African American Contributions to American history

It is almost impossible to identify and analyzes all the contributions made by African Americans to the American history. They are many and wide. Sadly, during a time when race has become a sensitive matter, many of the contributions made by African Americans are undervalued. Thus, the paper identifies and explains the contributions of African Americans to American history based on the contributions of civil rights movements. It explains the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

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Contributions

African Americans significantly contributed to the growth of the civil rights movement during the late 20th century. The goal of the African Americans who participated in civil rights activities was to end racial discrimination in public sectors like employment, transportation, voting, and educations. Specifically, African Americans contributed to the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act 1965, Immigration and National Service Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted to outlaw color, religion, sex, raced, and national religion basis of discrimination. It was proposed by President Joh F. Kennedy in 1963 following the pressure put on him by numerous African Americans who believed that it was time for the country to support equality among citizens regardless of the factors that made them different like race, ethnicity, religion, and national origin (Berger 61). According to President Kennedy, it was the responsibility of the US government to give all Americans the freedom and right to be served by institutions that were open to the public like theatres, retail stores, hotels, and other establishments. He proposed the bill through delivering a speech after hr Birmingham campaign which attracted a lot of demonstrators from the southern region of the US.

The Birmingham campaign was organized by the Birmingham movement to create nationwide awareness regarding integration efforts that African Americans were making in the region. The movement was culminated by the increase in a confrontation between African American and White American students. The confrontations led to severe punishment of African American students. For example, civic authorities used fire hoses to hit them with high-pressure water jet (Jones-Aversley et al. 301). Generally, the Birmingham movement attracted the public's interest on the existence of racial discrimination in public accommodations like schools, an increase of discrimination of African Americans in employment, and deplorable living conditions among a group that was paying just as much tax as the White Americans.

Initially, the activities of the movement led to an outbreak of nationwide demonstrations. Also, it increased the World's attention towards the widespread practice of racial segregation within a country that boast of championing the protection of human rights and democracy. Thus, it led to some changes. Admittedly, there was a lot of resistance towards the passing of the bill. A large section of the group that opposed it argued that it would need coerced busing which would need some adjustment to achieve specific school quotas (Jones-Aversley et al. 302). However, the group that supported the bill assured them that the bill would not lead to such measures hence they should endorse it since it will improve better relations and positive outlook in the international context.

The significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Generally, the enactment for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is significant to history because it led to the constitutional protection of African Americans. Ensured that, just like other races, they were treated with dignity and given equal opportunities to develop. For example, for the first time in history, the southern schools' districts were required to adhere to mathematical ratios of students. Also, it is believed that African Americans made contributions to the American history because it created opportunities for subsequent legislation that were not entirely related to race but advocated for equality based on factors like gender and disabilities. For example, it inspired the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Berger 63). Thus, up to now, it has reduced various forms of discrimination.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Act was passed by the federal government to ensure African American citizens, and other minority groups go the opportunity to vote. During this period there were many political and legal challenges that denied African Americans the right to live freely and exercise their rights. Following numerous attempts by African American people to take part in determining the type of leadership that got to govern them, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was empowered by the previous ratification of the 13th,14th, and 15th Amendments (Jones-Eversley et al. 305). Now that African Americans had received protection for their basic rights, there was a need to expand the protections to include other freedoms like the freedom to vote for their preferred leadership.

Although the law was enacted in 1965, there were many steps that had been made in the southern states to improve the rights of African Americans (Jones-Eversley et al. 306). For example, they had enacted the Jim Crow laws and passed several legislations. Together, the improvements aimed at removing restrictions that had been placed on African Americans like property-ownership requirements, literacy tests, and requirements to interpret some documents before voting, poll taxes, and moral character tests.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a result of pressure created by the civil rights movement. The members of the group wanted the federal government to implement measures that will ensure the protection of the right to vote by African Americans (Reddick 57). They believed that although the thirteenth, fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments had been passed into law, African Americans were still denied the opportunities to participate in voting because of other legal barriers. As such, they needed protection by the law against those found culpable of denying people the right to practice the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendments.

The Act contained provisions like injunctive relief, the creation of the Civil Rights Division, and the Commission on Civil Rights. For example, the Attorney General was given the power to sue culpable people for injunctive relief. It ensured that the state officials could act on behalf of a person whose practice of Amendment Fifteenth was violated. Also, the legislation created the Civil Right Division under the department of justice. The body was meant to enforce the civil rights as provided in the law. The Commission on Civil Rights was established to launch investigations on issues regarding the deprivation civil rights.

Historical Significance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Generally, the Voting Rights Act empowered the courts to solve cases involving the deprivation of federal voting rights and ensuring that legal standards are strictly followed in the Department of Justice regardless of race. However, it did not stop other forms of racial discrimination from occurring. Also, the then President, Lyndon Johnson did not publicly support the bill since he was earned by his political advisors that it would cost him the support he received from the majority. Consequently, civil rights movements like the SNCC and Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and James Bevel organized nation-wide demonstrations that attracted the attention of the media and the international community. As a result, the President showed support for the Act while addressing a joint session of Congress which was being televised.

Historical Fair Housing Act of 1968

The Act was enacted to eliminate discrimination in housing. It was passed four days after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. It was created to ensure an effective and supportive implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Berger 67). Being that there were no enforcement provisions for the laws that prohibited discrimination after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fair Housing Act expanded the provisions of the previous Acts. The Act received support from the Southern States who regions were predominantly experienced numerous forms of racial discrimination supported by lack of good will among the majority group. The Act was necessitated by the 1967 ghetto report that investigated the Ghetto riots in 1967. The committee recommended that there was a need for the federal government to implement housing law which could eliminate repeated disturbances.

Historical Significance of the Fair Housing Act

The Act is significant to the American history because it outlawed actions like refusing to rent or sell to any person a dwelling place because of factors like race, color, religion, or physical disability. Also, it outlawed advertising of housing through indicating a preference for a particular race, color, national origin or religion. Further, it prohibited intimidation or coercion that interfered with the rights of any person to enjoy housing rights. Consequently, minority groups experienced freedom in choosing housing to sell, buy or rent.

Significant figures

Martin Luther King Junior

One cannot explain the American analysis without describing how Martin Luther King Junior contributed to the end of racial segregation and respect for the rights of Americans. He is among the human rights activists who led the revolution during 190sand 1960s (Reddick 59). During this period, many civil activists used violent means to advocate for their rights. However, Martin Luther King Jnr believed that even through non-violent means, African Americans could still advocate for their rights. He believed that using violent means only contributed further to creating a gap between White and African American people (Reddick 58). Therefore, the section explains his early life and how he contributed to the modern day American history through advocating for equality in sectors like transportation, education, and employment.

Martin Luther King Jnr was born in Atlanta in 1929. Initially, he was called Michael. However, after he traveled to Europe with his parents, his father changed his name to Martin. He did honor the church leader of Protestants during that time. He learned in Boker T. Washington High school and attended Morehouse College undergraduate studies in sociology (Reddick 61). Then he went to study divinity in Theological Seminary. He pursued his doctorate study in philosophy from Boston College. Consequently, he became a pastor Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery.

Martin Luther King Jnr was good at creating publicity for civil rights activities and efforts. He participated in the development of institutions that significantly contributed to the championing of equal rights. For example, in 1957, alongside other civil rights movement leaders, he established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Reddick 72). The organization supported and trained members on how to use non-violent means in advocating for the end of racial segregation and inequality between African Americans and White Americans.

He was particular about using non-violent means to advocate for the end of racial segregation. His contributions can be seen from the events of Memphis sanitation workers strike, Montgomery bus boycott, and 'I have a dream speech.' In 1968, there was a strike held by African American workers at Memphis Sanitation company (Reddick 85). The strike was held by 1300 African Americans who complained of both being paid regardless of spending the whole day working (Reddick 84). Also, they complained that the...