So, even though they took a step forward in equality outside of the south, it didn’t really help that much as they couldn’t do much with the vote because of the attitudes shown towards blacks from whites. This also links to segregation shown outside the south, even though it was no longer the law. The Second World War was not a turning point for African Americans because even though segregation was not a law in the states outside the south, they still suffered with De Facto segregation. This happened in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit. The black population of such cities was concentrated in ghetto areas, where homes and schools for blacks were inferior to those for whites.
These voting restrictions were challenged in the Mississippi vs Williams Supreme Court case but it was maintained that the restrictions did not go against the 15th amendment and so they continued. These high levels of illiteracy and poverty among African Americans would have been caused, or at least not helped, by the smaller amount of funding provided for African American institutions. This went against the separate but equal principle and may have contributed to high illiteracy levels which prevented voting. Also, the family income of an African American family was four times less
This is an example of de jure but not de facto, a change in the law but the change wasn’t really put into practice. After the first year, the NAACP realised that there was very little change in the desegregation of schools in the South, so they went to the Supreme Court again who produced the Brown II ruling. This ruling stated that desegregation of education should occur ‘with all deliberate speed’. The problem with this was the same as the problem with the first ruling in that it was too vague and didn’t actually provoke much change. I think that one of the reasons why the Supreme Court produced such a
How far did conditions for black Americans improve in the period 1945-56? Civil right was a major issue in America during 1945-56, especially in the Deep South. This was because conditions of African Americans didn’t improve much, it was mainly the start to any change that happened, with some limited progress. The first issue is ‘Jim crow’ laws; this was a law in the Southern states of America that introduced segregation between black and white people, by passing laws which denied them access to white facilities. Many of these facilities were, education, healthcare, transport, cinemas, restaurants and churches and even housing and estates were segregated.
Other states introduced literacy tests as criteria for voting. Literacy testes were not applied fairly and therefore even educated black people were disenfranchised. These were not explicitly racist, but both prevented black Americans from voting. These barriers, which prevented black Americans from voting, meant that black citizens no longer had a voice for their opinion to be heard. This affected how black people would still be treated as second-class citizens through white supremacy.
Segregation was seen as lawful due to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case saying that ‘separate but equal’ was how they should live their lives. The social status of African Americans saw almost no improvement throughout the years 1945-55; across the country black Americans were still treated as sub-human. In the North, the situation had been slightly better by 1945 however throughout the period of time, 1945-55, nothing really changed. Although by law things should’ve been equal for all races even if they were to live separately, black Americans lived much harsher lives with their facilities being a lot worse and them being forced to live in ghettos due to the whites not wanting to live near them. Groups such as the NAACP attempted to change the situation in the North through questioning the Supreme Court on cases like Shelley vs. Kraemer where they tried to get rid of ‘restrictive covenants’ to do with real estate however unfortunately, this proved to be ineffective.
The Achievement Gap: Urban vs. Suburban Schools The public school systems goal in the United States is to provide every child with equal education. Unfortunately somewhere along the lines the education system in our country has failed to provide this equal education to many of our children, especially minority. It isn’t that the education is not there, but many other things such as urban parents, teachers, and the urban society itself affect a child’s education. When looking at the mandatory test scores of minority inner city students, specifically African American students, they are significantly lower than White American suburban students, hence the achievement gap.
In what ways were the conditions different for the African Americans in the north and south in 1945? After the Second World War had ended, black Americans that were fighting for freedom and justice from Germany and Japan, found that they had return to their country that was overridden with discrimination and racism in 1945. They treated as second-class citizens. The Black American was unable to neither integrate with the mainstream of American society nor become independent farmers. However, generally the Northern blacks were somewhat better off than the Southern blacks in 1945.
This was to stop the two races from mixing and to prevent the dilution of the African Americans into the white culture and their everyday lives. This however doesn’t mean that this was necessarily a time of disappointment for the African Americans. This is because they were used to this treatment and much worse, so this segregation would not have been anything new; thus meaning there was no disappointment other than the fact that there had been no improvement. The north also was extremely segregated, no better than the south. They weren’t allowed to live near white people in the cities so they lived in ghettos, completely segregated from the rest of the world.
Segregation After the civil war in the USA, the African Americans gain “equal” rights. But the 14th amendment in 1868 (Absolute equality of the two races before the law) didn’t include “social rights” which meant that they didn’t get much choices in society, like choosing where you wanted to sit on a bus. This still made the African Americans feel inferior, knowing that within their home town the “whites” had the choices, and actual freedom. Blacks responded to their situation in 4 ways as their situation began to worsen from 1877. They would co-operate with any willing whites, migrate to the North or West, protest politically and would follow accommodationism.