Racial artwork: Includes many facts from the civil rights era as well as symbolism, Harlem renaissance is also covered.

Essay by onlyonelikemyselfHigh School, 10th gradeA+, February 2006

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All throughout history, people have always wanted what they are unable to obtain. The unattainable for the black populace during the civil rights era was social equality. When slavery was abolished in 1865 by the thirteenth amendment, black men and women were faced with many injustices. These racial tensions are expressed in the image of the black boy pressed against the admission door.

In 1876, in the states passed Jim Crow laws; which were made to enforce racial segregation, and included laws that would prevent African Americans from doing things that a white person could legally do. Jim Crow laws limited black Americans from doing many things; they could not eat at the same lunch counters, travel around white people, visit the same entertainment, marry a person of the opposite race, work high paying jobs due to racism, or attend the same schools as white children. These laws kept black and white tensions high.

Within the year 1896, the Plessy versus Ferguson made separation officially legal. (Notes III. 1865-1920). This was a landmarking courtcase for the United States Supreme Court, they made the decision that approved racial segregation in public facilities, and ruling that states could prohibit the use of public facilities by African Americans. The sepreme court said that segration was legal, as long as both areas were equal to one another; but of course they were not. African Americans' got the extemely low end of the deal. They received low end schooling, where the facilities were anything but equal, (from I know why the caged bird sing:Maya Angelou) the school was falling apart, and the teachers were not as qualified as the teachers at the white schools. Black children wanted to obtain the ability to receive an equal education as the white children. Many...