The dehumanising oppression of the African Americans in the southern states of America during the first half of the 20th century is regarded as one of the saddest chapters in the history of the nation. They were denied their Human and Civil Rights to a most severe degree, including the regulation of the very basic right of suffrage. In addition to this, the legal recognition of the separate but equal doctrine not only imposed a practice of racial segregation upon the African Americans in virtually every aspect of their lives, but it also subjected them to brutal lynchings if they did not conform. Negroes were also denied equality in the classroom, stemming their ability to develop as a race. A number of legal rulings progressively improved the treatment of the Negroes through the 20th century, but their first major victory came when they were freed from slavery.

The...