The Struggle for Equality for African Americans, Women and Immigrants - Paper Example

Introduction

Immigrants from other parts of the world had migrated to the United States either willingly or unwillingly. The women and the children were the most affected by the challenges that the immigrants faced in a foreign land. There were various forms of discrimination of immigrants, and the immigrants were discriminated because of their country of origin and color of their skin. The African American that was in the United States had migrated through the slave trade that was happening in different parts of the world. The torture that the immigrants made them to start the struggle for equality in which they wanted to have equal rights with their oppressors that treated them as if they were an outcast in the society. In their respective struggles for equality. African Americans, women, and immigrants faced similar challenges and went through similar struggles. The efforts to get equal rights differed in terms of what they were fighting for and the challenges wanted to be fixed.

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The challenges that the African Americans were facing are the same challenges that other communities were facing in terms of torture and discrimination from their former masters. The immigrants were denied their rights and freedoms and poorly treated by being denied their rights. The struggle for equality experienced a lot of chaos (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). The immigrants used every weapon that they could find to defend themselves whenever they were confronted with challenges that made their lives difficult. The immigrants began to fight for their rights in 1865 where the Native Americans were fighting for plantations among themselves, and some passed a law to abolish the slave trade to make the lives of the plantation owners difficult. The slaves that were working on the plantations took advantage of the situation to free themselves.

There were divisions among the political class where some opposed the slave trade, and others supported it. Those who opposed the slave trade did so because they believed that people are equal; therefore the slaves also deserved to have equal opportunities as their masters had (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). When it comes to getting social services from the state all the immigrants whether African American, women and immigrants from other parts of the world. President Thaddeus Stevens is among the politicians who were against the oppression of the immigrants.

The similarity between women, African American, and other immigrants is that they all faced similar challenges. The significant similarity is that they all foreigners in terms of their motherland; hence they were treated as visitors (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). The immigrants were treated the same regardless of where they come from whether they were slaves or not. The immigrants were fighting for their rights as a team because they knew that fighting independently. The oppression of the immigrants continued for a couple of years, and the immigrants kept fighting for equality of all people regardless of their race and their gender.

The immigrants also wanted to be integrated into a society where people would join the community and participate in the development of the country. They believed that they had a role to play in the development of the country (Kawashima, 2017). The Native Americans, on the other hand, believed that they had the right of all the activities and resources used in the country and they were not willing to give them away. The conflict between the locals and the immigrants was because of resource and opportunities that were available.

The immigrants wanted the constitution to be amended and allow them to be accepted as American citizens. Allowing the immigrants to be American citizens would give them the voting rights, the voting right is crucial because it would enable them to elect the leaders that would represent their ideas and what they had been denied for a long time (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). African America and immigrants from other parts of the world fought for their civil rights for many years. The discrimination involved having separate schools for different races where the natives and the locals had better schools than those for the immigrants. Having different schools with great disparities hence the students that studied in schools that were better advanced got jobs living the students who did not get a quality education. The children of the immigrants never used to get employment opportunities because they were regarded as not qualified.

The gap difference in knowledge of the young people led to poverty among the immigrants made it harder for them to be persistent in their fight for justice and civil rights because they were not treated as equals in the society (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). The women also had their fair share struggle for freedom just like the struggle that the minority groups faced. The women were denied civil rights that were enjoyed by other people such as the right to run for a political office. The women wanted to be given equal opportunities with men in terms of the rights that they were supposed to enjoy. The struggle by the women took a long time before they were allowed to enjoy the rights that were enjoyed by men.

The struggle by different social groups led to the formation of a society where all people in society. The constitution began to be changed to be compatible with different groups in society. The Constitution needed to consider the needs of all the stakeholders and social groups in society. The immigrants were successful in getting recognized by the constitution and being allowed to participate in significant events that needed all the stakeholders to be involved for all to grow toward the success of the country. However, the immigrants continue to face challenges inequality of how the rest of society treats them.

The efforts of African Americans, women and immigrants differed 1865-1920. The struggle for equality was not an easy one, and the efforts for African Americans, women and the immigrants varied (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). Although Joseph Rainey vid and won it was a move of taking a high risk because during that time several African Americans candidates were killed. Both black candidates and black voters were intimidated and faced violence during the elections. Rainey efforts were not limited to the challenges facing African Americans only. He fought for confederates so that they can be granted amnesty. He believed that there was a need for a balance to the Civil Rights Act. He was utterly against the restriction of immigrants from China to come into the United States of America.

African Americans were dedicated to fighting the slave trade, and people like Frederick Douglass were in the frontline (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). He escaped slavery and become the leader of the abolition movement and the Republican politician. The African Americans have a track record in the reconstruction with the aim of the abolition of slavery and ensuring that the former slaves were made citizens of the United States of America. They struggled to unite with their family members. The efforts paid off as Africans now had the freedom to conduct religious services and schools were established. Apart from the churches and schools, the African American abolitionists created other social organizations such as benevolent society, fraternal orders, and newspapers.

The women efforts cannot be undermined as they struggled to receive pension compensation for their dead husbands. It was not easy to get these funds because the slave marriages were not recognized. There was no contractual agreement to show that the two lived like a husband and wife as it was in the case of civil marriages. They struggled to get the legal documents such as marriage certificates that served as marriage evidence to get the widow's pension claim.

The struggles came to an end in 1864 when the Senate changed the pension bill to allow women without marriage documents get the funds if they could prove they lived together (Berkin, Miller, Cherny, & Gormly, 2011). Women also struggled in the midwifery services which were not available for them. To get the pension, a woman had to a midwife to testify that the child was hers. The midwife had to testify that she witnessed the birth of the child and that she was the one who assisted both the mother and the child.

The midwives were fellow slaves because slaves could not access healthcare services. If when giving birth there was no slave to help and willing to testify the widow could not get the pension funds. The slaves never enjoyed privacy because their private information found its way to the public when they needed the widow's pension funds. A woman had to prove that he was the wife of the deceased soldier and that the children to benefit from the funds are hers.

References

Berkin, C., Miller, C., Cherny, R., & Gormly, J. (2011). Making America: A History of the United States, Volume 2: From 1865. Cengage Learning.