African Americans in U.S. History and Society

So here's an essay I wrote for my university course, it show's African Americans struggle through the United States. I finished this within an hour so cut me some slack. :)
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The history of the U.S is full of many events which have led up and define the face of the United States but prominently African Americans have played a strong role in the history and society today. African Americans have faced a lot of issues through time but racial segregation and the Civil Rights Movement are the main definitions of the struggle. African Americans were brought from their homeland and into the United States since the early 1600s, they have since fought for their rights while living on Americas soil. The dream was to come to this new land hoping for a better way of life, instead they faced many oppressions and massive counts of racism. When African Americans first arrived in the U.S they were treated inhumanely and have no rights in any category due to Americans creating slavery rings where individuals with power would force African Americans into slavery. All these events from the 1900s led up to the founding of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

This movement has been operating since the 1800s and is still show in today’s society because of how many individuals are supporting this mass protest. The only purpose of this movement was to destroy social, institutionalized racism and also racial segregation. They had one main desire, which was to have equal rights and opportunities as any other individual living in the United States and the force of this group was so strong that the government could not act upon it until some years due to its creation being formed after the civil war where governments are weak and running low on resources. The protests continued for a while until some empowering events took place and created the Civil Rights Act in 1964 due to the peaceful protests that took place around. Some empowering individuals who stood up for their people in the worse time were Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and also Rosa Parks. Even though racism still occurs till this day, these individuals helped create a foundation for their people and were the face of the movement due to their tremendous acts which strengthened the group to keep fighting for what’s right.
The energy and influence an individual puts into his/her speech can widely affect people in different ways, one influential person that created the base of the formation was Malcolm X. He was an individual who stood up for African American’s civil and political rights and he did everything with his belief that to obtain equal rights in the country you would have to do anything in the world that would allow you to protect yourself from danger which also included violence as a factor as well. Malcolm’s path originated when he was told by a white teacher that his choice of career was not realistic for him as a black man and this got Malcolm furious and believed that his success would never be shown in a world full of white people although he had goals and the passion to achieve greater things. Malcolm faced many eventful phases in his life but the one that changed his life was being sent to prison for being charged with breaking and entering, even after getting released he was having thoughts of joining the cause that was the reason of his assassination which was the Nation of Islam. He had these radical thoughts in his head because he was led to believe that him and his people must do anything in means that will allow African Americans to protect themselves at any cost.

Another influential spokesman which strengthened the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King Jr, he differed from Malcolm X due to their separate opinions as Martin Luther King Jr strongly believed that fighting for their rights could also be granted without doing any violent protests and not incorporating violence into the movement. He also had similarities with the rest of the activists, whereas they dedicated their entire life’s for the justice and equality of colored people living in the U.S.A and also helped collaborate with others movements such as Rosa Parks ‘Montgomery Bus Boycott’ that he was involved into. One of the most powerful speeches he partook in apart from the “I Have a Dream” speech was the community speech about Rosa Parks bus incident, he gave a strong speech to keep the community held strong and through this he had a gate to giving many other important speeches which involved the equality difference that was evidently shown through the United States. Although he had very strong and empowering speeches scripted, he was still vulnerable from the police force and they took advantage by arresting him multiple times and evidently showing police brutality to an individual who is fighting for his own freedom and equality in the country. Racism was so evidently shown throughout the public that many people were so filled with hatred could not change their strong beliefs even with influential people and this was the reason that the powerful activists like Malcolm X and Martin Luther were assassinated for their own beliefs and desires. The media played a tremendous role in the way people saw what the Civil Rights Movement believed and stood up against. The media was so clever that they would change the opinions and views of individuals to make the public think that the movement was a violent disaster and to create more racism towards the African Americans. All these major events weren’t just televised just in U.S, the more empowering and moving ones were seen by countries much farther than the U.S.A, this showed other countries how the United States portrayed their freedom. If it weren’t for the media, the other population outside the U.S would have no clue about what was going on in the states, and how much tragedies African Americans went through. The police force had so much power and authority that they would beat African Americans in the plain street and nobody around could do anything about it, even in peaceful protests innocent bystanders were attacked and beaten. After a long time of convincing, some white folks started to see eye to eye with African Americans and starting realizing the equality difference that they were receiving. Throughout the media and all these events taking place, the Civil Rights Act had more followers than ever who stood up for African Americans and could not stand for any more suffering that was going to occur.

Lastly, the most courageous activist in her time was Rosa parks due to her response of racial segregation. The event that occurred with her changed the view of African Americans. She purchased a fare and boarded a bus with other African Americans, once a white individual boarded the bus, the driver would instruct all African Americans to proceed towards the back of the bus and this was the point where Rosa Parks decided to not stand against racism and refused to move which eventually led up to her being arrested by the police force. Rosa Parks had sparked up the Montgomery Bus Boycott which was led by Rosa Parks and initiated with Rosa going against the racial segregation policy which was implemented. After a whole year of protesting the government finally realized that segregated bus seating was a unconstitutional thing to do and Rosa’s actions led the government to overturn laws which were inhumanely.

Although the Civil Rights Movement was the face of the protest, there are currently also many other films that also define the tragedies African Americans had to face in their journey and there’s also films whom describe historical events in specific perspectives. Martin Luther King Jr, was so empowering that the movie “Selma” was based on Martin’s history and experiences. Films have been created on many historical events so that the generation can know about the events of the past and how much struggle was going on in that time period. The movies that defined African Americans history in my opinion were the “The Long Walk Home” and also “Mississippi Burning”.

The first film I watched was “The Long Walk Home” which was directed in 1991. The movie consists of a wealthy white house wife named Miriam, and also the African American maid that worked at her household. This film was created after the time of Rosa Parks bus incident and many people honored the boycott at the time. The maid was full-on supporting the movement by not catching the bus to or from work but eventually the owner, Miriam figured out the hassle the maid had to go through just to attend work and offered to drive the maid a couple days a week. At first everything seemed well but then Miriam and her husband started getting into arguments about the boycott and which side they were on, this resulted in them separating and each going a different way. As Miriam understood how it felt to be a working mother she sympathized with the African American maid.

The movie “The Long Walk Home” showed that even though some individuals were still full of hatred and racism, some were willing to come to a higher understanding of racism and the discrimination that African Americans have been going through that time period. Although quite a few privileged individuals supported the movement, there was still a large number of white folks who still opposed the movement and this was the face of these privileged individuals. Miriam, the mother character had a strong personality in this film because even though they were different races, she still believed that all people must have equal rights and opportunities as every other living person on the U.S.A. The films intentions were to bring out the positivity’s that privileged folks felt when they were living in the time period of the Civil Rights Movement.

The second film that I watched was the “Mississippi burning” which was also directed in 1988. The film starts off with three Civil Rights workers being murdered in public by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. The FBI was called into this problematic scene as the south at the time was mostly occupied by members of the Ku Klux Klan, they did not get much out of the scene. At one point the FBI was fully surrounded by the KKK, instead of falling into this plot they decided to use this as an advantage as white folks would be frightened of African Americans thinking that they would come for revenge. Agents used many tactics to get their way around and receive information and eventually one of the member’s wife gave up all the information leading to the closing of the case. The film expresses a lot of racism through its flop but this is the real why it describes the Civil Rights Movements goals. The movie shows how some people will always be filled with hate and racism even though they can easily become open-minded. Racist just feel entertained by hating on other races and individuals, it gives them hope that they are better than others and have more power to do anything. It describes how the life of a colored person was back then, you were determined to be a crime just based on how you look and what race you follow but overall the films popularity came through due to its views on the Civil Rights Movement.

To conclude, the African American milestone was a very hard phase and it involved a lot of events and experiences which have now led up to its name. Although racism is still present in today’s society, it has diminished down from the past and for it to keep diminishing the people must know the past and the things their ancestors went through just to survive in this country, the Civil Rights Act was basically the beginning to the new phase of African Americans.