Essay On African Americans And Freedom

Citizenship is somewhat a birthright, a game of chance. It is given to you based on the physical location of your birth. Citizenship is identifies that a certain people have to abide by the laws of the land and can express certain rights. The US has a long history of discriminating against African Americans because of their color of skin and ancestry. Activists of the black freedom struggle questioned citizenship because they couldn’t express the same rights as everyone else.

“Your freedom ends when my freedom begins.” Freedom is a paradox, a vital paradox. As we can see, there are limitations to what we can do as determined by the freedom of others including the state. However, states can be abusive and interfere with basic freedoms like civil and human rights. African Americans have victims of oppression for centuries and their rights have been violated for just as long. During the 20th century, activists argued that although African Americans were declared citizens by the 14th amendment they were not free. Leaders from both the Civil Rights movement and Black Power movement believed that African Americans were not yet free but their beliefs in achieving freedom were quite different.

During the mid 1950s and early 1960s, independence movements took storm across Africa. These independence movements signaled the rise of the black
However many were still left disenchanted as racism still remained an issue in American society. The Black Power movement stemmed from the realization that African Americans continued to be subjugated. No laws can stop discriminatory behavior and as some argued an inherently racist America. Due to the continuation of racism many African Americans still believed that the path to freedom wasn’t over. This “failure to be free” empowered a rising black consciousness and had international presence, most notably in