Although the end of the American civil war marked the end of slavery for African Americans, it did not mark their acceptance and equality with white people. Many southern states resented losing their slaves and were determined to keep African Americans as second class citizens. In 1950 segregation was in full force, meaning African Americans had separate churches, public transport, theatres, schools, hotels, swimming pools and many other facilities to white people. Segregation also applied to where people lived, so African Americans could only live in certain areas separate from white people, with these areas being much worse than the white suburbs, despite the separate but equal principle. Even when this was challenged in the Plessy vs Ferguson Supreme Court case the separate but equal principle was found to be constitutional.
Many of these facilities were, education, healthcare, transport, cinemas, restaurants and churches and even housing and estates were segregated. This shows the extent white went to separate them from the ‘inferior’ race. Jim Crow laws limited black Americans from having a better way of life as they were made poorer, didn’t have the opportunity to managerial roles as they were only allowed the low paying jobs and weren’t equal to white people increasing poor conditions, also, led to unequal or no voting rights in coloured communities. Under the Fifteenth Amendment black people had legal rights to vote across America. However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations.
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.
This is partly due to a combination of factors of which are poor planning and tactics, African American violence and a lack of federal government support. The major reason that the campaigns in the north weren't nearly as successful was due to the lack of federal and local government support, something which was integral to the success of many of the southern campaigns, notably Birmingham and Little rock. The relationship between Johnson and the organisers of the movement was strained because of disagreements over the Mississippi Freedom summer in 1964. Also, King made errors in declaring his stance over the Vietnam War, as he stated that he was anti-war supporter. This would hinder the chances of success in the Northern campaigns because Johnson refused to back and involve himself any further in the campaigns.
In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed and in 1965 as did the Voting Rights Act. Federal law made segregation and discriminatory voting illegal. However there remained issues like the failures of the existing political structures to absorb AA voters, shown by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party failing to be accepted at the Democratic Convention. Failures like this frustrated some AA campaigners to the extent that they formed more radical groups. Black Power movements that included the Black panthers couldn’t be ignored if progress continued to be delayed.
Race Relations after the Civil War 3 The way white Southerners made it difficult on former slaves in the South was to create what was called “Black Codes”. These codes were laws made by southern states to try to ensure their way of life could not be infringed on in the wake of the passing of the 13th amendment which outlawed slavery. Examples of such codes varied from state to state. However, the message was clear to the former slaves that they were still unequal. Examples of these laws are as follows: 1.
The Brown family's case was brought to the Supreme Court by the NAACP; they were an organisation which fought for the rights of coloured people. The NAACP won this important case, and the Supreme Court decided to integrate schools, this was the first victory for the Civil Rights Movement. The supreme court decided to outlaw the statement that was made in 1896; 'separate but equal', and make this illegal, the supreme courts reasons for this were that black children had been raised as inferior beings within the community and this should change. Although the supreme courts decision had been made this caused many problems for the white southerners, many riots broke out as there were still strong racial attitudes within the south. Many white southerners did not want their children in the same classroom as
As a principle it was more than just the need to limit and abolish slavery. Slavery existed in the southern states and the federal government could not intervene as the constitution did not permit. Previously most northerners had favored a gradual and compensated scheme of slave emancipation but this was rejected by 1849 where they know demanded its immediate end every where. In 1807 external slave had been abolished making slave trade to be purely
Black people did not have the right to vote and were not allowed in many places that white people were. When African Americans started fighting for the rights promised to them in the U.S. Constitution, they started being looked at as troublemakers. A conference of “Negros” in 1854 declared “it is emphatically our battle; no one else can fight it for us. . .
The slave owners were afraid of slave rebellions occurring if slaves had access to texts based on enlightenment thinking, like Thomas Paine's "the Rights of Man". Even if African American inventors were free, like Jennings, they had severe prejudices to overcome. Most African Americans, slaves or free men, were condemned to domestic service, manual trades, and agriculture by the institutional racism of American society in the 19th century (and beyond.) Nevertheless, during this period,