Southern Whites Rebellion towards Achievement of Equal Rights with Blacks: Expository Essay

Introduction

In the 19th century, at the heights of slavery and racial segregation, the southern part of the present-day United States of America was home to the fiercest white supremacists. According to them, they were superior to the African Americans, who served as their servants. The whites believed that the blacks were meant to be their subordinates and that they were made by God to be inferior to them. They, therefore, mistreated the blacks, punished them, and put them through various sorts of oppression. At the worst, some blacks could end up being raped or killed. Most of the African Americans, who had been brought to work as slaves in this foreign land, ended up being separated from their families as they were sold off to different masters and mistresses. This stripped them of their dignity and their fundamental rights as human beings. The sole reason behind this evil mindset was just for the whites to assert their supremacy over the poor, illiterate, and helpless blacks.

If this sample essay on"Southern Whites Rebellion towards Achievement of Equal Rights with Blacks: Expository Essay" doesn’t help,
our writers will!

Trust an expert

Whites and Blacks Fight for Equal Rights

After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the vice president took over the leadership of the country. Johnson was pro-White supremacy and, thus, always worked to put all the African Americans under the oppressing hands of their fellow whites. Due to these selfish ideologies, he fell out with his colleagues of the Republican Party who were willing to safeguard the rights of the poor slaves. Bills were passed in their favor even though the president vetoed them and tried to block them from being passed. The republicans then forged ahead with a drive to free the slaves. In as much as this was met with a lot of resistance from the president, Democrats, and most of the whites, the slaves were finally declared freemen. This was the start of waves of revolutions and violence from both the whites and blacks. The African Americans were fighting for their rights as human beings. They wanted to be treated equally to the whites. On the other hand, the whites wanted a status quo to remain, where the blacks were considered as inferior beings to them and were meant to be subordinate to them. Therefore, the whites went out of their way to ensure that the dream of equal rights with the blacks could be hard to realize. With these, both groups were ready to shade blood to reach their desired outcome. Below is an explanation of some of the few tactics the Southern whites employed to curtail this process.

Equal Right to Education Black and White

One of the slaves was once told by his master that for there to be a true definition of freedom, education had to be center stage. This was during the emancipation period. Therefore, this view, meant that education was one of the dear assets of the whites. Sure enough, education was actually one of the assets that the whites really valued and associated it with the intelligent and the superior beings. The blacks pushed for the set-up of schools and educational institutions during the emancipation period. This really angered the whites as they felt that one of their valued assets and attributes was being invaded by inferior beings who were not worthy of accessing it.

The Southern whites, thus, started burning up the institutions that had been set up and set for this purpose. They also started arguing that the initiative was a waste of public resources that would have otherwise been used on endeavors that are more beneficial. The upset southern whites again went ahead to kill the teachers that were offering education in these schools. Since the teachers were few, in the first place, this served as a huge blow to the whole initiative. Also part of the program of trying to reach equality in the education sector was to allow the black students to share learning institutions with the white students. This initiative also met much resistance and even proved futile since the white students pulled out of the institutions to pave way for the blacks. On the other hand, for those who stayed, the students of different races had to use different classes. This, therefore, showed the level of contempt with which the blacks were treated.

Corridors of Justice

This is normally expected to assume the most neutral ground when it comes to matters of rights and delivery of justice to the citizens. No citizen in any given country is accorded any advantage over the other or considered superior to the other in order to have an unfair advantage over the other in the delivery of verdicts in the courts or any forum that requires decision-making. This is contrary to what is seen in the region of the southern whites, after the freeing of the slaves. In bitterness, they resorted to violence. They beat, raped, and even killed black people at will but were never subjected to the full force of the law. The partiality that was being propagated at the corridors of justice, therefore, acted as a big obstacle to the success of equality between the two races in the southern part of America.

What Is Black Freedom Movement?

As a human being, one is served with the right to move freely within the state. This covers all the routes and means of transport that enable people to move from one place to another. As seen in counties like Mississippi, black people were segregated when it came to the usage of the railroad. They were always forced to use second-class cars no matter the amount paid for the ticket. The second-class cars were very uncomfortable and stuffy. This is where the whites deemed fit for their inferiors. Sad to say, a law that was passed in these southern states supported this. This, therefore, showed that the leaders in these areas were working together with the southern whites to frustrate the whole program aimed at ensuring equality between the races.

Right of Expression and Right to Vote for Blacks

Everyone should enjoy the right of expression. The passing of views is a right that everyone deserves. This is one of the main areas targeted during emancipation. Here, the blacks were supposed to enjoy the right to have gatherings where they would share their views with regard to any topic. Politics and social life were the main topics in these gatherings. On the contrary, the southern whites had a different view of this. They hated it and thus tried their level best to put a halt to it. They attacked the people in these gatherings, torching churches and even their homes. This, therefore, watered down the whole exercise since the blacks knew that enjoying this right came at a cost.

The right to vote by black men was the one that was met with the most resistance. This is because. If the blacks could vote, then the whites would find themselves under their rule. Due to the fear of this eventuality, the southern whites turned violent and even formed groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which was meant to terrorize the blacks and scare them from voting. In other counties like Mississippi, they gave out very stringent and mean rules and criteria that would allow blacks to vote. Some of them were that the convicted felonies and anyone who had committed any petty crime considered as black-men crime could not vote. The issue of tax clearance was also featured. With all these, the blacks were scared of practicing their noble right to vote.

Conclusion

From the above scenarios, we have seen how much the southern whites were objected to the whole idea of having equal rights with the blacks. These were some of the main reasons that led to a long protracted time span, before the acquisition of full freedom and equality among whites and blacks.