When it comes to the treatment of African Americans, it completely differed during the Reconstruction and the United States Civil Rights Movement. African Americans were not treated fairly like whites, and they went through many obstacles and struggles because of racism. Let’s start off with the treatment of African Americans during the Reconstruction. Even though the 13th Amendment ended slavery, blacks were still treated with lack of respect. Many people still viewed them as an inferior class and did not treat them fairly. There was definitely a continuation of racial segregation; for example, education for the white and black were divided. Blacks were considered unimportant and were underfunded. Blacks were also under the violence of racial masses of people. They were treated with disrespect in the society and were discriminated against. They also had to go through widespread employment discrimination. As you can see, blacks were still treated badly and much differently than whites during that time period. However, over time, there was a positive outcome for the African Americans; they were registered to vote. And the problem? They outnumbered the white voters which once again caused problems. Whites ended up manipulating the voting results and therefore they controlled the outcomes of the election.
The lives of African Americans during Reconstruction, honestly, did not differ much than their lives during slavery. They were still under the control of a white landowner. A new system called the sharecropping system made blacks work on their owners land in return for a share or half the harvest. The landowners provided land, a house, supplies and work animals for those former slaves. And normally, at the end of the season, the former slaves would be in debt for those landowners and would have to remain working in order to pay off the debt. Thus, the end of the Civil War did not really improve the conditions of the former slaves because slavery was just replaced with the sharecropping system, education was still not completely available for them, and their voting was simply manipulated.
Now, off to the next point; how were African Americans treated during the Civil Rights Movement? Well, the Civil Rights Movement is when the United States intended at stopping the discrimination against African Americans and the ability of them voting in the Southern States. The purpose of that movement was for freedom, dignity, respect, and social and economic equality. The good thing is, discrimination and segregation did end, unfortunately, not completely though.
The movement ended the discrimination against black men and women all over the United States. It ended discrimination in public places; schools, workplace, government, and employment. It was then illegal to discriminate against color and race. All people were equally treated and had equal rights as citizens. And when it came to voting, the Voting Rights Act was passed and federal observers were positioned in polls to make sure there are equal voting rights.
The Civil Rights Movement included the 13th and 14th Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment eliminates slavery throughout the U.S. The Fourteenth Amendment, on the other hand, protects a person’s civil and political rights from being deprived by any state, ended slavery in the US, and finally, it was in opposition to the violence against black people.
So therefore, when comparing the treatment of former black slaves during the Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement, there is evidently a big difference. The degrading mistreatment of African Americans after the Civil War did drastically change for the better and resulted in the freedom and respect of all kinds of people no matter what color or race or ethnicity or even sex, and gave all citizens equal rights in the US and ended discrimination and segregation all over the United States.
