Beginning of Essay
in the United States was a political, legal, and social struggle by black Americans to gain full citizenship rights and to achieve racial equality. was first and foremost a challenge to segregation. During , individuals and organizations challenged segregatio ....

Middle of Essay
.... the law. The 15th amendment gave black citizens the right to vote. After the outlawing of slavery, a new form of slavery developed in the South called sharecropping. This Debt Peonage tied the sharecropper to the land. By this system a black family farmed the land owned by whites. The blacks were allowed to keep about 10-15% of the profit and the rest went to the landowner. The blacks were kept in debt through their purchases at a General Store owned by the landowner. The blacks purchased things on credit, which kept them in debt. The story To Praise Our Bridges, by Fanny Lou Hamer, depicts the life of sharecroppers. It explains how the share ....