African Americans

The abolishment of slavery in the United States, which was adopted as law in 1865, was the first step in minority rights for African Americans. Although it was a great step forward in the history of the United States, African Americans were far from equals under the law. In the southern states, “black codes” were local and municipal laws that disabled previous slaves from finding their own freedom and financial security through work, thereby forcing them to continue working on the plantations. One year later, African Americans were made American citizens through the Civil Rights Act. Several years later, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were passed, guaranteeing African Americans the same rights and privileges as American citizens, such as equal protection under the law and the right to vote. However, even then, states were left to interpret the laws. Segregation kept persons of color from being able to fully integrate in society. It wasn’t until The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 that the situation began to improve, and even today, African Americans still face discrimination and challenges that white people do not.

Current Legal Issues

In spite of the gains that African Americans have made in the past, they still face challenges moving forward. Currently, they are subject to discrimination in areas including education, employment, family, criminal justice, health, and economic development. Laws exist that prevent employers, government organizations, and businesses from discriminating based on a person’s skin color. However, racial profiling remains a practice among organizations such as the Customs Department and the New York City Police. Affirmative Action refers to a practice of ensuring that minority groups are offered equal opportunities to work and study. However, many American citizens believe that Affirmative Action is preferential treatment for minorities that results in businesses hiring unqualified persons, when this is far from the case. Indeed, Affirmative Action is a method of taking proactive steps to ensure that disadvantaged groups have equal opportunities in the workplace.

Affected Groups

African Americans are one of the largest minority groups in the country. In the 2012 U.S. Census, people who claimed to have African American heritage accounted for 14.2% of the population, a total of approximately 44.5 million people. Those who identified as having only African American heritage accounted for 13.1% of the country’s population, in total over 39 million people. The Census Bureau projects that by the year 2060, individuals with African American heritage will account for nearly 20% of the population, totaling 77.4 million people. Currently, the largest concentrations of African Americans are in the South, where 55% of all people identified as African American.

Challenges

In spite of the fact that an African American president was elected to office in 2008, many African Americans still feel like lesser citizens compared to their white counterparts. Blacks are far more likely to complete high school than they were fifty years ago; however, they still are far less likely than whites to graduate from college. Voter turnout among African Americans has also increase, so much so that the percentage of African Americans who voted in 2012 surpassed the percentage of whites that voted. Looking forward to the future, it is expected that attitudes and principles towards African American equality will continue to affect behavior.