Mythe et héros: Selon la constitution américaine, tous les hommes naissent égaux. En ce qui concerne votre étude du mouvement des droits civiques, dans quelle mesure est-ce vrai? (document en anglais)

Myths and Heroes

According to the US constitution, all men are born equal. In relation to your study of the civil right movement, to what extent is this true?

Introduction

I) Equality between blacks and white only a myth

Few would dispute the fact that the myth of a total equality between human beings is only partly right. Segregation is not over yet. Testimonies of students, workers, and citizens prove that racism still happens at school, in ways of living ( ghettos), through income...Even after the abolition of slavery 1865 in the United States of America, equality between afro-americans and white people was not legitimate for everybody, especially in the southern states where they use to have slaves working in plantations. For a long time, black people have really been left behind. White supremacists such as the Ku Kux Klan persecuted them mentally as well as physically. Black people couldn’t enjoy the state institutions such as civil rights and they had to spear their seat to a white person in the bus for example. It is also often claimed that there were only black people lynched yesterday and mostly them in prison nowadays.

II) The improvements in rights of afro-americans

On the other hand, they have not always submitted themselves to a white domination. It is true to says that it was the case in slavery times but as time went on, several persons protested against this injustice and no one will ever forget the bravory and the determination of famous people like Rosa Parks who didn’t let her seat in a bus, Martin Luther King who asked for equality without violence, and also Billie Holliday singing in memory of black lynchings in the old times. Additionally, thanks to bus boycotts and sit ins, coloured skinned people can now have access to the same public areas as white persons. Nowadays, education is accessible for all, lots of stars and even Barack Obama the United State’s president are black. There has been a huge progress in the place of afro-americans in the society, in every body’s mind.

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