d in the war that decided the fate of slavery (battlefields.org). The Thirteenth Amendment had been passed by Congress in January of that year and ratified in December, resulting in the abolishment of slavery in the United States (Brinkley 350). To protect the rights of newly freed African Americans, two additional amendments were also later enacted. In 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment granted African Americans citizenship. In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment gave them the right to vote (Brinkley 358, 359).
In spite of African Americans gaining their rights after the era of Reconstruction around the 1870s, Southern State governments implemented discriminatory practices as well as intimidation to keep African Americans from voting. Considering obstacles such as Jim Crow Laws, The Ku Klux Klan, resistance to exercise the rights they were given and the racism that still existed in some parts of the country, it was difficult to understand how exactly the U.S. had progressed since the war. Fortunately, and finally, in 1954, the Brown v. Board Supreme Court case outlawed segregated public education, and in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act, which abolished Jim Crow Laws and outlawed racial discrimination in public places. During this time, in which segregation had been abolished, it seemed as though the African American community was finally seen as equal.
Despite all the progress that came after the Civil War, many still believe racial discrimination still exists at the systematic level. The movement founded in 2013, to expose this discrimination, is the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which suggests African Americans are victims of police brutality, racism, and inequality within the justice system (blacklivesmatter.com). The Black Lives Matter movement has massively brought to light the issue of civil rights with its focus on campaigning against what is referred to as systematic racism that stil...