Civil Rights Confrontation: An Issue of Citizenship NOT Simply Racism

“Africans who are in America… Nothing but Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans. An African can go anywhere he wants right now.”

—Malcolm X, “Ballot or the Bullet”

The goal of the African American Civil Rights Movement was to end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans and to enforce their voting rights. When analyzing the reasoning behind the constitutional confrontation, one usually finds the problem to be racism. After all, the ideology that blacks were inferior supported the notion that they were not suitable enough to be labeled American citizens and receive equal treatment. However during the era of segregation, Africans visiting America were allowed to dine in segregated restaurants. Anthony Eromosele Oigbokie recalls how "[a] lot of African-Americans were upset that white people would serve me but not them. They felt the system gave us better treatment than it gave them." I agree that the American system treated Africans differently than African Americans. But why would America treat two groups of people of the same color differently?

            Unlike African Americans, Africans were not necessarily trying to receive equal rights as citizens. They were not trying to integrate the nation’s schools or receive the American vote. African Americans were. Because some people still felt that black citizens would taint the nation, they resisted giving African Americans equal treatment. In sum, segregation was not just a tool to practice racism:  It was a way to deny African Americans their rights as citizens.