History of Black Civil Rights in America
Saturday February 24, 2007
Full Coverage: Illustrated History of Black Civil Rights in America
Almost every nation in human history has had some kind of ethnically-based social caste system that oppresses a group deemed inferior by those in power, suitable for some degree or another of oppression, servitude, and ghettoization. In first-century Rome, it was the French Gauls (among many others). In late 11th-century Britain under Norman occupation, it was the Anglo-Saxons. In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, it was the Kurds. In 1990s Rwanda, it was the Tutsis.
There have been many such groups in this country over the past five centuries of European-American colonization, but the only group imported by the millions for involuntary slave labor, then segregated by force, has been African Americans. And a brief glance at racial income disparities, prison population disparities, and so forth indicate that the racist caste system that upheld slavery and Jim Crow is still very much alive.
Look back on the history of black civil rights in America. By Monday, the gallery will cover the entire sprawling history of African-American civil rights, from the earliest slave imports of 1528 to the realities of racial profiling, segregation, and housing and workplace discrimination that persist to this day.
See also:
Almost every nation in human history has had some kind of ethnically-based social caste system that oppresses a group deemed inferior by those in power, suitable for some degree or another of oppression, servitude, and ghettoization. In first-century Rome, it was the French Gauls (among many others). In late 11th-century Britain under Norman occupation, it was the Anglo-Saxons. In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, it was the Kurds. In 1990s Rwanda, it was the Tutsis.
There have been many such groups in this country over the past five centuries of European-American colonization, but the only group imported by the millions for involuntary slave labor, then segregated by force, has been African Americans. And a brief glance at racial income disparities, prison population disparities, and so forth indicate that the racist caste system that upheld slavery and Jim Crow is still very much alive.
Look back on the history of black civil rights in America. By Monday, the gallery will cover the entire sprawling history of African-American civil rights, from the earliest slave imports of 1528 to the realities of racial profiling, segregation, and housing and workplace discrimination that persist to this day.
See also:
Comments
When you talk about civil rights, it’s always about African-Americans. Why not focus on Hispanic Americans for a change? Our people are suffering, too–from discrimination, poverty, and downright hatred. In the media, we are portrayed as maids, janitors, drug dealers, and illegal aliens, never as real people. And judging from the hate-filled posts I see on the forums, many Americans see us as nothing more than dirty illegal aliens who are living off the government, “taking” others’ jobs, and who should just be sent back to Mexico. I don’t buy it for a minute when people claim they’re saying bad things about Mexicans because they want them to be “legal”. It’s not about whether they’re legal or illegal. It’s just about the fact that they hate Mexicans and are afraid that they’ll “take over”. Everyone sympathizes with the plight of African-Americans, but when it comes to us, it’s always “Go back where you came from!”. Why is our plight any less serious than for blacks?
Hispanics are people, too!