Integration

According to the Encarta dictionary, integration means equal access for all. It is the process of opening a group, community, place or organization to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or social class. The integration of African Americans and European Americans into American society was immensely different. Africans Americans came into the country without freedom or the right to carry on any traditions that reminded them of their native culture. European Americans came in the pursuit of religious and economic freedom from their native country. Though their struggle was hard European Americans assimilated into Americans society assuming the rights of a natural born citizen with ease.

African Americans came initially into this country as indentured servants. According to the Racial and Ethnic Groups text, by the 1660's Africans were determined as slaves for life without and rights as a citizen. For example, they could not marry or possess any property. They were stripped of all of their alienable rights and viewed as inferior beings sent to America for free labor. For hundreds of years Africans were beaten and enslaved; until they were freed on January 1, 1863 by President Lincoln.

Segregation, separation of racial groups, was the next step for White Americans to stop the integration process of African Americans into American society. In the Plessy vs. Ferguson case the U.S. supreme court required the state to uphold the rule of separate but equal in 1896( Schaefer, 210). Black Americans lived in White America with their own sub culture. They could not drink from the same water fountain or really prosper in the freedoms that were given to European Americans upon entering this country. They were given the stereotype of being lazy and desiring white women. They were exploited in the judicial system and unrightful deaths of African Americans were swept under the rug. The Jim Crow laws of the south kept blacks separate and surrounded with the feeling of inferiority.

The Civil Rights Movement, the 1950s to the 1960s, was the attempt to liberate blacks to the freedom enjoyed by many European Americans already. At the time, the Jim Crows laws were still in effect because the state's had their rights. Desegregation did not happen immediately because until the 1940s states had the right to govern there own affairs at their discretion. After the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling leaders, such as Martin Luther King demanded that blacks have certain inalienable rights given by God. The result of the Civil Rights Movement and affirmative action, have increased the probability of blacks assimilating into white culture. The problem now is the result of a self fulfilling prophecy that some African Americans have embraced. According to the text, self fulfilling prophecy is the tendency to respond to an act on the basis of stereotypes, a predisposition that can lead on to validate false definitions. Believing that being black is truly inferior can compel many African Americans to not pursue college educations or even pursue ideas that could help them to accomplish the American dream. African Americans make a median amount of $35,700 a year compared to $58,600 a year of White families (Schaefer, 83). The economic gap will continue to hinder the integration of blacks into American Society.

Many European immigrants came to America to pursue religious and economic freedom. Many came by their own free