Minority rights
Minorities are groups of people who are singled out in society for their unique physical or cultural characteristics that are different from the majority. Minorities are treated unequally by the people and societal systems because of their differences with the majority in society. There are several minority groups in America, which date back to the European settlement. These minority populations in the United States are African Americans, Arabs and Middle Eastern Americans, Haitians, Latinos, Alaska natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Native Americans. Rights refer to the norms and activities that society refers to as morally correct. Rights govern human, social, political, and economic activities. Rights apply to what one is permitted to do and what an individual should avoid. This paper reviews the history of minority rights in America.
Minority rights became an issue in the dawn of the nineteenth century during the development of the constitution. Back then, the US population constituted primarily of the European Settlers, the Indians, and a few African slaves. The Indian community had vocal during the drafting of the constitution. The Indian natives were approximately a quarter of the white population. Further, the Indian population was randomly dispersed in the country. The natives owned land, strategically positioned where the federal government wanted to develop or designate for white settlement. In the late 1820s, the government proposed relocating American Indians from the east of the Mississippi River to the west. In 1831, the John Marshall Supreme Court acknowledged the principle of limited Indian natives’ sovereignty. Under this agreement, the natives could formulate Indian tribal governments that would operate similarly to the state government. While on Indian land, the natives were not required to follow the state laws. However, the natives had to comply with all federal laws. The Indians’ resettlement to the west of Mississippi confined tribes to smaller demarcations and private reserves with most settling in Oklahoma.
The formulated constitution did not assign rights to African Americans who were still seen as slaves. The Dred Scott vs. Sanford ruling in 1857 reaffirmed the attribute of African Americans lacking civil rights. The case involved a Dred Scott, a black man who had moved out of Missouri to Wisconsin, where slavery was illegal, but later returned to Missouri. Scott sued Sanford, his former owner claiming that he was now a free man. However, the supreme court ascertained that Scott was not a US citizen and thus had no legal right to sue. Gradually whites and non-whites began advocating for African American minority rights. This issue was prevalent in the onset of the American Civil War in 1861. Before the Civil War, the African Americans had initialized the underground railroad, which ferried the black minorities out of slavery. The underground railroad was facilitated by activists and rebels such as John Brown. Brown was executed in 1859 for raiding Harper’s Ferry federal arsenal in Virginia to use it to fight off slave owners. The Civil War led to division as some people proposed issuance of rights to the slaves while others opposed it. The issue was resolved at the end of the Civil War in 1865. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution brought the end of slavery and institutionalized African American minority rights.
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the first legislation to issue citizenship rights to Hispanic persons of Mexican descent. The majority of the Hispanic people lived in Mexico’s territories, which were later acquired by the United States. The Hispanic minorities had no rights also established in the constitution. After the Civil War, the Latino minorities also had their rights institutionalized in the constitution and African Americans. However, the Hispanic and the African Americans’ rights were different from those of the whites. For instance, blacks could not vote while the white could. The Indian natives attained citizenship only after renouncing the Indian status as the two were viewed as incompatible. The Court of Private Land Claims promoted the land ownership rights of Latin Americans in 1891. The court illustrated the rights of Hispanics. The court addressed land disputes among the Latin Americans who had lost land in 1848 when the United States acquired parts of Mexico.
In the 1890s, the federal government began advocating for the assimilation of the Indian minorities into the general population. The 1887 Dawes Act prescribed allotment policies giving the Indians the right to subdivide Indian lands amongst themselves. This gave the Indian natives land ownership rights. The onset of the twentieth century led to activists rising and vehemently rallied for minority populations’ rights. Significant changes occurred in the nineteenth century, including the 1924 Citizenship Act that gave Indians full United States citizenship. Latin Americans acquired contractual labor rights in 1917, while the 1924 Immigration Act removed the western hemisphere immigration. Across this period, African American rights were still neglected. Fundamental changes occurred in 1954 under the Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling held that racial segregation in learning facilities was unconstitutional. This paved the way for the interaction of the white and the black communities. African Americans were still dissatisfied as their rights were still unequal with the whites or the American natives. This was followed by the 1964 Voting Rights Acts and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. These changes were facilitated by human rights activists such as Martin Luther King.
Despite the enormous improvement of the minority rights in the twentieth century, there is still disparity between whites and non-whites. Today, there is prevalence of police brutality which often targets African Americans. Also, unemployment, poverty, and poor living standards affects mainly the African Americans and the Hispanic minorities. From the historical assessment of minority rights in America were achieved through two avenues. One involved court rulings while the other included mass protest.
The research finds that the best method of improving minority rights is through mass protest. The civil rights era that was most successful is the 1950s and the 1960s. Across this period, the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1964 Immigration Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act, 1967 Migrant Education Program, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act were institutionalized. The enactment of these rights was facilitated through mass protests which were mostly peaceful. The protests were led by vocal human rights groups. Martin Luther King led successful campaigns such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956. This protest led to the 1956 Browder v. Gayle ruling outlawing racial segregation on buses. Success of this protest led to formulation of other peaceful demonstrations such as the Walk to Freedom and March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. These public protests were joined in by liberal whites who felt that minority rights were essential for a progressive and cohesive society.
In conclusion, societies today need to utilize peaceful protests as a means of upholding the rights of minorities who are still not equally treated by society. Minorities remain afflicted by social issues that white Americans are not subjected to such as police brutality. It is important for society to implement peaceful protest with the goal of fostering ethnic integration.