Challenging Segregation
Blacks Striving towards Civil Rights
With African Americans striving for equal rights,
social groups were developed with blacks leading the government
to help them win the equality.
social groups were developed with blacks leading the government
to help them win the equality.
Freedom riders striving towards equality
If it was not for the government stepping in and helping the blacks they might not be where they are today.
SocialFreedom riders where a mix of
blacks and whites that sat with each other emerged riding through out towns. This showed that some were not going to let the color of someone get in the way of being friends. Or with out talking to one another but can be in an area with different colored people and not say anything rude about them. |
PoliticalThe KKK brought suffering and pain to the African Americans, but it helped
them by having the U.S. government send more than 400 federal marshals to protect the freedom riders. It also showed that the government was willing to help. |
EconomicThe Black Codes were a discriminatory public policy that kept African
Americans legally in slavery without the economic liability that accompanied the institution of slavery. |
U.S .as a World Power
Four students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat down at the lunch counter inside the Woolworth store. Following store policy, the lunch counter staff refused to serve the African American men at the "whites only" counter and the store's manager asked them to leave. The four stayed till the store closed. The next day more than 20 blacks came and sat down.
Despite sometimes violent reaction to the sit-ins, these demonstrations eventually led to positive results. For example, the sit-ins received significant media and government attention. When the Woolworth sit-in began, the Greensboro newspaper published daily articles on the growth and impact of the demonstration. The sit-ins made headlines in other cities as well, as the demonstrations spread throughout the Southern states. A Charlotte newspaper published an article on February 9, 1960, describing the state-wide sit-ins and the resulting closures of dozens of lunch counters. Furthermore, on March 16, 1960, President Eisenhower expressed his sympathy for those who were fighting for their human and civil rights. |
"Deeply sympathetic with the efforts of any group to enjoy the rights of equality that they are guaranteed by the Constitution”. |
Progressive Era
Georgia and other southern states passed a wide variety of Jim Crow laws that mandated racial segregation or separation in public facilities and effectively codified the region's tradition of white supremacy. Blacks suffered from a system of discrimination that pervaded nearly every aspect of life they were denied their constitutional right to vote, encountered discrimination in housing and employment, and were refused access to public spaces and facilities. The body of law that supported the region's system of segregation remained in place until the middle of the twentieth century, when a series of civil rights reforms. Each state made laws to satisfy them they went agents the federal government which is like states saying that it is ok to use meth.
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World War I
While still discriminatory, the Army was far more progressive in race relations than the other branches of the military. Blacks could not serve in the Marines, and could only serve limited and menial positions in the Navy and the Coast Guard. By the end of World War I, African Americans served in cavalry, infantry, signal, medical, engineer, and artillery units, as well as serving as chaplains,
surveyors, truck drivers, chemists, and intelligence officers. The War Department thought the soldiers would be more likely to follow men of their own color, thereby reducing the risk of any sort of uprising. Most leaders of the African American community agreed, and it was decided that the Army would create a segregated, but supposedly equal, officer training camp. Approximately 1,250 men attended the camp in Des Moines, Iowa. |
"Let us, while the war lasts, forget our special grievances and close ranks shoulder to shoulder with our white fellow citizens fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary sacrifice, but we make it gladly and willingly.” |
Roaring 20s
Depression and New Deal
New Deal programs of relief and recovery were especially beneficial to them (for example, social security, unemployment insurance, and the minimum wage). Eleanor Roosevelt’s liberal support for civil rights also enhanced the president’s image among African American voters. The effect of this was that they got peoples attrition and got their voice out among the people.
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Tyrone Brooks eloquently states “We’ve
won the battle against segregation, and we’ve won the battle to go to schools of our choice. We have
not won the battle in terms of money, the economic challenge."
African Americans have gotten farther than they thought they would in
regards to equality. But disconnect between wages and ability to earn due to
discrimination with cost of living is still a critical issue. The economic
challenge that faces African Americans is something that can be addressed by
overlooking one’s skin color.
won the battle against segregation, and we’ve won the battle to go to schools of our choice. We have
not won the battle in terms of money, the economic challenge."
African Americans have gotten farther than they thought they would in
regards to equality. But disconnect between wages and ability to earn due to
discrimination with cost of living is still a critical issue. The economic
challenge that faces African Americans is something that can be addressed by
overlooking one’s skin color.