“After all, this question resolves itself into this: either I am a man or I am not a man. If I am a man, I am entitled to all the rights and privileges and immunities that any other American citizen is entitled to.” This quote from James Rapier’s address to Congress about the Civil Rights Act of 1875 portrays the point of civil rights perfectly and beautifully, how the lives of black people in the South were a struggle every day and had been, even after the Civil War. James T. Rapier, born November 13, 1837, was among a small minority of free black men in the South, and his father was a successful barber (“Social Justice Activists: James T. Rapier”). As an adult, he attended a training school for teachers in Canada, followed by the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and then Franklin…show more content… When he had no particular reason for liking this Government; when your Government was threatened with destruction, [...] then it was that the negro came forward [...] And now, you hesitate to say whether I shall be regarded as a man or not in this country, being a representative of that race,” (“James Rapier”). His powerful speeches and words show how he worked to gain civil rights for his people, and although the act was later declared unconstitutional in 1883, five months after his death, the act was still a huge milestone at the time. The second piece of evidence is his involvement with the National Negro Labor Union. In 1868, Rapier was driven from his home by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), moving into a boarding house in Montgomery. He attended the founding convention for the National Nergo Labor Union, which was founded to help farmers with financial burdens. Rapier was later appointed as the union’s vice president in 1870, putting him in a huge leadership
