African-Americans’ Struggle for Individual Rights: Pre and Post-Civil War Scenario Abstract The United States has been voicing for democracy, fundamental rights and liberalism throughout the world but for centuries a major portion of its own citizens remained victim of social discrimination by the state and society. The African- Americans, an integral part of the US society are enjoying full civil rights at the moment but they had to pass through a great ordeal to win this status. From the very outset of the white Americans’ history, they had been playing an important role in the South American economy but in return they were humiliated and put at the bottom of the society. The American Constitution placed them as equal citizens but the white Americans refused to accept them as Americans or equals. They brought happiness to the white land-owners with their honest labour but the white masters paid them back with indignation, discrimination, pain, pang, woes, and other ills they could think of. However, the courageous African-Americans never lost hope and continued their struggle to bring the racial discrimination to an end. During the pre-and post-Civil War eras, the African- Americans were given constitutional rights and status equal to other American citizens but these laws merely adorned the papers and unimplemented in the states. The American courts, interestingly, adopted erratic attitude towards the racial discrimination which strengthened the racial prejudice. This article aims to address the dimensions which directly or indirectly had influenced the individual rights of the African- Americans. They were discriminated and segregated but this challenge was met successfully which elevated their status in the US society. Winthrop D. Jordan, Christine Bolt and many other writers comprehensively projected both sides of the issue of the segregation. This article is an endeavor to highlight the status granted by the American Constitution and the attitude of the white Americans particularly during the 18 th century. Mainly, it deals with questions: how did the individual rights take roots as a social value of the American society? What were the major factors that affected the African- Americans’ struggle for individual rights? To what extent Locke’s political philosophy contributed to individual rights movement? It also describes how the African-Americans tried to pass through ordeal and secured sympathy of other sections of the society and the governmental institutions. 1