Also, the vast majority of black Americans were disenfranchised by grandfather clauses and literacy tests which made it very hard for black Americans to vote. Finally the Ku Klux Klan terrorised black Americans using techniques such as lynching. By contrast in the Northern States, segregation was rare. What is more, Black Americans has greater access to higher-paid industrial jobs and many were organised in unions. However, on average black workers earned 50% less than their white counterparts.
The 15th amendment (1870) gave black men equal voting rights with white men. However they were threatened or physically stopped from voting. It was no good having rights which were not enforced. Yet inequality increased at the end of the 19th century and continued in the early 20th century through Southern states passing the ‘Jim Crow’ laws which increased segregation. WW1 did little in stopping the rising tide of segregation.
So, even though they took a step forward in equality outside of the south, it didn’t really help that much as they couldn’t do much with the vote because of the attitudes shown towards blacks from whites. This also links to segregation shown outside the south, even though it was no longer the law. The Second World War was not a turning point for African Americans because even though segregation was not a law in the states outside the south, they still suffered with De Facto segregation. This happened in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit. The black population of such cities was concentrated in ghetto areas, where homes and schools for blacks were inferior to those for whites.
The progression from industrial to information age had a negative impact on blacks because their skills were neither able to be used in the high paying high skilled jobs, nor in the low wage sweat ship jobs. 2) From Chapter 8 discuss how Robert Merton’s strain theory applies to this film? Your answer should include the definition of what the theory is as well as the four adaptation steps. The strain theory is society socializing people to desire a certain goal but not allowing some the means by which to obtain that goal. The four adaptive steps are innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.
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.
These voting restrictions were challenged in the Mississippi vs Williams Supreme Court case but it was maintained that the restrictions did not go against the 15th amendment and so they continued. These high levels of illiteracy and poverty among African Americans would have been caused, or at least not helped, by the smaller amount of funding provided for African American institutions. This went against the separate but equal principle and may have contributed to high illiteracy levels which prevented voting. Also, the family income of an African American family was four times less
Though the fifteenth amendment gave black males the right to vote a poll tax was introduced to eliminate the black vote. It was effective because the large majority of blacks were poor and needed the money for priorities other than voting. Policies like these drove blacks deeper into poverty and only made the color line more definite. Racism also played a large role in immigration. Immigrants from all over the world were flooding the shores of the U.S. looking for the promise of the American Dream.
After the Second World War the black civil rights have legally improved but the does not stop the white race stop being racist. There was still discrimination between the two races. As there are not immediate black officials the white ones continue to discriminate as there is no one to put them into prison. Legally the black race should be treated as equals by the white race. Laws were made after the war forbidding segregation and discrimination, but these laws were not carried out.
We have made great strides in the fact that currently we have a black president. How long will it take before we have a female president? Hopefully we will progress into the future with the idea of equality for everyone. Some programs like head start, snap, and unemployment benefits, which disproportionately affect minorities, are facing funding cuts. As our economy flounders, so does the want to aid our government
The Constitution, until recently, did not apply to blacks; blacks feel they deserve payments from 310 years of slavery, destruction to their minds and culture. Dr. Martin Luther King's dilemma in the United States was of a different kind. He was torn between his identity as a Black man of African descent and his identity as an American. He urged Americans to judge based on the content of the character not by skin color and also believed in non-violent protests. Martin Luther King Jr’s main perspective during the fight on racism was equality.