The Pursuit of Freedom: The History of Racism in America - Essay Sample

Introduction

The history of racism in America is one that started even before the country gained independence (Edwards & Thomson 2). Racism started with enslaving the African American people, and since then, they have had to fight for their freedom. However, the efforts of the black people faced opposition from the white Americans who were in support of discrimination based on race. Americans were divided by the color of their skin and class. The pursuit of the Americans with African descent for their liberation and recognition as fellow Americans despite their skin color is one that has been with many challenges like people losing their lives. For example, in massacres like the Rosewood massacre and the Tulsa massacre, which lead to hundreds of deaths to the black people and their properties destroyed. The African American community managed to build a prosperous community despite the efforts by racists who viewed the black community as the inferior race.

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The Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow laws were laws that promoted racism in the country by making it legal for white Americans to marginalize and mistreat the African American people. The legislation only made it harder for the people with African descent to prosper. The white people were treated as the superior race, and they received special treatment in the community (Edwards & Thomson 3). The laws allowed white people to have their own space, thus discriminating against the African American people. African American people were not allowed to live in a neighborhood that the white people lived. The black people had to sit separately from the white people in public places like schools, theaters, and hotels. The laws first came into existence immediately after slavery was abolished in the US. The boundaries created by these laws were called boundaries of color because they divided the community based on races.

Rosewood Massacre

Rosewood was a small town in Florida, which was inhibited by the African American people. Originally the area had both the white Americans and the African American people but, the Jim Crow laws made drove away from the white people to a nearby town from the area due to segregation. The only people who were not black were the owner of the store in the area and his family. The massacre started when a black person allegedly attacked a young woman in the nearby town of Summer. The woman's husband gathered a crowd of white people that would hunt down the man responsible for the assault. Members of the Ku Klux Klan, who were gathered in a rally nearby, joined the white residents in the pursuit (History.com Editors 3). According to the mob, the person responsible was hidden by the black people. The angry white people invaded several houses of black residents, and several people got killed in the process.

In one specific house were people had hidden, was invaded by white people and there was a gun confrontation living the owner of the house, and her son dead. Two Americans also died in the attack. The news of this incident spread fast though newspapers exaggerated the seriousness of the numbers of those affected. The incident sparked a reaction from the white people, and more of them stormed the area in solidarity with the other white people. The white people burned down houses of the residents and even churches. They shot at the black people trying to escape from the fire. People fled to swamps nearby, but later, the women and children escaped using a train. The black community had to flee from their homes, and the Rosewood neighborhood was deserted.

The massacre made sure that no one was left in the town. Even after the massacre, the white attacker invaded the place and burnt any house that had was still standing. Stories of how this ordeal had taken the lives of innocent people all because of their race were all over the country, yet the government did not compensate the affected families. For example, an old man was forced to dig his own grave before he was shot and left there by the white people (Mingo 10). Although the survivors of the massacre settled in other places, the memories of the horrible ordeal they had witnessed remained with them. The survivors lived with fear for the rest of their lives. The tension was so intense that they did not even speak of the experience they had many years later. Some people changed their names because they feared that their lives would be in danger if their identity is revealed.

Tusla Massacre

Greenwood Prosperity. Greenwood town was the home to the most prosperous African American people in the early 1900s. The African Americans in Greenwood had developed an entrepreneurial culture that saw their district prosper. Greenwood was a self-contained neighborhood with its own post office, bank, hospital, and even a library. The neighborhood had luxurious shops, hotels, cinema halls, jewelry and clothing stores, nightclubs and offices. The offices hosted relevant people like doctors and lawyers. Of course, the district also had other people who were not as well off, and they performed minor jobs like offering cleaning services (Clark 6). Those who worked outside Greenwood but resided in Greenwood also contributed to the growth of the town because the money they earned elsewhere got invested in Greenwood.

A railway separated the black people from the white people. The growth of Greenwood district started when a prominent businessman built a boarding house and invited other black Americans to the area. Within a few months, the place was crowded with black people who were all hoping to gain build their lives there. The people in Greenwood believed that if they worked together, they would grow. The local newspaper was also very influential in helping the local people grow. The press informed the black community of the legal environment of their rights and the developments with the Jim Crow laws.

The white people did not take the growth of an African American neighborhood well. They believed that they were superior to the African American people and so the African American were not supposed to live better lifestyles than them (Wynes 7). The majority of black people in Greenwood lived luxurious lives, whereas not all Americans lived luxurious lives. That sparkled an enmity between the people of Greenwood and the white Americans, one that lead to the violence causing the death of the black people and the destruction of Tulsa town by white Americas.

The attack took place after a white woman accused a young African American man of sexually harassing her in an elevator. The person accused of attacking the black man was taken into custody and presented before a judge in a court of law. The local press reported the incident, and it attracted the attraction of majority of people. The black people attended the court session in solidarity with the young black man while the white people came looking for justice for the young woman (Olivier et al. 10). The two parties confronted each other leading to the death of a white person. As a result, White Americans attacked the Greenwood avenue, mainly because the majority of the African American people hid in the town. Among the attackers were former world war soldiers who were conversant with the use of weapons. They attacked and killed many African American. More than 300 people got killed, although the number reported by the government was much lower than that.

The once prosperous town of Greenwood was burnt down by white people in two days. Not only did the African American people lose their lives in the violence, but also they lost property worth millions. After their houses got burnt by the angry white people, many residents of Greenwood were left homeless. They received help from fellow African Americans who lived in neighboring towns. Although the incident led to the death of many Americans of African descent, the press did not give the matter the deserved attention (Jordan et.al 6). Soon after it happened, the majority of the Americans and the government forgot about it. The local government did not offer their assistance to the people of Greenwood as the black community expected. The government did little in assisting the town of Greenwood to gain its lost glory. The commission formed to investigate the massacre tried to get compensation for the affected people, but it lacked enough support. The African American community worked together with religious leaders to reconstruct their city. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also came to the aid of the people Greenwood with its donations.

Conclusion

The African American people were always viewed as the inferior race by the white Americans. Jim Crow laws discriminated against the African American people, yet the black people still managed to build some good neighborhoods like Greenwood. The white people did not expect the black community to build prosperous businesses and to live luxurious lives like in Greenwood. The Greenwood and Rosewood massacres lead to the death of many African American people and their property destroyed. The government itself did not offer assistance to those affected by the massacre.

Work Cited

Clark, Alexis. "Tulsa's 'Black Wall Street' Flourished as a Self-Contained Hub in Early 1900s." History, 4 Sep 2019. www.history.com/news/black-wall-street-tulsa-race-massacre. Accessed May 7, 2020.

Edwards, Frances L. & G. B. Thomson. The Legal Creation of Raced Space: The Subtle and Ongoing Discrimination Created through Jim Crow Laws. 2010.

Jordan P. Brasher, Derek H. Alderman & Aswin Subanthore "Was Tulsa's Brady Street really renamed? Racial (in)justice, memory-work and the neoliberal politics of practicality," Social & Cultural Geography, 2018. DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2018.1550580

History.com Editors." Rosewood Massacre," History, 4 May 2018, www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/rosewood-massacre. Accessed May 7, 2020.

Mingo, A. "Restoring Rosewood: Movements from Pain to Power to Peace1" Practical Matters, 2012, Issue 5, pp. 1-23. http://practicalmattersjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Mingo.Restoring-Rosewood.pdf

Olivier, Jasmine & Clair, Matthew & Denis, Jeffrey. Racism. pp 1-10. 2019. DOI: 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos1238.

Wynes, Charles E. "The Evolution of Jim Crow Laws in Twentieth Century Virginia." Phylon (1960-), vol. 28, no. 4, 1967, pp. 416-425. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/274293. Accessed 8 May 2020.