Discrimination Against African Americans In The 1950's

Economic oppression against blacks occurred out of white’s prejudice for African Americans. Most economic inequality between races advanced from an unequal opportunity in the labor force. This was because African Americans were not given the same chance as whites for similar jobs. In the 1950’s at least 75 percent of African American men “in the labor force were employed in unskilled jobs.” A few of these jobs included janitors, porters, cooks, and machine operators. However, only 25 percent of white males had jobs which did not require many skills. The disparity between women was also significant. 20 percent of black women were paid service workers while only 10 percent of white women maintained the same job. The two most significant l reasons African Americans were economically oppressed was because they were denied access to numerous jobs and the

The United States first began to deal with the issue of voter suppression during the Reconstruction. During Reconstruction freed slaves earned their right to vote and hold office through the fifteenth amendment in 1870. In 1877, Democrats, known as Dixiecrats, began to impose laws that were designed to suppress the African American vote or better known as Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow voting laws required the freedmen to pass literacy tests that they were unable to pass because of no formal education because of their status of slaves. Many states created poll taxes, which many poor Americans, white and black, were unable to pay. Many precincts made their voting precincts “white only” so that blacks would have nowhere to cast their votes. The Jim Crow voter suppression tactics were so successful that only three percent of African Americans in the south were registered to vote in 1940. Although African American males were given the right to vote in

As much as Reconstruction had initially tried to help the South, it was the sole goal of this movement to, “undo as much as possible of Reconstruction.” State facilities originally that were supposed to help everyone were closed down, and the gap between black and white expenditures on schooling increased. Due to the depression in the 1890’s this worsened the situation for black families trying to make a living in the South couldn’t keep up their farms or the places that their children would learn. “In 1900, no public high schools for blacks existed in the South. Black elementary schools, one observer reported, occupied buildings “as bad as stables””. New laws about segregation also affected blacks in more ways than just demoralization, it also showed what kind of jobs were considered good work for them. In the instance of segregation on railroads, “many blacks could be found in “whites only” railroad cars. But they entered as servants and nurses, not as paying customers entitled to equal treatment. The rise of lynching also affected the way blacks lived their lives, by controlling the way they vote, how they treated whites, and how they couldn’t rely on the justice system to address their grievances. An example of the reduced number of voters is best seen in Louisiana, where the number of voters dropped from 130, 000 to 1, 342, which is directly linked to the use of violence as a way to intimidate black voters. Blacks also had to be careful how they acted around white, since murder wasn’t a federal crime and was handled by the state, many blacks were lynched without fair trials and accused of crimes like raping white women, murder, and theft. A majority of the accused never when to trial. All in all blacks in the South were largely affected negatively as a result in policy changes, social factors, and widespread violence. This injustice carried on

“As soon as blacks gained the right to vote, secret societies sprang up in the South, devoted to restoring white supremacy in politics and social life” (digitalhistory) Those organizations beat, lynched and executed former slaves and republicans in order to try and maintain their hold on the power they thought were fleeing from their grasps. Others sought more political and ‘lawful’ ways of achieving white supremacy. They became politically involved, gained power, and were able to pass pieces of legislatures known as ‘black codes’. The Black Codes were a “series of laws passed by Southern states to define freedman's rights and responsibilities.” According to Florida's Black Code, “blacks who violated labor contracts could be whipped, and sold for up to one year's labor. “ And just like that, blacks realized that their freedom meant absolutely nothing. In fact, if a former slave did not adhere and respects the black codes they could potentially be sold back into slavery. Slavery may have been abolished, but Southern leaders became pioneers in the world of systematic and Institutional racism. A form of racism that is so strong that it’s still deeply entrenched in

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.” In the 1880’s poll taxes and literacy requirements that afterward advocated African Americans to vote. Meanwhile Klan violence frightens from police and employers, blacks were still “protesting”about voting rights. As a result, there were over two dozen blacks serving in state congress across some

When Confederate states wanted to join the Union after Civil war, they were required to undertake “Civil War” Amendments. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were developed, with each supporting equality within the states. However, these Amendments proved to be insufficient in the provision of equal rights to African American citizens (Medley,2003). In the late 19th Century, laws limiting civil rights of the Blacks swept through state legislatures. Segregation then became a requirement in both Southern and Northern states.

In the late 19th Century, Congress approved of three amendments to the Constitution: the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. The 13th Amendment ended slavery, the 14th granted citizenship to black people, and the 15th gave them the right to vote. At the same time, multiple Southern state legislatures passed Black Codes. These Black Codes prohibited blacks from renting or buying land, testifying in court, voting in some cases, and made a form of semibondage. Furthermore, these Codes directly violated the newly made amendments to the Constitution. This depicts how the South and their government leaders refused to follow the new amendments that they did not agree with hence revealing that their political views still haven’t changed since the Civil War. Additionally, the Plessy vs Ferguson Supreme Court Case legalized segregation as separate but equal. This showed the unwillingness of the South the fully accept the new amendments, especially the 13th and 14th amendments, and the legalization of blacks into citizens of the state. Michigan Senator Zachariah Chandler complained about this and more particularly Southern representation in Congress. He was outraged that there were 36 members of Congress from the South. He believed that this was against the 14th Amendment, since the South was disenfranchised. He also

Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that reinforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s (Urofsky). The laws mandated segregation of schools, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, and restaurants. In legal theory, blacks received “separate but equal” treatment under the law--in actuality, public facilities were nearly always inferior to those for whites, when they existed at all. In addition, blacks were systematically denied the right to vote in most of the rural South through the selective application of literacy tests and other racially motivated criteria (PBS). Despite Jim Crow laws being abolished in 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson

They passed voting restrictions and 'Black Codes' and Jim Crow laws to suppress the rights and opportunities of African Americans at the state and local levels”(Document 2). This quote shows how the southern whites won’t accept the blacks as equals. The Black Codes specifically restricted their freedom and make them work with a lower wage than whites. The Jim Crow laws also led and enforced segregation between the whites and colored. The colored and the whites have separated places in public as in water fountain, Movie Theaters, bathrooms, trains, and other public places. They also passed extreme voting requirements for the blacks in order to vote to stop them from voting such as the grandfather clauses (which you must have a father or grandfather that voted before) and vote taxes and etc. These are the loopholes that the south used to restrict blacks and bypass the 14th and 15th amendment. This didn’t improve the lives of many

During the period of Reconstruction (1865-1877) in the Southern United States local government positions had been taken over by the Republican Party. Through local militants and, what can be deemed by today standards, terrorist by the mid 1870’s many of these Republican office holders had been run out of town. These local militants also used intimidation to keep blacks from voting in the south. By doing these acts the Southern Democrats soon regained control of political power in the south and would start striping away rights of the black community. Once Democrats were back in power intimidation was no longer needed to keep blacks from voting, they set up some of the first laws that were specifically deemed to restrict the civil liberties of

The reason as to why Jim Crow laws came about in the South came to hold so much power during their life has to do with a waning of the forces that had long held the Southern racists in check. The elements of fear, jealousy, and fanaticism were allowed to rise to prominence when such forces as Northern liberal opinions in the press and the higher levels of government, internal checks instituted by the Southern conservatives and idealistic radicals. “What happened toward the end of the century was an almost simultaneous – and sometimes not unrelated – decline in the effectiveness of restraint that had been exercised by all three forces: Northern liberalism, Southern conservatism, and Southern radicalism” (69). Northern liberalism’s power waned with the Supreme Court’s decisions such as Hall v. de Cuir in 1877 which stated that a state could not prohibit segregation, or Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 which the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine was clearly established (72-73). Southern conservatism, previously one of the newly freed Negroes’ greatest allies in the South after the war, changed their tune when they had to eradicate the carpetbaggers in the South. They needed the extreme racist

The Thirteenth Amendment of 1865 abolished slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment of 1868 granted African Americans citizenship and equal protection under the law, and the Fifteenth Amendment of 1870 granted African Americans the right to vote. These amendments were passed in an effort to combat racism and reshape public perception of blacks, however, these laws were hard to enforce and Southern states developed their own laws like the Black Codes to control the newly freed slaves. Jim Crow-era laws in the South like the poll tax and literacy tests prevented many blacks in the South from voting. Anyone who tried to break Southern traditions was subject to violence and intimidation from the Ku Klux Klan.

Those who felt threatened by the massive amount of African-Americans who would now be participating in the government criticized this Amendment, which allowed all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race. Ex-Confederates, many of which were not allowed to vote after bitterly losing to the north, argued that African-Americans were not ready to vote because they were ignorant to the political system of the U.S. The political power of the south would be in the hands of the formerly oppressed, as opposed to their oppressors, who would be practically powerless. The debate on this topic would cause more tension in southern society, which was already undergoing a difficult period of adaptation. Another problem which arose in the south were laws which would further the oppression of the African-American population. Commonly called Black Codes, these laws also punished white persons who supported emancipation during the Civil War. These Black Codes were often unreasonable or unneeded to keep order within society. They were simply created as bitter retaliation by the ex-Confederates who were not pleased by the integration, which had just taken place. Black Codes were created and enforced on a State level which became superior to the Fourteenth Amendment. The laws would be psychologically damaging to the African-American population, who would be forced to feel

There was much discrimination in the law in the 1960s. In a 1963 Life Magazine, The white police men were attacking blacks with fire hoses and dogs because of a silent and peaceful protest the blacks were doing by marching( Life Magazine). They were protesting against the segregation in their city. They wanted to silently speak their thoughts so they protested, but the policemen started viciously going after them. There are pictures of blacks in the street praying and crying.

The history of United State has shown many racial discriminations since colonists arrived America. African Americans have suffered unequal treatments and punishments in comparison to white people and European immigrants. Even when slavery was abolished in 1865, African Americans were still victims of many inequalities like employment, rights, housing, and transportation. However, due to these inequalities and mistreatments like the Jim Crow Laws, many African Americans started to make a change during the 1950’s, also called the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks, that was arrested for sitting in the front of a bus in Alabama. Rosa Parks case made the supreme court to ban segregation in public transportation. The social difference during the 1950’s was very notable and obvious, and voting was a big example of the huge discrimination suffered by African Americans and minorities. In the south, white people would take away minorities’ right to vote by making them take a test that would decide if they were or not capable to make a political decision. Fortunately, big characters like Martin Luther King vouched for the end of this inequalities. Martin Luther King played a big role in the 1960’s making everyone aware about the change that was about to come.