CHICAGO — There’s a sense of pride for many Americans in our identity as a melting pot. But until the early part of the 20th Century, the United States was deeply segregated.
That’s when millions in the Jim Crow South decided uproot their lives, hoping to live the American Dream.
A few months after the Confederate army lost the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was signed, abolishing slavery in the United States.
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But in the nearly 100 years between the signing of the 13th Amendment and the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, something happened that would go on to shape the nation.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, 90% of the African American population lived in the South, under conditions that can really only be described as oppressive.
Author Brett Gadsden teaches history at Northwestern University.
“Lynchings were fairly common occurrence,” he said. “Race riots were a fairly common occurrence. I think so common that we ought to kind of consider them a normal way of being in the Jim Crow South. … And African Americans are looking for a way to fight back. Looking for ways to participate in the democratic process to overturn this system as American citizens.”