successful MLK was. King’s first major involvement of leading a campaign started on the 1st of December 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up a seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama. This was when King was first recognised as being a strong leader in gaining equality for African Americans, along with the backing of the church. The result of Rosa Park’s arrest became the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was run by MLK, the NAACP,...
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...against Columbia University for gender discrimination. Another professor was helping her obtain research for a paper that would help her to get tenure at the university. The professor began making comments about watching pornography and his own sexual exploits. He, then, began making forward advances towards her, and she felt compelled to him because he could take the research away from her. Ravina had spent two years preparing for the project, and getting the research taken away from her would cause the project to be derailed. She complained to Columbia officials, but they only dismissed her case. According to Ravina, one official even said that her story was a “soap opera.” Her suit is based on gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and she is asking for $20 million in damages and for more time to apply for tenure. As of now, the university claims that “the university treats allegations of harassment with the utmost seriousness,” and denies any claims that she has made about...
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