To what extent was the federal Government responsible for improving the status of black people in the United States in the years 1945-1964? After the war attitudes towards racial equality had greatly changed, there were many reasons for this ultimately inevitable change. One of the largest was the hypocrisy of fighting for freedom against a Fascist country then returning home and being treated as second class citizens, despite the fact that the fourteen amendment says that all persons born in the U.S are American citizens. Another thing that led the change was the way ally countries such as Britain treated their black citizens with a lot more respect in comparison. This idea that they were dying for an ideological dream of freedom that wasn’t even extended to their homes began the attitudes of people to change and when the attitudes of people change the government has to mould to keep the people appeased.
Kelcey Campbell Essay #1 African-American and Japanese-American Lives in a Time of War Many classified WWII as, “The Good War” but this didn’t come without hardship on the homelands throughout the war. It was a time to test many moral issues from a country branded upon freedom and equality, which had not been the case for many races and cultures. The war was a demonstration of civil rights’ gains and losses as seen with the advancement in the African-American community through war time labor needs, while Japanese-Americans civil rights had been compromised through unjust paranoia withdrawing much of the trust and loyalties to the United States. Discrimination was a very real and ugly issue in years leading up to the war as well as early
One cause of this change could be the occurrence of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was one of the shifts that transformed the attitudes of the majority of American citizens and, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, made them realize that all people were entitled to live the “American dream.”Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was made toward the end of this era, so of course there is a connection. The conflict within the movie is similar to the conflict associated with the movement because, as in both movies, the African Americans involved had to prove themselves to the opposite race. Only difference is, in the ’67 film, blacks were trying to prove their credibility to the “superior” whites, while as in Guess Who a white man had to show he was good enough for the “superior”
With charismatic and intelligent spokesmen such as Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights campaigners had brought the plight of black Americans to the attention of the whole world. The federal government had been forced to respond and the legislation of the nation had been changed to address the inequality and oppression experienced by millions of black citizens. For many black Americans, and also many sympathetic white Americans, the hope was that the USA was entering a new age of equality and meaningful civil rights for all citizens. By the mid 1960s, however, many black Americans were becoming disillusioned. Many Southern states continued to harass and persecute blacks regardless of the new legislation.
Due to this boom the amount of unemployed African American workers fell sharply from 937,000 to 151,000 making black Americans more equal citizens and less disenfranchised. Despite the alterations made in the North, in the southern states, African Americans were still predominantly employed in poorly paid agricultural jobs. As it did in the North the war caused a boom in the south as well, however black people were not able to get well-paying jobs until A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead a march on Washington unless jobs were opened up to black workers. This development though did lead to some progression, President Roosevelt in direct response created the FEPC in 1941, which was a solid win for the black
Over time progress has been made in putting a stop to the inequality among races and different ethnicities. However, African Americans, individuals of the Arab descent, Asian Americans, as well as other ethnicities continue to be discriminated against amongst the Caucasian race. Several prime examples of discrimination occur in such organizations, airports, government buildings and even in our police. Organizations such as the KKK formally known as the Ku Klux Klan, the Ku Klux Klan has existed from the year of 1865. KKK members dress in white sheets and cover their faces.
The War Labor Bond outlawed unequal pay to whites and non-whites doing equal work. Before the war, the African American population had been mainly southern, rural, and agricultural; within a few years, a substantial percentage of African Americans were northern, urban, and industrial. While discrimination in the workplace was hardly eliminated, twice as many blacks held skilled jobs at the end of the war as at the beginning. The northward migration of African Americans accelerated the rising demands for racial equality. As nearly 750,000 blacks relocated to northern cities, many sensed the possibility of political power for the first time in their lives.
Racism is a means to an end, as oppressors employ racist measures in order to achieve power over another group. Wright shows numerous times throughout the novel that racism breeds irrational actions, and points out many times when Southern whites abuse blacks for no reason other than to vent their own frustration. This abuse and subordination of blacks also serves an economic function for the whites, as the blacks are the basic laborers who almost single-handedly support the white economy, for meager pay. Whites abuse blacks in order to keep them in a position where their service would empower
After the civil war ended, the United States of America was still being exposed to vast amounts of racism, while people continued to fight for equal rights and freedom. Slavery was officially over in 1865, but there was still no equality for the blacks. In place of having the Negroes enslaved, the former white slave owners and racists alike would instead continue to oppress them by further segregation and assault, while the white authorities turned a blind eye because they were often part of the problem. In society, they were viewed as second-class citizens; forced to use segregated areas of washrooms, entrances, restaurants, public transit, and recreational facilities; such as churches. It took nearly one hundred years for the black population
The Deprivation Freed Blacks Faced In between the years 1820-1860, political, economic and social changes were occurring in America. Free African Americans continued to expand throughout different cities and states. In fact “in the year of 1820, there were 233,504 freed African Americans living in the United States in which free blacks were accounted for only 2.4 percent of the American population.” (Clark-Hine, C-Hine, and Harrold). However, by the year of 1860 the percentage of free African Americans rapidly increased in many cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia and Richmond. Because of the expansion of free African Americans, many white people feared the thought of competing with another races.