Alegría Rosales - Racial Segregation

In the United States the racial segregation has been a problem for a really long time. As everyone knows, before Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of emancipation, all black people were slaves. They were brought from Africa to be sold as merchandise. They weren’t even considered as people. Abraham Lincoln decremented emancipation for all the slaves on the Union territory on January 1^st of 1863, during the civil war. It was the first step for equality for black people.

After the civil war, almost every black man was free. After some time, black people weren’t treated the same way white people were yet. In the sixties you could find everything divided for black and white people. There was a bathroom for black people and another for white people. If a black man wished to buy a hat, they had to use a cover on their head so they wouldn’t ruin the hat. White people were really mean with black people. A huge example was the case of Emmett Till. Emmett was an Afro-American boy who was murdered because he flirted to a white girl. He was killed when he was only fourteen years old. 

Another example is the Ku Klux Klan, which was a xenophobic and racist group who believed that the white people were superior. They were also terrorists, they killed thousands of black people. This group was founded after the civil war on 1865. They even supported the Nazis during world war two. They also opposed the declaration of civil rights, obviously for black people. In the forties, the activist Stetson Kennedy dissolved the group.

The first man that really fought for the rights of black people, and other discriminated people, was Martin Luther King Jr. He was a black priest form Atlanta. He organized a peaceful, non-violent march to Washington. In the Lincoln’s monument he made his famous speech where he said “I have a dream”. In his speech he said that everyone was equal, no matter the color of their skin or any kind of difference. He wanted a world were black people could go to the same places that were only for white people. He really though that a black person and a white one could be friends, or even lovers. On April 4^th, 1968 at 6:01 pm he got murdered on Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Even though he died, his legacy was necessary for the equality of black people. They fought for rights they now have, and now they live happy with white people.