Even after the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, African Americans have been struggling for the right to equal treatment that was promised in the Declaration of Independence. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution may have ended slavery in the United States, but it did not end racial discrimination and prejudice. In the years following the Civil War, blacks in the U.S. have continued to have to fight for equal treatment and civil rights.

After the end of the Civil War the U.S. government set out to reconstruct the country. A major point of concern following the war was how to deal with the freed slaves. The reconstructed states had to define the rights of the more than 4 million “new” U.S. citizens. The idea of treating the freed slaves exactly like white citizens was barely even considered.

States whose governments were devoted to white supremacy enacted what were known as “Black Codes”. These codes excluded black people from voting and from juries, did not permit them to testify against whites in court, banned interracial marriage, and punished blacks more severely than whites for

Harlem gave birth to a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Black novelists, poets, painters, sculptors, and playwrights set about to create works rooted in their own culture. They no longer emulated the styles of white Europeans and Americans. The most famous person to come from the Harlem Renaissance was acclaimed black poet Langston Hughes.

Roosevelt was not overly concerned with civil rights issues, but his wife, Eleanor was. The First Lady frequently spoke out against racial discrimination. At the time, Eleanor Roosevelt was the most active and visible First Lady in U.S. history.

America entered World War I in 1917. Blacks were allowed in the military, but they were segregated into their own units, as was allowed by Plessy v. Ferguson. The African American units were not allowed into combat, despite great contributions made by black units in previous conflicts. The military justified keeping blacks off the front lines by using IQ tests. These test supposedly proved that blacks were not as intelligent as native-born white Americans. Many African American units instead fought for the French, and were extremely successful and essential to the allied troop’s victory in the war.

The 1930s brought on the Great Depression, and inner city African Americans were hit hard by the economic hardship. To make matters worse, blacks in the South were largely excluded from New Deal programs. The New Deal was a series of government programs set up by Franklin D. Roosevelt. But these programs were mostly designed to help people in large cities, and the majority of blacks lived in the rural South. They were unable to reap the benefits of the New Deal programs.

African Americans in the South were still treated similarly to slaves. Most of them were share croppers, earning next to nothing, and barely able to support their families. Other blacks in the South worked as track layers for railroad companies. The worked in grueling conditions for minimal pay, and were marched to and from work by armed guards.

At many schools in the South, black students attending previously all-white schools had to be escorted into the school by armed guards. The debate raged on over segregation.

Some topics in this essay:
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