Opinion On Our Topic

Opinion on Topic
Different races affected many things in the country in the past and today. We think that the African American slaves back then was wrong. We think that every person deserves to have equal rights and to be free. This did not happen until later on in history though.
When the Ku Klux Klan was introduced in 1865, many people were threatened and killed. The Ku Klux Klan was formed by confederates against the African Americans. They would perform acts such as burning houses, killing, hanging, and much more terrible things to African Americans. This Klan struck fear into many African Americans.
After the Civil War was ended in 1865, all the slaves were declared free. This was a huge step that impacted many of the lives today. On July 9 1868, the 13th was ratified which banned slavery in the United States. Although they were free, they were still restricted many rights and were not equal. The Black Codes restricted many of the African Americans rights. Also in 1868 the 14th Amendment was ratified, which defined citizenship. It said that individuals born or naturalized in the US are American citizens, including those born as slaves. Another big step in history was taken when the 15th Amendment was ratified. This Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote. This played a big impact on how people everywhere throughout the country vote today. Although blacks could vote, many were threatened by others. People would go to voting places and not let blacks vote. They would even kill some if they tried to vote. The government then had to send troops to the southern states to protect the voting areas so that blacks could vote. This helped, but fear of being killed played a big part on the blacks going to vote. These accomplishments for Native Americans would have never been fulfilled if it wasn’t for all of the leaders who stepped up and rallied blacks to demand for equal rights.
The US relation with the Native Americans was very bad. When people decided to start moving west into the new land, they encountered many Native American tribes who have been living there for a long time. The government constantly made deals with the Native Americans for land, but time after time cheated them out and took it back when they found that the land contained valuables such as oil, diamonds ect. Usually there wasn’t even a deal made and the land was taken by force and by slaughter. Many of the Native American tribes were slaughtered for no reason but greed. We interrupted their life of living by killing off all of their food sources which was the buffalo. But in the end, we got what we want, only for the price of millions of lives. We think that what happened with the Native Americans was very bad and should have been resolved a different way. Today we have much land because of what we did, but we are unsure what it would be like today if more land was still owned by Native Americans.
When there railroads were being built, much track had to be laid. These terrible and dangerous working conditions were given to the only ones willing to work that hard. The Irish and the Chinese worked long 12 hour days 6 days of the week. They had to be cautious of diseases, falling off bridges, and Native American attacks. Even though they had hard working conditions they still worked their butts off and the US has benefited from the railroads a lot. It transported people, crops, meat, supplies, and many other crucial factors to improving our country.
Discrimination was also a big factor back then and today. Blacks were treated unfair, called names, trashed, and even killed. Today there is still too much discrimination against blacks. Not only was there discrimination against blacks, but to Asians, Mexicans, Irish, and pretty much any group you can think of. Discrimination is bad for our country, but everyone is entitled to their beliefs. Today, if people are discriminated against they can take the case to court and possibly get a lot of money from the company or person treating them unfair or discriminating.

Footnotes/Sources:
US History Text Book
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html