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hi folks hope you are keeping well in 2023 just as an update I'm currently working hard on monarchs of England part 4 covering the Hundred Years War between England and France so far this video is about 20 minutes long uh there's a lot of detail and thus a lot of illustrations to draw and indeed medieval clothes uh take so much longer to draw than suits so yay and if you want to see a rough cut of this video it's available to my supporters on patreon you will of
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course be helping support the creation of these free educational videos any teachers out there using my videos a lot in the classroom please consider supporting even a Euro or a dollar a month it really really helps for now I'm releasing this super cut of civil rights in America enhancing part one into widescreen and bringing the whole story together for Black History Month I hope these videos can help in learning the history of America as my dog licks the bottom of the tripod
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anyway I hope these videos can help in learning the history of America as certain places seem to be making it harder to learn about the not so flattering parts of American History also content warning for racial violence albeit in cartoon form [Music] does history
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the United States of America has had a long and dark history when it comes to African Americans African people were taken to the American colonies as slaves in 1619 and they quickly became the backbone of the economy in the southern colonies without any real monetary gain themselves after the American Revolution the 13 colonies of the fledgling United States grappled with the future of slavery many of the founding fathers were indeed slave holders such as George
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Washington and Thomas Jefferson the southern states argued that slavery was the Cornerstone to their economy similar to the modern world's economic addiction to fossil fuels except you know slaves were people you know parents and Traders and Farmers taken from their homes the founding fathers failed to Stamp Out slavery despite all men being created equal apparently many assumed that slavery would would ultimately fizzle out because it wasn't profitable but with the invention of the cotton gin
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allowing for much faster cotton processing slavery kicked up a gear in the South the early 19th century saw continuous tension between northern and southern states over the future of slavery some tried to send free formerly enslaved people back to Africa some tried to compromise some people who had escaped slavery such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass became strong Advocates against slavery all of this boiled over into the American Civil War in which the southern states seceded
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from the USA to defend their State's rights to own people 's point there were almost four million people who were enslaved during the war U.S President Abraham Lincoln of the newly formed Republican party brought in the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves in rebelling States supporters of the Confederacy at that time were mostly Democrats Lincoln would later push through the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery while slavery as a form of punishment continued to be
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legal the union won the war but Lincoln was assassinated shortly after the war ended enslaved people all across the United States were freed Democrats in the South did their best to make sure the whites still reigned Supreme bringing in black codes to control the newly freed African Americans with a massive slavery-shaped Gap in the Southern economy the punishment Liverpool of the 13th Amendment made prisoners a new form of slave labor and so incarceration of black men increased
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a trend which continues today the Reconstruction Era in the South did see initial progress for African Americans as they gained citizenship black men gained the right to vote and some were even elected to congress in response to this terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan were set up to intimidate and terrorize black people reinforcing white supremacy President Ulysses S Grant sent in the federal army to enforce reconstruction but with the hotly contested
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presidential election of 1876 in which a Democrat won the popular vote but a republican won the Electoral College a compromise was made and the Republicans withdrew the Army from the south and reconstruction ended before things were properly reconstructed The South was handed back to White supremacists who began to put roadblocks in place for black voters including literacy tests voter registration and poll taxes literacy amongst African-Americans being weak due to systemic policies preventing
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them from reading these new voting policies kept out some poor white people too can you imagine the United States of America champions of freedom and democracy trying to prevent its own people from voting at this time many African-Americans left the southern states moving elsewhere to escape the oppressive regime to hammer the message home white supremacists staged a coup d'etat in Wilmington North Carolina in 1898 ousting the legitimately elected local government who was made up of black and
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white Representatives Jim Crow was one of many fictional characters used to perpetuate negative stereotypes of black people his name went to a set of laws which allowed for the segregation of black and white communities separate but equal apparently by 1900 black voters in Louisiana were reduced to 5320 on the voter rules despite black people being just under half of the population of Louisiana at the time groups such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy began to erect statues
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of old Confederate soldiers and leaders from the Civil War who fought to preserve slavery around this time the so-called lost cause narrative began to emerge and the South began to reframe how the Civil War was remembered how they were fighting for states rights fighting against Northern aggression various narratives attempting to sideline slavery and the oppression of black people one of the first ever feature-length films Birth of a Nation depicted the Ku Klux Klan in a
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heroic light and black men as dangerous beasts something that would permeate into pop culture for a long time Birth of a Nation created a Resurgence in the membership of the Ku Klux Klan organizations such as the National Association for the advancement of colored people are the NAACP and the universal negro Improvement Association were established to help defend and demand Justice for black people after World War One competition for jobs increased with so many soldiers
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returning at this time millions of black people once again left the South to other urban areas in the rest of the USA leading to more racial tension and discrimination towards black people in jobs and housing the red summer of 1919 saw race riots and lynching across America in 1921 in Tulsa Oklahoma the District of Greenwood the most wealthy and successful black community in the United States was burnt To The Ground by white supremacists destroying a huge part of
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the economy in the black community segregation was so effective in suppressing black people Nazi Germany looked to the regime for inspiration when drafting the Nuremberg Laws against Jewish people black people tended to be housed in older more run-down accommodation creating ghettos with a system rigged against them black communities tended to fall into poverty which had its own self-sustaining cycle while more financially stable white people moved out of urban centers to the suburbs to
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escape the crime caused by poverty many communities in American cities today are still divided unofficially by these red lines during the 1930s and 40s many Urban black people began to lean more towards the Democratic party as President Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal was bringing them more opportunities although this didn't sway four gold medal winning Olympian Jesse Owens who was snubbed by FDR black veterans of World Wars 1 and 2 called for an end to segregation and
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racial discrimination in the military in 1948 President Harry Truman did this this annoyed many of Truman's fellow Democrats in the South who formed the short-lived states rights Democratic party often known as the Dixiecrats the Democrats hold on the south was beginning to weaken at the same time progress was being made for Mexican-American rights following in the same vein in 1954 the NAACP won a massive legal victory in the Supreme Court in which it was deemed
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unconstitutional to segregate Public Schools overturning the separate but equal approach of 1896. white supremacists angrily resisted this with boycotts and abolishing public schools while groups such as the NAACP were slowly achieving progress through the legal system the lived experience of many black people on the ground didn't seem to be moving fast enough the time for protest and direct action was at hand groups such as the Regional Council of negro leadership had been leading
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protests against segregation these groups began to strategize and provide support for black people in March 1955 fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama in August 14 year old Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman his murderers were acquitted Emmett's mother insisted on an open casket funeral so people could see his unrecognizable face
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photos of his remains were published in the magazine Jet and brought about International attention to the Civil Rights Movement in December activist Rosa Parks would go about repeating the boss seat protest of Calvin various organizations thought parks would be a better more respectable figurehead to Rally behind than Colvin with her more middle class appearance and lighter skin colorism was and still is an Insidious factor in the lives of people of color with whiteness presented
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as something to Aspire to when more negativity is cast towards people of Darker skin yet another after effect of white supremacy when Rosa Parks was arrested leaflets were circulated to begin a boycott of the boss service in Montgomery the spokesperson for the boycott was Atlanta preacher the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr who became known across the country more boss boycotts sprang up in other cities the non-violent nature of these protests was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's
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non-violent struggle for Indian independence from Britain throughout the early 20th century at the same time southern white politicians released the southern Manifesto opposing the integration of schools the next few years would see attempts to integrate schools in the South obstructed by student protest and even state-level intervention at the beginning of 1957 the southern Christian leadership conference was formed in Atlanta to coordinate non-violent protests against racial discrimination
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and segregation in May 25 000 people descended on Washington D.C for the prayer pilgrimage for Freedom where Dr King gave his give us the ballot speech and Counterpoint to the christian-led Civil Rights Movement there was the Nation of Islam led by Elijah Muhammad one of his Protege was Malcolm X the Nation of Islam at the time believed that black people were Superior to white people whom they saw as Devils it wasn't really a call for Unity in September nine black students in Arkansas were
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blocked from entering Little Rock Central High School by the National Guard President Eisenhower would federalize the Arkansas National Guard taking power from the governor of Arkansas and ensuring the skill would be integrated School integration in the South was like pulling teeth Eisenhower signed in the Civil Rights Act of 1957 which sought to prosecute those who tried to prevent someone from voting the bill was greatly weakened in the Senate partially by former dixiecrat Senator
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Strom Thurmond who conducted the longest-speaking filibuster ever by a lone Senator at 24 hours and 18 minutes while in Delaware the Finance Minister of Ghana was refused service in a restaurant Eisenhower hosted him in the White House a few days later to apologize oops the end of the 1950s would see various Southern State bodies and governors trying to prevent integration while the federal bodies such as the Supreme Court pushed against them states rights indeed in 1960 four black
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students in Greensboro North Carolina sparked a series of non-violent sit-in protests when they were refused service at a white-only Woolworths lunch counter an Alabama grand jury indicted Martin Luther King for tax evasion because of course they did in the wake of these non-violent sit-ins students in Raleigh North Carolina formed the student non-violent Coordinating Committee often known as Snick supporters of these protests faced violence and terrorism many of the
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sit-ins were working though with businesses agreeing to integrate Eisenhower signed in another Civil Rights bill to penalize those trying to prevent someone from registering to vote meanwhile in Alabama Dr King was acquitted of tax evasion at this time the Nation of Islam had possibly up to 100 000 members in October Dr King along with 50 others were arrested during a sit-in in Atlanta King was sent to prison but was freed after Northern Democrat Robert F Kennedy intervened in
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New Orleans Ruby Bridges became the first African-American child to attend an all-white Elementary School in the south in December the Supreme Court managed to Outlaw segregation on Interstate bosses and intern at their bus terminals with this in mind the Congress of racial equality organized groups of people to raid the bosses testing the new laws the Freedom Writers were met with Fierce violence and incarceration throughout the South but that didn't stop the
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movement from growing Dr King joined the freedom Raiders and a Congregation of 1500 people in Montgomery they came under siege by an angry mob and Robert Kennedy now attorney general sent Federal Marshals to protect the Civil Rights activists he then petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce desegregation of Interstate travel throughout the summer the U.S Department of Justice began talks with civil rights groups to establish the voter education project
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the southern Christian leadership conference began citizenship classes to help black people register to vote once again they were met with Fierce white supremacist violence and murder after months of pressure from the Freedom Writers and Robert F Kennedy all Interstate bosses needed a certificate saying seating aboard this vehicle is without regards to race color creed or national origin by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission Freedom Writers continued to test these rules
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making sure they became a reality some were arrested in Albany Georgia Dr King arrived amidst the hullabaloo and he too was arrested yet again King's trial was ultimately postponed and he left town 1962 saw more protests and more backlash the FBI monitored and wiretapped many involved in the movement in Los Angeles after the LAPD raided a mosque Malcolm X wanted to enact violent revenge against them but lacked the support from Elijah Mohammed in Sasser Georgia that
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September two black churches which were being used for voter registration meetings were burned down James Meredith attempted to enroll in the University of Mississippi being the first black student there but he was barred the Supreme Court once again intervened Meredith was enrolled and white people rioted killing two people at November President Kennedy signed in an executive order to ban segregation in federally funded housing at the beginning of 1963 new governor of Alabama George Wallace
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infamously called for segregation now segregation tomorrow segregation forever throughout April and May civil rights groups held daily mass demonstrations in Birmingham Alabama in Gadsden Alabama Mary Hamilton was jailed for contempt of court when she refused to answer to her first name in Courts at the time white women were addressed as Miss black people simply by their first names Hamilton wanted the same courtesy extended to her and all people of color later the Supreme Court
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would agree several movement leaders in Birmingham were arrested including once again Martin Luther King who while in jail wrote a letter to the people saying how they have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws to act now rather than waiting for the courts which may take forever Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere the Birmingham Children's Crusade saw over a thousand children and students on a youth March arrested protesters were met with fire
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hoses and police dogs Dr King and the thousands of jailed demonstrators were released helped by singer and activist Harry Belafonte and Robert F Kennedy with all this coming to a head a truce was negotiated and businesses has agreed to roll back segregation laws and the long month of mass demonstrations in Birmingham came to an end just in time for the Ku Klux Klan to let off two bombs and Spark a massive riot across the city in June as Vivian Malone and James Hood attempted to enter the
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University of Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door in protest Deputy attorney general Nicholas katzenbach asked him to step aside but he wouldn't budge it took National Guard Brigadier General Henry Graham with a presidential order to remove Governor Wallace that same day President John F Kennedy promised a Civil Rights bill for the next week asking for the kind of equality of treatment we would want for ourselves the following day Medgar Evers field
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Secretary of the NAACP was assassinated in Jackson Mississippi that summer 80 000 black people registered to vote in Mississippi to show their desire to participate in the political system on the 28th of August 1963 250 000 people mostly African-American took part in the March on Washington for jobs and freedom organized by the big six John Lewis Whitney Young a Phillip Randolph Martin Luther King James Farmer and Roy Wilkins Dr King upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial gave his
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Immortal speech I Have a Dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its greed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal in September schools in Birmingham were integrated by national Guardsmen five days later the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan killing four young girls in response to this James bevel and Diane Nash began the Alabama voting rights project that November President
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John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas he was succeeded by his vice president Texas Democrat Lyndon B Johnson in January 1964 the 24th Amendment abolished poll taxes for federal elections another roadblock to voting was removed in Mississippi Freedom libraries were opened and run by volunteers helping improve African-American literacy that summer the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party was founded to challenge the all-white Representatives at the Democratic National Convention
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in Tuscaloosa Alabama Police teargassed Beat and arrested peaceful protesters beginning a March to the county courthouse in Philadelphia Mississippi three civil rights workers were murdered and buried Malcolm X had become disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and so went his own way meeting other civil rights leaders and traveling to Mecca and across Africa and Europe he founded the organization of Afro-American Unity to promote links with Africa on the 2nd of July Lyndon B
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Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned discrimination based on race color religion sex or national origin and employment or public accommodations and so racism ended not really with such support for civil rights coming from a southern Democrat president many whites in the South turned against the Democratic party and began to support the Republican party this is where the parties flipped in many of their political positions and the south soon became a republican
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stronghold not Democrat President Johnson famously said himself we have lost the South for a generation in December Dr King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize becoming the youngest person to receive it at the time the Civil Rights Movement saw so many peaceful protests violently broken up and people being hurt or indeed killed in February 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam while in New York that March in Alabama following the murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson a March of
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around 600 people organized by the Selma voting rights movement began in Selma and planned to March to the state capitol in Montgomery when they went to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge state troopers were there to block them and brutally attack them two days later clergy from all across the country joined the protest and attempted to cross the bridge again but Dr King called them back that evening Boston minister Reverend James Reeb was beaten to death by the Ku
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Klux Klan in Selma Days Later President Johnson urged Congress to pass the Voting Rights bill using the protest phrase We Shall Overcome the Marchers in Selma successfully crossed the bridge and began the five-day journey to Montgomery Dr King delivered a speech on the steps of the state capitol how long not long because the Ark of the moral universe is long but it bends toward Justice hours later activist Viola liottso was shot dead by another KKK terrorist the equal employment opportunity
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commission was established and the following month President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which prevented literacy tests as a voting requirement and federal bodies could oversee election procedure progress was being made but there was still far to go that August riots broke out in La over frustration with police brutality at least 34 people were killed over one thousand injured and over 3 000 arrested it was very destructive in early 1966 Vernon Dahmer of the NAACP
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died from a bomb in Hattiesburg Mississippi later in June James Meredith was shot in Memphis Tennessee as he began his March against fear many civil rights leaders rallied together to complete his March gaining 25 000 Marchers upon its completion stukley Carmichael first used the phrase black power as a political slogan in his speech at this time the Civil Rights Movement began to concentrate on fighting poverty and not just in the Deep South that summer Dr King James
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bevel al-rabi and others led the Chicago open housing movement to make changes there in October 1966 the Black Panther Party a socialist movement was founded in Oakland California by Huey P Newton and Bobby seale seeking to protect their Community setting up Community programs and cop watching carrying firearms in public and looking out for police brutality the following year the state of California got rid of open carry laws funnily enough at this same time the USA was well and
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truly involved in the war in Vietnam with thousands of troops being drafted all the time in April 1967 Dr King spoke out against the war and indeed against capitalism saying when machines and computers profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people the giant Triplets of racism materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered this lost him a lot of support from The Establishment including President Johnson in June the Supreme Court ruled that blocking
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interracial marriages was unconstitutional throughout the long hot summer of 1967 communities Across America burned with riots the part Beyond The Deep South had well and truly been stirred despite the progress being made in the legal system things were nowhere near fixed in a country with deep deep wounds yet to scar over Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American Justice of the U.S Supreme Court which was exciting in 1968 in Orangeburg South Carolina
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Highway Patrol officers opened fire on protesters on a University campus killing three people after two African-American sanitation workers were killed in a trash compactor in Memphis Tennessee while on duty other sanitation workers went on strike demanding better conditions and more pay Dr King came to Memphis in support of the strike and delivered his Mountaintop speech saying well I don't know what will happen now we've got some difficult days ahead but it really doesn't matter
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it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the Mountaintop I don't mind
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like anybody I would like to live a long life longevity has its place but I'm not concerned about that now I just want to do God's will and he's allowed me to go up to the mountain and I've looked over and I've seen the Promised Land I may not get there with you but I want you to know the night we as a people will get to the promised land
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so I'm happy tonight I'm not worried about anything I'm not fearing any man my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord [Applause] the next day April 4th 1968 despite his non-violent stance Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated on the balcony of the motel he was staying in riots broke out in more than 150 cities Across America in response to Dr King's murder the African-American community and indeed the world had lost a great leader President Johnson declared a national
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day of mourning James Earl Ray would later be convicted for Dr King's murder Days Later President Johnson signed the fair housing acts to ban discrimination in selling renting and financing houses and had also tightened laws around rioting thankfully the cars did not die with Dr King in May the Poor People's campaign marched on Washington furthering the vision for economic Justice in June civil rights Ally Robert F Kennedy was assassinated while running for president
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later that year during the Mexico City Olympics athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in the black power salute during their medal ceremony it truly was an inspirational movement which sparked many other movements including women's Liberation Gay Liberation and even the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland it also inspired shows like Sesame Street to work towards a brighter more integrated future as much progress as the Civil Rights Movement gained as
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history has shown constant vigilance is needed as progress has slid backwards Time and Time Again The Establishment would continue to criminalize strong black leaders more policies ensured the pipeline of black bodies to prison the so-called War on Drugs started by President Nixon and kicked into overdrive by President Reagan saw a massive increase in the incarceration of black men the southern strategy was a very Insidious method to distance conservatism from the overt racism of
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the likes of George Wallace it changed the narrative from Negroes to Thugs and made race a subtext rather than text black people would strike out against Injustice and the no fully militarized police force would come down hard on them and allowed the image of dangerous unruly black people to be perpetuated as the dominant image President Clinton's three strikes and your out policy saw even more black men thrown into prison and as we learned about the 13th Amendment abolishing
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slavery it doesn't count for those being punished the election of Barack Obama saw the first African-American becoming president this allowed many people to relax and believe that racism was over it's never over racism is something our brain does to try and make sense of the world super quickly it's about being aware of when our mind makes these assumptions and whether they're based on facts or what we've been conditioned to believe the black lives matter movement
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arose from A continuing pattern of Injustice and black people being killed by police today the United States has the highest percentage of people in prison in the world the fact that many prisons are private businesses actually creates a demand for prisoners go capitalism when we look at American history it's amazing to see how much has changed but also how much has stayed the same the South complained about the interfering federal government from the days of Thomas Jefferson when the
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enslaved people gained their freedom many in the establishment did their best to move the goal posts to stop certain people from voting as progress was made the goal posts changed in 2013 the Supreme Court ruled parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act or unconstitutional allowing for States once again to make up their own election laws without Federal oversight the goal posts continue to be changed it's almost as if there are those in the land of the free who want less people to
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vote Donald Trump's presidency helped in ruling back many of the Civil Rights gains as many white supremacists regained the confidence to come back out into the open racism has not gone anywhere something is rotten in the States of America and indeed Beyond at least the 1964 Civil Rights Act was the gift that keeps on giving clarifying rights for lgbtq plus people in 2020 but these are just the facts of History coming from a white guy in Ireland go and listen to people of color listen to
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their stories their diverse perspectives their experiences okay I'm done here now
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special thanks to Dr Eben Joseph and Abby ikaneser for helping me with this project foreign [Music]
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