Fighting For Freedom

Most countries in the world have in one way or another experienced a number of war during their process of civilization and development. Though the cause of the war was varied, more harm than god was the end product which saw the economy being affected adversely. The fight for freedom in the United States of America has a long history. But the most memorable and the climax of the fight for their rights is the periods that the United States of America experienced an internal strive. This was called the American civil war. It happened in the year of 1861 where the southern states were against the northern states in agitating for equal representation and respect for human rights. The northerners were mainly agrarian practitioners and were using human beings, especially the African American who were slaves in the production and forced labor on their farms. Since the end of the civil war and the subsequent reconstruction which ushered in new legislation of acts. For instance the thirteenth and fourteenth amendment acts; there has been a spirited and united cry and push agitating for the improved and better conditions by various groups and personalities. Among the prominent people is the like of doctor martin Luther king junior. This paper will thus seek to compare two prominent individuals of that time. It will look at both Lincoln and Marin Luther king, how they shared some similarities and how they were different as well.

From the emancipation act enacted in order to address and try to correct the social ills against the African Americans, who were being used as a source of cheap labor in slavery by the southern states. With the legislation or the enactment of what was called the thirteenth amendment, the slaves believed to have attained freedom. According to them, the Act meant that they were free to move the soil of the American country as they wished; they had a right to civility as any American among other privileges. As time went by there were still some white Americans who were strongly opposed to the reconstruction era that was as a result of the destruction during the civil war. Notably was the organization by the white Americans in the southern states or the confederacy called the Klu Klux Klan. It was founded in 1865 by the Tennessee veterans of the confederate army. Its main purpose for the formation was to restore the supremacy of the white Americans and intimidate the implementation of the reconstruction process. They employed vicious and violent means to scuttle the reconstruction process by use of assaulting the participants, murdering and intimidating the freedmen and the white Americans who were sympathizers of the slaves (Edgy, 2006).

The Klu Klux Klan, also known simply as the Klan, was brought to a halt with the enactment of the forces act by the federal government in the year 1870 and 1871. The Klu Klux Klan was and has been used to suppress the civil rights movement. It considers what the civil rights movement terms the freedom as a misconception and is convinced by the fact that whites are more superior to the African American citizens. Although the enactment of the forces act halted the rate of attacks and intimidation, there was the second formation of the Klu Klux Klan. Their main aim was more of the same; reestablish the whit Americans supremacy. It has been in contention with the ceaseless calls for more involving approach in addressing the injustices and disregard of human rights (Luther,1958).

On the other hand, there is the civil rights movement that has seen the achievements in recognizing the human rights by the relevant authorities. The leaders of the movement had to endure the well coordinated attacks and assaults by the opposing elements for instance the Klu Klux Klan. Although the attacks have been changing from time to time and form to another, they have not managed to halt the agitation for more recognition of the human rights. These are two groups that have been determined and dedicated to their missions however divergent and uncivilized they seem to be. The earlier struggle by the rights movement was mainly aimed at the recognition of all people as the American citizens irrespective of their race, color, origin or gender. It called for the total abolition of the slave practice and the implementation of the thirteenth and fourteenth amendment acts that spelled out for the recognition of other minority groups that were marginalized as legitimate Americans (Ibid).

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