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African American Equal Rights Essay

648 Words3 Pages

Throughout history, the U.S. has struggled with the idea of equality. Many things come into play when considering the equality of something including religious beliefs, gender, demographics, political views, etc. What makes deciding whether something is ethical or equal so challenging is that every person has different definitions of “equal.” The U.S. government has had to (or tried to) keep up with the ever-evolving society we live in by making amendments to the Constitution and making other necessary changes. In this paper, I will explore the rights of African Americans as well as the rights of LGBT members. African Americans and LGBT members have been denied many rights in the past. One of the most tragic denial of African American rights was slavery. Slaves were denied some of their most unalienable rights, including the right to your own body. In Scott v. Sanford, Scott argued …show more content…

Slavery was abolished, and African Americans were given the right to themselves along with other rights. The fifteenth amendment gave them the right to vote, but it wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act that they actually started voting. Prior, they were required to take literacy tests or pay a fine which many of them were not capable of doing. In 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act which ended Jim Crow laws. LGBT members now have the right to marry in all 50 states as well as adopt. A majority of employers prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. To remove the stigma regarding homosexuality, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders. This had been an ongoing offense to the members of LGBT. The government has enacted many new bills like the Hate Crimes Prevention Act to protect the rights of LGBT. Earlier this year, D.C. became the first state to provide a gender-neutral option for driver’s

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