Racism in America related to the book A Raisin in the Sun Essay

Racism in America related to the book A Raisin in the Sun - Essay Example America created the Declaration of Independence in order to gain their freedom from the British, but what Jefferson was referring to had a subtle hint behind it—at that time this freedom could only be truly experience and admired by white men. The black slaves who worked on white men’s farms were treated as items of property and were not thought of as human because of the very fact that they were black. This racism was hidden under the surface and lasted for many years—even after the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, freed slaves from their white masters. However, this feeling of racism continued on until Martin Luther King Jr. led African-Americans to fight for their rights through the Civil Rights Movement. The reasons for the formation of this movement are shown in Lorraine Hansberry’s book â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† (1994). In this book, the author details a story that shows how an African-American family struggles with the i ssues of racism in and around the time of World War II. The racism suffered by this family caused this predominantly poor family, which in total comprised of three generations, to gradually become worse off than they previously were. Their jobs only provided enough money to give them a place to sleep and nothing more. This can be highlighted by the fact that the youngest child was sleeping in the living room, the college daughter had to share a room with her mom, and even their whole family had to share the bathroom with other family members because there was only one throughout the entire house. However, the family had a dream that they would one day live in a house that would have enough space for everyone to live comfortably. The reality is that this dream was not only shared by them; every other black family at that time held onto this same dream. The matriarch of the family, Mama, commented that their ancestors had slaved away so hard for this country during the five previous g enerations, but they have not received anything from this country that can be considered fair and just. One of the most significant moments in the history of black people in the United States was the American Civil War. The underlying reason why the American Civil War occurred between 1861 and 1865 was to free black slaves and give them their freedom. This was what the Abraham Lincoln said; however, the real reason for the war taking place had more to do with the economy. The Southern states contained a great number of black laborers who worked on farms—this had helped their economy experience huge amounts of growth over a long period of time. On the other hand, the lack of slaves in the Northern states had caused their economy to grow at a snail’s pace. This economic imbalance within the United States had started to come to the boil, but only became key economic issue when Mr. Abraham Lincoln proposed a law to set slaves free. As was expected, the Southern states did not take too kindly to this thought, so war occured and it became known as one of the most violent wars of the 19th century. Once the war had ended, the Northern states reaffirmed their belief to make it legal to free all slaves; however, the South fought against these anticipated laws very aggressively. As such, the war didn’t really accomplish everything that it set out to—