African-American Race Relations

595 Words3 Pages
The Nadir and Evil of African-American Race Relations in American History Race relations throughout American history have always been contentious, but the Nadir, or “low point”, of race relations between white Americans and African-Americans is generally defined as the period of time following Reconstruction that included some gains in equality for African-Americans following the Civil War, when many gains and achievements were reversed after 1890 until the 1960s. The struggle and fight for full equality and civil rights for African-Americans persisted until the period of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and continues throughout today. The theories of Zimbardo that evil culminated and cultured throughout American history assert that evil was grown within successive American generations and was responsible for not only the Nadir of Race Relations, but also, the systematic regression of the rights of African-Americans and other instances of human transgressions around the world, from individual and systemic instances and occurrences of rape, murder, and warfare, to even events such as the Holocaust,…show more content…
In 1875, the first African-American US Senator was elected, and in 1877, the first African-American graduated from West Point. However, “white backlash” erupted, and in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was founded, and in 1890, the first of a series of segregationist laws were passed, the MS Plan, which required literacy rates to be tested and had the effect of decreasing African-American voting turnout and effectiveness. The culmination of a nationwide era of tolerance for racial bigotry and injustices led to mass lynching’s of African-Americans, the legal segregation of public facilities (Plessy v. Ferguson), and interracial marriage was made illegal in 29
Open Document