The Modern Struggle for Civil Rights

Chapter 16 analyzes the historical context of Civil Rights and evaluates how many have been gained or lost with time. The chapter begins by discussing the struggle for freedom amid the Civil war. In school, young students often learn that the ‘slave South’ was the only place of true discrimination for enslaved African-Americans and that the ‘free North’ was a promise land or heaven for freed slaves. On the contrary, the ‘free North’ was not as free as many people think. Although African-Americans were free from slavery in the North, black people still were denied complete equality. suffrage for people of color and women. “In many places outside the slave South, African Americans were denied entry into certain occupations, required to post bonds guaranteeing their good behavior, denied the right to sit on juries, and occasionally threatened and harassed by mobs when they tried to vote or to petition the government.” [1]

The chapter then goes on to discuss the modern struggle for civil rights among people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ community. It is no hidden secret that the United States government had struggled with Civil Rights from the very beginning. Today, some lack of human rights have been because of a lack of the separation between Church and State and others have been because of systematic oppression that has yet to be eradicated. For example, in regards to same-sex marriage, laws were not passed nation-wide to legalize same-sex marriage until two years ago in June of 2015. Much of the debate over same-sex marriage can be narrowed down to a struggle between the Church and State. Unofficially, the United States is a Christian country. As such the government often reflects ideals and values established in the Christian faith. Same-sex relations is condemned in the Bible, so it is no surprise that rights for same-sex couples was often denied in American society.

The lack of rights for people of color and women can often be associated with institutional and systematic discrimination. For people of color, institutional practices such as redlining and gentrification have left public schools today just as segregated today as they were in 1968 towards the end of the Civil Rights movement. [2] Practices such as redlining and gentrification have effectively segregated cities across the country. This segregation is reflected in the demographic of student in local public schools. Neighborhoods are often divided based off party lines which strongly reflect racial groups. This segregation not only divides students, but also creates a disparity in economic resources given to each school. This disparity reignites the false narrative of separate but equal; this leaves some schools extremely underfunded and unable to buy basic supplies for students while some schools are able to fund specialty programs and buy advanced technology for students.

For women, one of the most explicit results of systemic oppression is the gender wage gap. Women today make an average $10,800 less than men and earn an hourly wage of 79 cents to every man’s dollar. [3] This inequality can largely be contributed to the historic relationship between men and women. Throughout American history women have been seen as socially inferior to men; women did not have jobs outside of the home on a major scale until World War II when factories opened up jobs to women while men were away at war. Although there have been great strides toward improving Civil Rights for historically oppressed minorities and broadening the realm of rights to new and growing minorities, the government will never be able to successfully implement Civil Rights until it has fully eradicated the subliminal oppression that implicitly underlines many laws yet explicitly discriminates minorities.

Greenberg, Edward S.; Page, Benjamin I.. Struggle for Democracy, The, 2014 Elections and Updates Edition (Page 497). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/25/hillary-clinton/american-schools-are-more-segregated-they-were-196/
http://www.businessinsider.com/gender-wage-pay-gap-charts-2017-3

4 Responses to "The Modern Struggle for Civil Rights"

Stella Von Spreckelsen says:

November 29, 2017 at 9:42 pm

I really like how you pointed out the issues with the facade of the separation of church and state. While this is a law we have in our country, many feel that it is not very implemented. For example our pledge of allegiance mentions God which is offensive for some citizens. Recently, Trump has vowed to destroy the amendment put in place to separate church from state. This is a huge problem of course because not everyone in our country is Christian and that can limit certain people’s civil rights as we are supposed to have the right to believe in whatever we want in this country. This will also allow religious organizations to donate to political campaigns. This will likely give an unfair advantage to republicans because republicans tend to be more religious and conservative and support things like no abortion and no gay marriage that a lot of religious organizations in christianity favor. Not only will abolishing the Johnson amendment allow for religious organizations to donate money to political campaigns, it will also allow for these groups and leaders to speak freely about their religion and their opinions on religion without fear of retribution. This will inherently allow more hate speech towards which we’ve clearly seen a lot of hate speech towards minorities in the U.S because of our current president.
Lotte Elfering says:

December 2, 2017 at 5:45 pm

A very good blogpost that touches upon some very pressing issues. I had no idea schools were still segregated to such a high degree, and was surprised reading this. However, I am skeptical about how this would be changed. Segregation that had been implemented on purpose for such a long time is very difficult to change because it has become institutionalized to such a high degree. The fact that what school you go to in the United States is based on where you live can be seen as one of the causes of this segregation based on area, but this is very difficult to change because it is what the entire system has been based on. There are so many laws and policies in place that prevent equality from being achieved that one would most likely have to reform large parts of the system before anything can actually be done about it. This is what makes me skeptical about whether equality, in all forms and for all peoples, can actually be achieved, because the country was founded on the ideal that not everyone is equal, excluding African-Americans, LGBTQ individuals, women, and other minorities from the start. And I wonder whether a country that is founded upon those ideals can actually change it later on.
Lilly Alemayehu says:

December 3, 2017 at 5:00 pm

It’s easy for law-makers to address immediate problems, but the reason inequality is able to live on in our nation is that the social construct of race is still extremely prevalent in our societal structure today, despite the progressive nature of our country. Although inequities are not as severe as they were in the Pre- Civil Rights era, certain racial groups are at a disadvantage because the inequities that were prevalent in the past are still ingrained in the foundation of many of our institutions such as housing and education. After the Civil Rights Movement, the Fair Housing Act was created to provide equality in the housing market after inherently racist federal policies such as redlining, restrictive covenants, and federal policies created by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) had been put into place. However, systematic inequalities were not addressed and therefore the faults of the structure are still prevalent in today’s society. This segregation within communities has fueled negative stereotypes, which in turn, have contributed to assaults on Black and Brown bodies, education and financial setbacks, and disparity in opportunities between racial minorities and other members of society. The only way inequalities can be fixed is if our legislators address these deeply ingrained sentiments in our country’s system.
Daniel Bonaventura says:

December 4, 2017 at 4:12 am

I found your point about mixing of Church in state very interesting. As a kid living in NY, I was taught in school that the U.S., unlike governments of the past is based heavily on a separation of church and state. It is very crazy to look back on our country’s history and see the major influence that religion has played on the shaping of our government and our society as a whole. Today, as so many of conservative views that come out a christian founded country are under fire, we are seeing an increasingly polarized separation between those who still desire a church influenced society, and those who challenge these norms. It is quite interesting to look at the differences between religious influence in our country versus that of other developed countries. “Religion influences American politics to a degree not seen in other developed countries.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/nigel-barber/why-religion-rules-americ_b_1690433.html
It is strange to think that compared to America, European countries hold religion as no place in their politics. For better or worse religion will continue to be part of politics to some degree as it is something that many Americas hold very dear.

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