In 2008, barack obama he was elected to the presidency of the United States, the first black man to govern the country. His victory caused great euphoria not only among Americans, but around the world. A nation that has a history of racial segregation at its origins enthusiastically watched Obama's election.
With him came a new hope in better times, without social and racial inequalities, the longing that in a good future next, blacks and other minorities who have already suffered all kinds of persecution also have the chance to conquer their space. Building a more egalitarian and democratic nation has been a desire of black and white abolitionists since the end of slavery after the violent American civil war. Understand how it all started.
THE secession war or American Civil War occurred in the United States between the years 1861 and 1865, involving the northern states (unionists) on the one hand and the southern states (confederates) on the other. The differences between these two regions were the trigger for the outbreak of conflict. The South had its economy focused on agriculture that was practiced with the use of slave labor. The north, on the other hand, had one based on trade and on the production of manufactures.
When Abraham Lincoln, representative of the North was elected president of the United States in 1860 the southern states decided to separate from the union, following his example ten other governments separated. This southern attitude caused the North to declare war against the separatists. The conflict resulted in more than 600,000 deaths and in the devastation of the economy, the military superiority allowed the unionists to win.
With the victory, Lincoln guaranteed the unity of the nation and abolished slavery, the now freed blacks began an attempt to integrate into the labor market. But all this was not enough to end the conflicts between the radicals of the north and the south, the president himself was assassinated by a southern fanatic. As ex-slaves tried to reconstruct their history, secret organizations based on racist ideologies began to spread across the United States.
Among them we can highlight the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1866, in Tennessee, by young people from the Southern Confederation. His violent actions against blacks and those who defended them quickly gained national repercussion, causing it to spread to other American states. Their identities were preserved through the use of masks which began to cause great concern to the government, their actions increasingly more violent led the government to create a series of laws against these organizations, which ended up weakening this type of movement.
Southern states did not conform to the abolition of slavery, they blamed blacks for the crisis economic and considered them a backwardness for the nation, as they were "lazy" and "little intelligent”. Racism was institutionalized in the United States, segregationist policies prevented blacks from exercising the right to vote, in all places such as cinema, schools, clubs, Universities, buses there was a space reserved for blacks, separate from whites, even interracial marriages were prohibited, thus avoiding the miscegenation.
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The history of blacks takes on new directions from the 1960s onwards, when movements led by blacks emerged that demanded the same civil rights reserved for whites. One of these movements was led by Martin Luther King, an evangelical pastor who through his speeches drew the government's attention to the humiliating situation in which blacks in the north lived. Americans.
Laws granting civil rights to blacks were incorporated into the constitution, the laws were modified, but the racist mentality remains infiltrated in many white citizens to this day in the States United.
I have a dream that one day, in the Red Mountains of Georgia, the children of the descendants of slaves and the children of the descendants of slave owners will be able to sit together at the fraternity table. I have a dream that one day the state of Mississippi, a desert state suffocated by the heat of injustice, and suffocated by the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged on the color of their skin but on the content of their character. I have a dream today.
(Excerpt from the famous speech “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King. August 28, 1963. He was killed on April 4, 1968, the shots were reportedly fired by racists who were uncomfortable with his actions in defense of blacks).
This record of racial tensions sparked a wave of euphoria among Americans when Barack Obama was elected, blacks and whites celebrated his victory, it was the beginning of a new era in the States United.
His election triggered a moral impact on other blacks, polls show that the number of Afro-descendants enrolled in schools and universities has increased, among its measures to protect minorities, it created laws that expanded the right to unemployment insurance and education, in addition, it continues to fight hard against the racism.
Despite these advances achieved throughout the 20th century, much still has to be changed, recently several cases of blacks murdered by whites have been rekindling the debates around the subject. Unemployment, prison population and school dropout rates are higher among blacks, which proves that they are not yet fully integrated into American society.
Lorena Castro Alves
Graduated in History and Pedagogy
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