Paradox Of Hope: The Civil Rights Movement

Introduction
When Obama was running for president of the United States of America, he said that if he won, his biggest achievement would be ‘that the world would look at us [blacks] differently’ (Younge 2012). Almost eight years have passed, and Americans do look differently at blacks than they did before. Unfortunately this change was not necessarily a positive one. The fact that a black man won the US elections and became one of the most powerful people on earth was said to break racial barriers. Today most people of the black community are worse of (Younge 2011). There was some positive belief at first, but then there was the so-called Paradox of Hope. This paradox entails that the people who supported Obama the most during the elections
The abolition of slavery was not the end of the oppression of the black community in the United States. The white community felt threatened in their monopoly on political power and economic privileges. Blacks were seen increasingly seen as dangerous and a threat to the ‘peaceful’ society. Instead of oppression due to slavery, the black community suffered from oppression due to the Jim Crow laws. ‘The Jim Crow were seen as the final settlement, the return of sanity and the permanent system (Alexander 2012: 35). The regime appeared to have a solid foundation of white supremacy in society, which upheld the believe that is would be capable of enduring indefinitely (Morris 1999: 519). Of course, earlier system of racialized social control (slavery) had also been regarded as final and permanent by its supporters.’ (Alexander 2012: 35) The Jim Crow laws were tripartite, since they were meant to ‘control Blacks politically and socially, and to exploit them economically’ (Morris 1999: 519). These laws were the new form of white domination. They made sure that blacks could not participate in the political process and they were kept at the bottom of the economic order. Most blacks in rural areas were victims of exploitation. They worked as sharecroppers or hired hands. The capitalistic system made sure that manufacturing jobs were moved to countries where
In only a few years he was the international charismatic figure they hoped he would eventually be. In the south there were a lot of non-violent protests throughout the years. There were protest marches organised, sit-ins, legal challenges and so on (Morris 525). The sit-ins were very innovative. A lot of other tactics spun of it that resulted in even more protest. One of their major tactical methods the Civil Rights Movement did was that they did not use any violence, but their protests created a crisis, which resulted in violent actions by white officials in their attempt to defeat the movement. They invented nonviolent direct protest all over again. Finally the Birmingham and the Selma confrontation resulted in so much agency that was needed to overthrow Jim Crow. They resulted in huge uprisings which eventually led to the Civil rights Act in 1964. This act prohibited a wide array of discrimination based on race, gender, religion, national origin, and sex. The Jim Crow laws were overthrown in almost 10 years. Only one year later the Voting Rights Act came trough. This had revolutionary consequences. It placed the federal government undeniably and forcefully on the side of African Americans (Risen 2014: 251). Due to the Voting Act, a lot of blacks had managed to register. The presence of black officeholders got up, their electorate strengthened