They were suffering from social inequalities. The Jim Crow laws down South that was similar to slavery setting. There were many events that led to the civil rights movement beginning in 1954 with Brown v Board of Education, defended by Thurgood Marshall, who later became a judge on the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities for blacks were unequal, but the desegregation didn't initially, completely stop in the nation because of this ruling. The Brown decision intended for black and white kids not to be forced to attend separate schools.
They were the first ethnic groups to feel the cuts being made to save money and ensure that the whites had the best standard of living. Segregation became legal with the slogan ‘Separate but Equal’ which allowed segregation as long as both groups had access to the same facilities. The blacks fought for equality and saw the beginning of WW2 as a way of gaining the same respect and standard of living as the whites. This however, was not the case as there was segregation within soldiers and not recognition for the blacks after the war. One of the ways in which African Americans were treated as second class citizens before 1940, was in politics.
How far is it accurate to describe black Americans as second class citizens in the years 1945-55? [30] During this time period it is rational to see the Black American community as second class citizens. Despite the fact America was making changes, particularly in the Northern states in order to make America a place of equality, there were still issues that caused the disenfranchisement of the Black community. The North and the south couldn’t have been further apart on the matter of fairness. As in the North segregation was almost none existent so racial etiquette was more flexible than in the South where legal segregation, caused by the Jim Crow law was very much everywhere, which means that in the South, Black Americans could be seen as second class citizens.
Although it was only enforced in the Confederate South it effected a huge amount of the African American population in America. The law was set up to segregate the blacks from the whites however keeping things 'equal'. This meant there were separate public facilities provided for the African Americans. They were usually inferior in quality to the facilities provided for the white Americans. The Jim Crow laws actually succeeded The Black Codes which did not feature the fact that equality was important and should be given to the African Americans.
Among them were three men, Coalhouse Walker, W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T Washington. Although they each had different ideas for solving this problem, they all shared the same goal, equality for all. The first main leader was Booker T. Washington. He believed that the blacks should work along with the whites rather than by themselves. Booker T Washington believed that in order to have an equal society the blacks and other minorities that were slaved had to work with and not against the whites.
W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and 20th century. However, they disagreed on strategies for black social and economic progress. Though they disagreed both black men faced the same obstacle of how to end class and racial injustice, and to achieve first-class citizenship for blacks. At this time first-class citizenship was determined by at least three aspects political power, civil rights, and the higher education of blacks.
Because of this, all armed forces were eventually desegregated. This is a huge step to equality as it shows to people that black people can do the same jobs white people can do. Although this may have been apparent, many white people still treated black people as second class citizens. You could say to an extent that they treated them like children as white Americans thought that they were still smarter than African Americans even though this has been proved wrong in WWII. Even though African Americans have shown that they can do what Caucasian Americans can do there is still De Jure segregation in the south which is commonly known as the Jim Crow law.
Nowadays, discrimination displays a lot of negativity towards African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. was clearly dreaming about a future with racial equality; where people are not judged by the color of their skin, religion or gender but by their character. Some part of discrimination comes from the influence of adults
The NAACP and SCLC welcomed black and white members arguing that the cooperation between the two would make the movement stronger. However the more radical groups felts that black people should work alone. Furthermore, groups in America during this period such as; SNCC and CORE, were both protest groups which aimed at improving working and living conditions for black people, and to make them equal to other races in the USA. These had been quite moderate organisations which were linked to Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. This was the first time that black organisations had really tried to improve conditions in the cities.
Whilst the southern states of America were segregated the worst, rich families in other states admired the African Americans. Many rich white Americans had contradictory feelings towards the African Americans because it was very common around that time for African Americans to be hired to looks after the White Children. The two main differences between the northern and southern states of America were that the south was segregated whereas the north wasn’t. In the south, black Americans did labouring where they weren’t paid to work, whereas in the north African Americans were. In the north of America, black people were also allowed to vote legally.