The Emancipation Proclamation became into effect on January 1, 1863, so all those that had been in slavery in the Southern rebellious States, were now declared free. After the successful conclusion of our Civil War, the 13th-15th Constitution Amendments were ratified, which abolished slavery, provided equal protection of the laws, and gave enfranchisement of the vote to all adult males.
What this freedom did not bring to those that had previously been slaves, was property, money, or opportunity. In addition, because slaves were deliberately precluded from being literate, they were ill prepared to comprehend written contractual obligations, and many times suffered from the lack of a good understanding of how to function successfully in a society in which they had been freed. So those that previously were slaves, owned nothing, weren't literate, did not have their own shelter, and still lived within areas of the country that were run by those that had formerly enslaved them.
This meant that though slaves were now free, legally, they were not free, in principle, for they continued to suffer under the domination of white exploitation and white power, that though there may indeed had been laws on the books that stipulated this or that, in effect, little had changed in function, so that progress available for blacks in this country by taking advantage of their full Constitutional rights was often slow, halting, and uneven.
The great tragedy and lesson that should have been rather obvious, is that a conscientious government could not release into its own country, those that were formerly slaves, without also providing the preparation to accommodate such a massive release of newly freed people that had been precluded from knowing the things that they needed to be aware of in order to survive and to thrive on their own. However, at least back in the post Civil war days, many people that labored did so with their hands and their tools, so that though slaves were ignorant of many things, they knew how to work and how to be productive, so that though cheated on their wages, trading, and just about everything, they could still make a living.
In today's world, however, those that are not functionally literate, those that lack property, as well as those that are more often subject to arrest, are miles behind those that have those things or have good access to them. So that, though all in theory are afforded equal rights and equal justice in this country, in effect, those laws are unequally applied, so that though free, certain specific portions of Americans aren't really free at all. For instance, as reported by calmatters.org, "75 percent of black California boys don’t meet state reading standards." In addition, as reported by naacp.org, "African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites. Finally, as reported by huffingtonpost.com, "The five largest white landowners in America together own more rural land than all of black America combined."
So they say, blacks are free in America, but far too many blacks have that false freedom of a Constitutional paper that stipulates that they are free, but way too many blacks are not free in principle; for a high percentage of black children go to rundown public schools that are inferior and that do an exceedingly poor job of educating them, in addition to being subject to a much higher percentage of arrest and unduly harassed by law enforcement officials, and far too many blacks own absolutely no land property, whatsoever.
The principle of the Emancipation Proclamation was correct, and the principle of the 13th-15th Constitutional Amendments was also correct, but this government did not and still does not do what they should have done at the beginning, which is that you cannot just free people that have nothing, without providing them with the substance and the wherewithal to become something, for blacks in this country which purports to be the land of the free, deserve a fair and equal opportunity which has never been provided, and these poor results indicate that generations later, their freedom has always been that false freedom of a system that too often perpetuates and sustains those that run this nation on the poor tired backs of those that deserve so much better.