African American Women in Their Struggle for Civil Rights in 19th and 20th

Century

Beginning at least as early as 1502, European slave traders shipped approximately 11

to 16 million slaves to the Americans, including 500,000 to what is now the United
States. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, slaves could be found in every area
colonized by Europeans.
The American Revolution had contradictory consequences for slavery. Thousands of
slaves freed themselves by running away. Civil rights are freedoms and rights guaranteed
to a member of a community, state, or nation. Freedoms of speech, of the press, of
religion, and of fair and equal treatment are the basic civil rights. The constitution of the
United States contains the Bill of Rights that describes simple liberties and rights insured
to every person in the United States. Although the Bill of Rights represents the first ten
amendments to the Constitution, civil rights were not always applied to all human
beings, especially women and African Americans. When the constitution was first
written, many Americans understood the meaning of the famous line all men are created
equal to mean that all white males were created equal, likewise with other civil rights
guarantees as well. As a result, African Americans were enslaved, and women were
persecuted throughout the late 1700's and early 1800's.
During the 1850's abolitionists in the North questioned the morality of southern slavery
by writing and preaching about the rights African Americans were denied. Abolitionists
paved the way for the first civil rights movement that occurred after the Civil War, during
Reconstruction. In the 1950's and early 1960's, whites in the South lived in segregated
societies, separating themselves from blacks in every humanly way possible. Southern
African Americans faced new discrimination every day. America was deprived of
another, more far-reaching civil rights movement. The civil rights movement during the
late 1800's and early 1900's provided the foundations for the current civil rights laws
achieved throughout the 1960's. African Americans made significant gains in their
struggle for equal rights during Reconstruction, the 12-year period after the Civil War.
The civil rights movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's succeeded in breaking the
ice for African Americans and also in leading the way to women’s triumph in 1920.
The position of African American was very difficult. They were discriminated in every
way but even more difficult was the position of African American women, because they
were black and they were females. How did they fight against discrimination and what is
their contribution in fighting for civil rights is the subject I would like to write about in
my diploma paper.