	The United States, ever since is foundation, has prided itself on providing democracy for all.  This statement, however true, is deceiving.  The word 'democracy' was used far too leniently prior to the mid-20th century.  Democracy, by definition, means that there is a majority rule, minority rights are upheld, governmental officials are fairly elected by all adult citizens regardless of race, gender, or social status, and that basic rights such as freedom of speech, religion, opinion, and association are offered to all ("Defining" 1).  The problem is that the term 'all' has frequently been altered to fit the desired definition of the leaders of United States. This term, 'all', originated in 1776 with the birth of the Declaration of Independence when Thomas Jefferson and the other 55 men declared that "all men are created equal ("Signed"1)." What our forefathers meant by "men" is not the same as we now know it, for it constituted only white male landowners. This was so until the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, which stated that the right to vote in the U.S. could not be denied on account of race, color, or previous history of servitude ("Amendments" 1).  This was a great step, but it still left out an entire sect of society; women.  Not until they year 1920 was the 19th Amendment passed, giving voting rights to all sexes ("Amendments" 1).  These Amendments would lead one to believe that tremendous socially progressive strides had taken place between the end of the civil war, 1865, and the ratification of the 19th Amendment however this is not true.  Despite the 15th and 19th Amendments, it was not until far after1920 that democracy in the United States would grow significantly.  This is not to say that growth was stagnant, rather it was miniscule.  This slow and small growth was due to many factors, including lack of political tact and overall support, economic struggles, and, most importantly, rampant sexism and racism.  Without these, democracy in America could have grown at a much greater rate.
	The lack of political support for newly freed slaves, or freedmen, greatly affected the lack of democracy given to African Americans through this time period.  By emancipating the slaves, and ratifying the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave all people, regardless of race, the right to full U.S. citizenship ("Amendments" 1).  This included giving freedmen the right own property, make contracts, marry legally, and sue and be sued in court (Roark 568).  This step towards democracy was short lived.  To combat these rights, state governments of the South adopted a series of laws known as black codes (Roark 567).  Quickly these laws began to retract the rights newly acquired by freedmen. Southern states, trying to force ex-slaves back into traditional roles for the restoration of the old plantation economy, limited the employment opportunities of freedmen by enforcing taxes for those blacks not participating in farming and domestic services (Roark 567). The main focus of the black codes was to keep African Americans below whites by subjugating them to many sorts of discrimination (Roark 567).  Many other rights were also withheld from African Americans, including the legality of gun ownership (Roark 567).  
	The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 required black suffrage in the South but not until 1870 was the 15th Amendment passed, granting all black men the right to vote.  Now the fate of the black race was in their own hands.  At least that's what everyone thought, including leading abolitionist Wendell Phillips, who stated, "sufficient shield is in his owns hands...Whatever he suffers will be largely now, and in the future, his own fault (Roark 577)."  Thinking that suffrage would solve all their problems, freedmen went to the polls in droves.  This looked like a great step for democracy in America, and it was; in theory.  
	Inspired by what they felt was illegitimate political process, thousands of white southerners, led by Confederate veterans, formed the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK (Roark 578).  The KKK terrorized southern Republicans, focusing on African Americans.  Whipping, hanging, shooting, burning, and throat cutting were some of the tactics the KKK used to defeat reconstruction (Roark 578).  The KKK specifically terrorized voting blacks, in order to keep them from the polls.  These methods of intimidation, and the lack of military force offered by the government to stop the KKK, led to the rescinding of African American democracy.  
	Poll taxes were invented in the late 1880's by white southerners in order to disenfranchise African American voters (website 4).  Placing poll taxes in elections meant that a one had to pay money, despite property ownership or income, in order to vote (website 4).  This along with literacy tests, which forced any potential voter to prove his literacy in order to cast their vote, severely disenfranchised southern blacks, making the 15th Amendment seemingly irrelevant (website 4).  
	The last hope for a change in the oppression and the holding of democracy by southern oppressors was dashed with the Compromise of 1877.  Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican Candidate in the 1876 election, and Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate, took part in a highly contested election.  With the true winner unknown, the two political parties formed the Compromise of 1877, which gave Hayes the White House in return for federal funding in the South and the promise that Hayes would not interfere with Southern Democrats' policies as well as withdrawal all of the Federal troops from the South(Roark 591).  This series of events ended Reconstruction, and this, as well as the "Jim Crow" laws, restrictions further segregating the races, ended all hope that a true democracy could be reached for African Americans in the South (Roark 591, 677).  
	Not only was the lack of the political aid necessary to provide democracy for African Americans a problem, freedmen were not given the equal rights and means necessary for economic progress.  As aforementioned, Southerners were trying to force ex-slaves back into traditional roles for the restoration of the old plantation economy (Roark 567).  One way they did this was by implementing the sharecropping farming system.  Without land, ex-slaves did not have many other possible careers other than to farm (Roark 583).  In the sharecropping system land owners split their property into small farms, which they then rented out to ex-slaves (Roark 583).  In return for the use of the land the renters had to pay the land owner with a share of the years crop; usually two-thirds (Roark 583).  
	This is not to say that the sharecropping system resulted in a complete loss of democratic advancements.  Freedmen were now allowed to decide who, in their families, would work, how long, and how hard they would work (Roark 583).  However, the majority of freed slaves remained dependent on the white plantation owners, who had the power to expel any occupant of land at the end of each growing season (Roark 584).  Anther problem was that sharecroppers were very often left with inadequate funds to support a family and purchase goods necessary for another growing season after paying the landowners (Roark 584).  This would then cause the farmers to lend money (Roark 584).  This would occur year after year, in a never ending cycle of debt and poverty (Roark 584). 
	While African Americans attempted to grasp the democratic rights that were consistently being dangled in front of their faces, before being callously taken away, American women were continually being forgotten in the democratic scheme.  Early women's suffrage advocates like Susan B. Anthony fought hard, but to no avail, in gaining the right to vote along with African Americans through the 15th Amendment (Roark 577).  Women would eventually gain the right to vote in 1920, but this would take many of hard fought battles.
	These battles would begin to be fought by the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA), the first independent women's rights organization in America (Roark 621).  Formed by Susan B. Anthony and Cady Stanton in 1869, the NWSA found ways to act politically without voting (Roark 621).  A prime example of this is the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), formed in 1874, bringing temperance and prohibition back into the national spotlight (Roark 622).  The fact that women were now forming groups for social change proves an increase in democratic powers, however their rights are still far from being classified under democracy's definition.
	In the 1880's and 1890's women's organizations continued to grow as women felt the need to deal with issues that touched their home (Roark 723).  The WCTU continued to be the prominent women's organization in the United States (Roark 723).  The WTCU fought to establish women's reformatories, industrial training schools for women, and lodgings for the poor (Roark 723).  They also joined the Knights of Labor in order to press for better working conditions for the women of the United States (Roark 723).
	Great strides were made towards women's rights during the Progressive Era, but WWI would prove to be the best example of the strength of the women of the 20th century (Roark 802).  During the war more than 25,000 women enlisted as nurses, ambulance drivers, Red Cross and YMCA workers, among others (Roark 8o2).  At home, millions of women were beginning to get hired due to the immense amount of men at war and the reduction of immigrants during the war (Roark 803).  Helping women find jobs as metalworkers, welders, and heavy machine operators, jobs almost always occupied by men, were the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor and the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (Roark 803).       
	By 1916 membership in the mainstream women's organization, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), soared to around 2 million (Roark).  Realizing that women could perform at an almost equal level to men, as seen in WWI manufacturing, and the number of supporting women, politicians soon adopted the idea of woman's suffrage (Roark 803).  In 1920 Congress would finally pass the highly democratic 19th Amendment, giving the right to vote to both sexes ("Amendments" 1).  However, just as African Americans had witnessed a more 50 years prior, suffrage did not equate to equality, as both had hoped (Roark 804).
	Democracy has never been given to anybody.  Rather, as history has shown us, it is something that has had to be fought for, earned, and defended.  As Great Britain had been America's oppressor prior to the Revolutionary War, so was the United States government to people of color and the female sex.  Democracy, as it has been previously defined, was slowly given to both African Americans and women through the years of 1865-1920, however miniscule.  African Americans' democratic rights were increased through the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments, but such things as "Jim Crow Laws", black codes, the Ku Klux Klan, lack of political support, sharecropping, and the Compromise of 1877 greatly hindered any advancements made by these documents.  The one reoccurring theme throughout these forms of democratic obstruction is racism.  Racism is the sole reason that full democracy was not offered to African Americans until the 1960's, despite the legislation legally allowing it to occur almost 100 years prior.  Similarly, the sole reason for women not being offered full democracy until many years later can be summed up in a one word response; sexism.  During this time period America was known as the 'Land of Opportunity', only until many years later could it be known as the Land of Opportunity...for all.





	
	
	 
