Why Was Progress Towards Racial Equality in America so Slow in the Period 1945-1955?

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Why was progress towards racial equality so slow in the period 1945-1955? In this essay I will discuss why progress towards racial equality in the period 1945-1955 was so slow and the various reasons behind this. I will evaluate whether racial equality was a slow process or whether it was in fact aided and sped up considerably based on political, social and economic factors. Many factors affected the progress of racial equality from 1945 to 1955; one major reason was the nature and the severity of discrimination in the majority of the southern states. The level of racism in the southern parts of America was the most extreme and prejudice and greatly impacted upon the speed of racial equality in America. The Jim Crow Laws (1890) enforced in the south made segregation legal in Southern states (this was based on the show my Jim Crow mocking black people and classing them as second-class citizens). This meant that facilities such as Transport, Healthcare, Education, toilets and restaurants were segregated, this had a negative effect on the black community as it showed the gulf in living standards and class between the whites and blacks, it also showed the lengths that were taken to distance the two races and the lack of equality that was being shown in the South with little likelihood of significant change. In addition to this there was a segregated heart of society in the south dedicated to the oppression of black people. In the south most prominently there were a set of unwritten laws made to segregate white people from black people. These laws included the general lack of respect for black people and their names as well as the rule that black people must refer to white as either ‘sir’ or ‘mister’; it was made to keep white people as the superior race and show the inferiority of black people, showing the deep rooted mentality of the American public to never

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