This week you take on the role of the Senior Network Engineer for the organization you chose in Week 1. As a Senior Network Engineer, your responsibilities may include designing the network infrastruc

The Evolution of the African American Experience

America has come a long way regarding the acceptance of African Americans as true members of society. Though there is still a long way to go before complete social equality is achieved, the implementation of groundbreaking pro-integration legislation has created a much more tolerant environment for modern African Americans. Despite the suppression of African American freedoms via brutal acts of terrorism by the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration, the Brown v. Board of Education verdict, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have proved substantial in creating a more balanced society for African Americans.

Originally formed in 1866- just one year after the abolition of slavery- the Ku Klux Klan’s primary goal as a terrorist organization was to deter African Americans from exercising their newly acquired rights as free people (especially voting rights). In order to achieve this, Klan members routinely terrorized African Americans as well as black sympathizers with various acts of violence- most notably lynching. Although lynching is among the most famous of their vile methods, they employed a variety of tactics ranging from “threats and intimidations to… killing” (Constructing the American Past 13) in an effort to preserve white supremacy. Perhaps the most striking truth about the Klan is that its members were really everyday citizens. As explained by Pierce Harper in an 1871 testimony of Ku Klux Klan victims, “you deal wit’ ‘em in de stores in de day time” (Constructing the American Past 7). Though the organization was banned in the late 1870s, it was later re-established in 1915, in part as a response to the Great Migration.

Lasting from 1900 to 1970, the Great Migration was a period of African American migration to the Northern US that was primarily inspired by the desire for industrial work, especially “steel mills, mines, construction, and meat-packing” (US History 549). During this period, approximately 6 million African Americans moved to the largely unfamiliar North, lowering the percentage of blacks in the South by around 37%. This rapid increase in the population of this somewhat foreign demographic did not bode well with the Northern whites. Aside from racially-motivated acts of violence and the re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, blacks were systematically sectioned off via a process known as redlining. In this process, certain areas were marked on the map as bad investments, and this was used as an excuse to “deny home loans to qualified buyers” (US History 550). The effects of this can still be felt today, as many cities in the North and Midwest are extremely segregated by race. However, despite the initial backlash from whites, the sudden convergence of different regional groups resulted in vast exchanges in culture throughout the African American community.

In addition to the Great Migration, the Supreme Court verdict in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case also facilitated a mixing of cultures- this time via the integration of schools. This controversial ruling effectively undid Plessy v. Ferguson by establishing that ‘separate but equal’ schools were unconstitutional as they made African American students feel inferior to their white counterparts. This was met with much public backlash, inspiring various acts of resistance, including Orval Faubus’ response to the Little Rock Nine- a group of nine African American students who planned to attend the formerly segregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite the Supreme Court explicitly stating that the students had the right to attend the school, Faubus ordered Arkansas troops “to prevent the students from attending classes” (US History 848). In response to Faubus’ defiance, President Dwight Eisenhower enforced the ruling, even providing the students with military escorts to ensure that they made it to class safely. This sudden federal backing for the rights of African Americans helped set the stage for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Proposed by President John F. Kennedy and enacted by President Lyndon Johnson, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 served as the “most far-reaching civil rights act yet” (US History 866) at the time of its passing, further dismantling systematic racial segregation and providing African Americans with more freedoms. Among other things, the act banned segregation in schools and public facilities, banned employment discrimination, and gave black people voting rights- primarily by banning fraudulent literacy tests. However, this act was met with white resistance, not unlike the resistance that African Americans faced with the abolition of slavery, the Great Migration, and the Brown v. Board verdict. In Southern states, for example, it was not uncommon for white people to prevent black people from registering to vote, and “protests against this interference [were] often met with violence” (US History 866). Despite the public’s aversion to forced integration, this act ultimately served as the stepping stone for future pro-equality legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Though true racial equality has yet to be achieved in the US, the country has undeniably seen substantial progress since the abolition of slavery in 1865- though not without a few barriers along the way. From the barbaric actions of the Ku Klux Klan, to white resistance during the Great Migration and following the Brown v. Board verdict and Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans have faced significant amounts of hardship to obtain the level of respect that they now possess. Each of these events, in particular, has served a vital role in creating a modern society that is closer to universal impartiality than ever before.

Works Cited

Corbett, Scott P., et al. US History. 2014. Openstax. Web. Oct. 2018. https://d3bxy9euw4e147.cloudfront.net/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/USHistory- OP_tkj0lZo.pdf. Accessed 7 Mar. 2019.

Gorn, Elliott J., et al. Constructing the American Past: a Sourcebook of a People's History . 8th ed., vol. 2, Oxford University Press, 2018. https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/590207/sp/45578854/mi/187332006. Accessed 7 Mar. 2019.