Racial equality

[3] However, in more recent years, legislation is being passed ensuring that all individuals receive equal opportunities in treatment, education, employment, and other areas of life.

Among other things, the American Civil War was fought to end this, and in September 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which abolished the practice of slavery in the United States and granted protection and legal rights to recently freed Blacks.

In addition, Black Americans were a common target of racial violence, and they would not receive equal treatment by the justice system.

[citation needed] Also, the overcrowded living conditions added to the poor health of the residents through the spread of infectious diseases.

Martin Luther King Jr. became one of the greatest leaders due to his stance concerning various mistreated black men and women in the South.

[6] King kept his anger toward the idea of segregation of race to himself; however, he did show his passion for equality in his speeches and peaceful protest.

King displayed his very first civil rights movement by voluntarily taking a stance in the Montgomery bus boycott.

The bus boycott had started by Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat for a white male after a long and tiring day at work.

Although King had to overcome many attacks against him such as arrest and violent harassment, the result was their first victory: black men and women were allowed to ride the buses in Montgomery equally as the whites.

She attended the all-black Alabama State College, and soon worked at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as a secretary.

[6] He became the President of this activist group and decided to improve communities by managing peaceful protests and boycotts regarding the social ethics of discrimination and segregation between races.

Their objective was to eliminate racial inequality, and guarantee political, educational, social, and economic equality for citizens.

[8] There was a civil rights group called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that came together to fight corruption and segregation in a nonviolent manner.

He went back to his "Native South" and visited a local movie theater, where he came upon the "crow's nest", an area that was reserved for blacks.

He soon wrote a memo and summoned the formation of a group of individuals that were powerful in mind and body to be able to take personal nonviolent actions to end discrimination.

This led to some success for the facilities that were testing out the orders they were given, but it didn't grab much attention, especially at the national level, which was their main goal.

In fact, some researchers argue that the increased media attention granted to white supremacy groups could positively correlate with biologically racist beliefs.

[18] Discrimination on the basis of race leads racial minorities to receive less job opportunities than their white peers,[18] decreased access to educational and healthcare resources, and higher rates of incarceration.

[19] While writing on the failures of Brown v. Board of Education, Jody Heymann, Aleta Sprague, and Amy Raub noted that "From 1988 to 2014, the percentage of 'hyper-segregated schools,' in which 90% or more of the students are minorities, grew from 5.7% to 18.4%.

These tests, similar to Jim Crow era literacy tests, are not outwardly discriminatory towards blacks, they appear to be race-neutral, however the danger lies in the fact that the designers of said risk assessment tools conflate risk with a distrust of authority, and the oppressive social and political conditions that can lead one to committing crimes.

[18] Countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and South Africa ensured racial equality in their constitutions by writing them in cooperation with marginalized minority communities.

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) made it illegal for any state to deny people the right to vote regardless of their race, ethnicity, or any previous servitude.

[23] Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was a landmark decision issued by the supreme court that ruled the act of segregation to be constitutional as long as it was separate but equal.

As a result, the decision has had implications for such issues as the definition of blackness, the acknowledgment of gradients of whiteness, the significance of citizenship, and the interpretation of the state’s regulatory role in the separation of races in public space.

"[24] Brown v. Board of Education (1952) was a Supreme Court decision following Plessy V. Ferguson that decided that separation cannot be equal in schools, therefore, segregation was unconstitutional.

Schools were allowed to take as much time needed to desegregate, delaying any reconstruction towards racial equality amongst blacks and White Americans.

"In 1964 the federal government issued the Civil Rights Act, which barred racial discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or national identity.

This act snatched crucial power from many southern states because in effect it reversed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling by declaring racial segregation unacceptable and unconstitutional.

"[26] Jim Crow laws, which were placed in the late 19th century, were enforced in the South in order to separate blacks and White Americans.

It was also easier for blacks to be punished for any harmless activity, and lead to racial injustice, despite the amendments and supreme court cases.