Civil Rights-How Far Have We Come?

Running Head: SOCIOLOGY 1
Sociology
Name:
Institution

SOCIOLOGY 2
Civil rights-How far have we come.
Introduction
It has been 51 years since the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., an American activist, but
America is still far behind in achieving the dream he envisioned. Across spectrum ranging from
economic inclusivity to issues of criminal justice, black Americans are still far behind the white
Americans. In some cases, the situation of minority segregation has gotten worse. The reasons
for this decline include policies that have failed to counter the obstacles for the black people,
outright racism, restrictive covenants, and lack of attention to critical issues especially in the
criminal justice system that is marred with high racial disparities from policing to incarceration.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led the historic march that was dubbed “the most magnificent
demonstrations of interracial unity that America had ever seen.” The march expressed the hope
of a more unified nation and equality, peace, and understandings. Civil rights are the rights and
freedom that an individual has by being in a community, nation or state. In the US, civil rights
are enshrined in the constitution and acts of Congress. Many Acts have been legislated to
guarantee the rights of all-American citizens, but the fight for civil right laws continues up to
now, not only by the black Americans, but other minority groups including Hispanics, Asia-
Americans, women, the homeless, homosexuals, people living with disabilities, and other
minorities (Branigan, et al., 2013). Although great progress has been made in the fight for
equality, there is still much more do be done especially in the sectors of politics, education, and
housing, where it is evident that black Americans do not enjoy the same benefits as their white
counterparts.

SOCIOLOGY 3
In the year 1857, the Supreme Court of the US rejected the bid of citizenship for African
Americans. In the ruling by judge Dred Scott, he ruled that the native Americans had perceived
the blacks as being inferior and had no right to be respected by the white man. This ruling
ironically cemented the anti-slavery movement as it also angered many white people who did not
have slaves. Consequently, Abraham Lincoln of the antislavery Republican party won the
election by basing his campaign on antislavery (Tuck, 2013). President Lincoln further signed
the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, to deprive the confederacy of slavery. The end of the
American Civil war saw the Republican leaders making constitutional amendments to abolish
slavery. However, despite the constitutional guarantee, civil rights agitation was experienced for
more than a century after to have federal enforcement of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
amendment rights (Clayton, 2018). In the year 1896, white leaders seek to strengthen the Jim
Crow racial segregation by enacting new laws. The Supreme Court ruled that the separation of
the facilities between African Americans and the whites did not violate the 14th amendment,
oblivious to the fact that these facilities were in poor state as compared to those of the white
Americans.
In the 1950s, the American civil rights movement participated in a nationwide mass
protests against discrimination and racial segregation. The movement was based on centuries of
inequalities and efforts by the African slaves to condemn racial discrimination and end slavery.
The advent of the civil war emancipated the slaves and gave them basic civil rights by the
introduction of the 14 and 15 amendment rights in the constitution, but there were struggles to
acquire federal protection for these rights (Harris, 2015). The 1960s, demonstrations by the
segregated minorities were not just based on reforms of civil rights, but it was a freedom and