Discrimination has been defined as the unequal treatment of each individual's civil rights. Discrimination is expressed in obvious behavior, while prejudice is expressed in attitude. Ethnic discrimination in this country is closely related to historical patterns of immigration and migration, particularly in the moving of newcomers and even older generations of minorities living in this country. During the last thirty years efforts to fight racial discrimination have figured important in our history. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s opened the passage of important legislation. Decisions of the Supreme Court and regulations of federal agencies have contributed greatly to fighting discrimination, yet it is obvious that a great deal more needs to be done.
             The federal government attempted to use many laws to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves, such as the Civil rights Act of 1866, which gave African Americans the right of citizenship and prohibited other states from passing their own discriminatory laws. This brought on the Black Codes, which restricted much of the African American lives dictating where they were legally allowed to go and designated places they should be in. The fifteenth amendment was also passed, which said that no one could be kept from voting despite his or her race and color It seems to not wanted to lay down the basic rights for the African Americans of the time, but didn't want to give them to much freedom by restricting everything that they did. It seems it was much like probation to me, giving them a little slack to see what they would do with it, but still not really trusting them. I think the restriction on African Americans was a good thing, with all of the hatred and discrimination against blacks that was going on at the time. Restricting what they could do and segregating them from the whites was probably the best thing. This separation probably saved many of the newly freed slave...