Strategies and Actions of African American Women to Overcome Essay

Strategies and Actions of African American Women to Overcome Race-Based or Gender-Based Discrimination - Essay Example It is this reinvigorated movement that opened to women the blue-collar jobs and professions that were traditionally reserved for their male counterparts. When it comes to the fight against race-based inequality, it is plausible that women formed a crucial segment of the Civil Rights Movement, with their contribution seen in their volunteering to organizational and grassroots leaders. Indeed, the women created, mobilized, energized, and spearheaded particular efforts in the movements, ostensibly serving as bridge builders to the rest of the society (Epstein 4-6). Women movements worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring about the changes that everyone in the movement sought by taking the advantage of the white elite’s ignorance towards women power. Furthermore, women movements successfully framed oppression and discrimination as a political issue, thereby initiating public discussions on issues that were previously perceived as private, and hence beyond public scrutiny. It is evident that the modern expression of black power stemmed from two distinct, yet superimposed traditions that shaped black political activism before and after the Second World War. For instance, the New Negro radicalism during the 1920s and the subsequent freedom protests that preceded the Great Depression, and the Second World War era precipitated an enlarged vision of citizenship, democracy, and civil rights. While the legislative and legal victories of the civil rights era performed a fundamental role in these struggles. It is the black power that proved decisive in the inauguration of the first generation of black elected representatives (Ellis 46-63). It is also the black power that made the greatest contribution to the production of an eclectic array of multi-themed and multi-ethnic movements of social change.