His family tried their best to mold him into a better man in order to survive the later years to come. Wright had to realize the harsh realities of the consequences of being a black man in the early 1900s. In that time, many blacks were tortured for the simple fact that they were not white. Black people experienced much violence. Jim Crow Laws promoted the idea that blacks were naturally mediocre to blacks in all important ways, including intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior.
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.
Our society remain with a long history of racism, segregation and low expectations for African American children, and the public education system has not sufficiently responded to resolve this situation. The segregation of African American and Caucasian children in the early 1960's continues to have an overwhelming effect on the achievement levels of student. There are issues of socioeconomic class that play an important role in achievement levels. In recent years this Achievement gap has increased significantly as the inequality between the rich and the poor have also widened. Since there are such differences between the wealthy and the poor in this country there're also large differences in the system of education from place to place.
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.
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.
Both Williams’ use of black stereotypes and participation in the “blackface” type of acting were considered negative and racist ways of portraying black people during this time period. He charmed his way past barriers that blacks had not been able to overcome, with a smile and comical attitude. Williams opened the door for black actors of his generation as well as for generations to come, in the film and stage industry. During this time, blacks were portrayed as “coons”, a stereotypical depiction what a “negro” was at this time: lazy, dishonest, and corrupt. “Blackface” actors represented the blacks as whites wanted to see them.
These laws also created environments for African Americans that had a tendency to be inferior to those provided for white Americans. But like slavery, it was only a matter of time before segregation would become a focus within the United States. The desegregation movement brought an abundance of positive outcomes, which were intended to benefit the African American community. Although desegregation was for the overall benefit of the country, it was largely implemented in a way that was demoralizing to the African American community. In his book, Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, Stuart Buck states “that the “acting white” phenomenon was an ironic legacy of desegregation” (637), and that the well-intention policies that were implemented eventually led to a reversal of intention thus having an inadvertent damaging effect on African American students.
• Black and white people were divided by politics. • This meant that Black people were treated with less care whilst white people were cared for more. • Barriers were put into place so that Black people couldn’t vote for a new power due to their lack of education. • Tension amongst black and white people turned to hatred causing black people’s opinions and views to be irrelevant to any subject. • Southern school for blacks were poor standards which resulted in black people not being educated enough to vote or work for a living.
Though the desegregation of schools in North Carolina granted blacks access to better educational resources and wealthier scholastic opportunities, the resultant dilution and erosion of the black educational community devastated its resolve and essential coherence. These negative effects of integration are only somewhat less visible even today. Black-only schools operated under astounding inequity before integration. With white schools hogging state funds, black administrators turned to their communities for support. When George Miller was principal in Wilkes County, NC, the community struggled to support the schools with funds, equipment, and food for the cafeteria.# Still, communities could provide very little, so educators adjusted their educational focus.
Black students scoring lower than White students, but this can be looked at from many different angles. When we think back in history the first ones allowed to have an education were wealthy white males. As time passed and new laws were put in place women along with African Americans were also given the chance to an education. But of course Black children did not receive the same education as White students. In Death at an Early Age by Jonathan Kozol, he describes the conditions of African American schools as horrible, where children were mistreated.