It was much harder for blacks to get a job, and there employment position could be described as ‘the last to be hired, the first to be fired’. African Americans faced discrimination almost in every job, and they earned less, often due to the poor educational opportunities. The voting rights were different in the North from the South. In the North, almost all African Americans could vote. In the South however, the blacks were disfranchised, since the state governments introduced literacy tests, tests on the knowledge of constitution and Poll taxes, which African Americans had trouble with, because of poor education and financial problems.
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.
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. The prices were also through the roof for houses and flats for African Americans. All of these things would have been normal but would still have been even more disappointing in the south. This is because of the great migration. The black people moved from the south for a better life in the north and when they got there they found that the treatment was not up to the standard they had imagined.
African-Americans were highly affected by the New Deal in the first part of the 1930’s. Urban historian, Kenneth T. Jackson wrote, “For perhaps the first time, the federal government embraced the discriminatory attitudes of the marketplace. Previously, prejudices were personalized and individualized; FHA exhorted segregation and enshrined it as public policy” (179). When Roosevelt first entered office, he didn’t seem to be concerned about the problems that African-Americans were facing. There were several committee chairmen who were southern Democrats and as Biles wrote, “the strength of southern Democrats in Congress dictated the president’s reluctance to challenge the South’s racial customs” (175).
For instant they couldn’t vote in their country. Black people were neglected by the police and didn’t have their support. They were victims of police brutality. Even though they had been through so much and they had suffered a lot. Black people in America had still hope for the future.
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.
From racial profiling to other issues such as affirmative action, police brutality against minorities and the history of slavery and the rising resentment against immigrants.” (Anup Shah 1998) I think this really does suit racism in the United States. Yes it has come a long way from what it used to be like but we still have problems just like this all over the world. Way back in the day American people didn’t have much racism towards them but Americans were very racist towards everyone who was not American. They had all sorts of racial groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, save our state, and gay groups. These groups of hate have died down over the years but there are still a few out
88 tracts had at least 1% African American population, and only 4 were above 50%, with none being above 61%. Spear also describes how African Americans were discriminated against during the turn of the 20th century. He tells of how real estate agents were often told by whites in a neighborhood to not sell to African Americans. If African Americans were already living in a ‘white neighborhood’, whites often attempted to band together and buy out the African Americans, and if that failed, they sometimes resorted to intimidation. It was also very difficult for an African American to get a job as anything but an unskilled laborer.
The social impact of segregation was very damaging at the time for African American’s and America. In the south, “segregation was everywhere possible such as in places like schools, institutions for the blind, deaf, metal institutions, cemeteries, prisons, military units, boats, trains, hotels, waiting rooms, restaurants, elevators, hospitals, public bathrooms, pools, water fountains, churches, and a lot of other places.” (Segregation In The 1800's). This quote shows that many African Americans always had separate items as white people had. This quote also shows that the white people didn’t like having to share their environment with African Americans. Also, “No blacks were elected to office and black voters, especially in the Deep South had virtually disappeared” ( Brown, Nikki L. M., and Barry M. Stentiford,466).
Such situations were all their life until the north defeated the south in the American Civil War in 1870’s. They got free by the new constitution released during the war. But the condition was not as good as people thought, the Africa Americans still were prejudiced especially in the southern U.S. Nowadays, although the situation has been improved a lot, Black man still get some bias form white people. The novel demonstrates many instance of mistreatment. Black people only get poorest jobs and hardest jobs.