History essay
This essay will argue that legal impediments was in fact the most important obstacle to the achievement of civil rights for black people up to 1941. It was not divisions in the black community during the early 1900’s in the US the civil war between the northern and the southern states were at war over the freedom of African American slaves. Black people believed that fleeing to the north would give them a new start, a chance to be equal and live a life they want to live, but sadly they were in fact met with a lot of the same problems such as segregation and discrimination. However, there were also other factors such as the activities of the Klu Klux Klan, divisions in the black community and lack of political influence.
It can be argued that legal impediments were in fact the most important obstacle to the achievement of civil rights for black people up to 1941.legal impediments were barriers put up by the southern states to prevent black people from registering to vote. This was supposed to be illegal due to the 15th amendment which was Passed February 26, 1869, and approved February 3, 1870 which granted African American men the right to vote. However, the southern states found a way around these laws by introducing needless laws such as literacy qualifications, which meant that if you could not write then you were not able to vote and considering that most black people lived in immense poverty they could not afford to educate themselves or their children. The south also introduced something called the grandfather clause which meant that if your grandfather had the right to vote then you had the right to vote, this was severely strict and unfair on black people as most of their grandparents would have been slaves and had no rights. This is important because white American southerners denied black people the chance vote as they found ways around the 15th amendment. This left black people with little hope in ever proceeding in the long road to equality. However, there were also areas, mainly in the north where black voters elected black representatives and senators, which meant that they had a bit more freedom and felt more like a human rather than an animal with no rights.
It can also be debated that divisions in the black community was one important obstacle to the achievement of civil rights for black people up to 1941.there were three divisions it the black community, booker T Washington, William Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Booker T Washington was the son of an African slave and was the most important leader in the African-American during 1890-1915, Washington had a very bitter take on how black people should take their place in society. Washington believed that black people should be trained for trades such as farming, factory work and industrial work before thinking of acting on gaining equality and civil rights, Washington accepted that black people would not be treated equally by the white population for several years...
