Immigrants to the US faced challenges in the social and educational arena. Since most of them were brought in as slaves, they were poor and could not afford educational expenses. Such are the challenges that led to the mushrooming of civil society organizations to advocate for the rights of the immigrants and African Americans who were being undermined.
Civil rights activists such as Booker T Washington, President of Tuskegee Institute advocated for social and economic equality. Washington believed that economic equality would bring equal rights for the blacks. However, his belief that economic stability would enable the African Americans to advocate for their rights in the long run was refuted by Du Bois, a sociologist who believed in immediate equal economic and social rights for African Americans.
In the year 1899, Jane Addams founded Hull House to assist poor Chicago immigrants. The beneficiaries are victims of industrial revolution who found themselves in the slums of Chicago city. These slums were characterized by poor housing and sanitation. Most of these immigrants were from Africa who came to work in the factories providing unskilled labor. They were therefore poorly remunerated.
The white’s hatred for the Chinese was manifested in 1882 when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This Act barred further immigration of the Chinese to the US. In fact, this Act remained in force till 1943. Before 1882, the Chinese would migrate to the US to provide cheap labor in the railway and road construction sites.
The case of Plessy v Ferguson, dealt a big blow to African Americans. The Supreme Court held that African Americans and the whites were equal but separate. This sentenced African Americans to second class citizenry for decades until it was overturned by Brown v Board of Education in 1954. Blacks and whites were to attend different schools under such ruling. Black schools were under equipped thus the blacks could not get a quality education.
Works Cited
Spring, J. Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2007.
