How Did The Position Of Black Americans Improve In The Years 1945-1955?

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

During the Reconstruction Era, African Americans got more opportunities which led to their growth. Some of these opportunities were education and many different work choices that wouldn't have happened without Reconstruction. In the history alive article it explained how after the Civil War, people built schools and colleges for black children across the south increasing their education greatly. Also, the reading ability rate of African-Americans went from 5% during slavery to more than 50% after slavery. Because of their ability to go to school, African Americans learned how to read and other educational experiences which made them have the same rights as white people providing for growth. After the Civil War, between 1865 to 1903 22,000 more black people than before owned business’. This led to success of African Americans in financial ways gaining more money. After reconstruction a lot of African-Americans started their own business leading to the success rates of African Americans going up greatly. Furthermore, 1/5 of the new office holders in the south were actually African Americans after reconstruction and they were all smart they were all smart, hard-working, focused, and ambitious. This was huge for the black community because they had never had black government politicians before. This made it so the government in the south was less white supremacy and more equality, bringing in new opinions from African American

America has a long history of oppression, discrimination and injustices towards African Americans, however the 1960s has brought important political and social changes. People who have not lived through this decade of change can gather some information of this time through historical documents such as letters and films that portray true events. An example of a film that is based on a true story is “Mississipi Burning” and a powerful historical document is “A Letter from Burmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther king. Each of these materials describes/portrays some of the issues African-American faced during the 1960s, specifically in the south. After analyzing these materials, we are able to understand some of what African-Americans endured during the 1960s.

The status of the African-American increased little after Reconstruction. Some blacks were starting to accept their situation but two African American leaders did not. W.E.B Dubois and Booker T. Washington saw that the situation of poverty and social inequality were bringing down their race in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They came from completely different backgrounds, one rich and one a former slave, but they had the same purpose: they sought equality in the American society for African-Americans. Washington was more for slow integration into society and working your way up where as Dubois wanted immediate equality, which he thought the blacks deserved. Despite their differences two speakers would help to change the

The Great depression caused many problems for black people and they were greatly affected by it. Problems of the Great Depression affected every American, however, African Americans were the most affected. By 1932 half of Black Americans were out of work. In some Northern cities, blacks were fired so that a white person could take their job. But yet again, racial violence became more common, especially in the South. Even when President Roosevelt was trying to end the Great Depression there was still a conflict between the blacks and whites in the New Deal Housing and employment projects. This just goes to show that once everything has been set in motion that it can't really become a non-normal thing. Everyone was mostly worrying about themselves and their own people that they didn't bother

The first important judicial landmark in the struggle for equal educational opportunity I would like to touch on is Brown vs. Board of Education, which was ruled on in 1954. The law at the time stated that as long as schools, black or white, were equal, then segregation should not be an issue. The problem was that schools were not equal. In this case, it was ruled in a court of law that separating children solely on skin color was unconstitutional. Although desegregation didn’t happen overnight, this ruling helped pave the way.

Reconstruction did not help African Americans move closer to the American Dream. Even though there were positives, there were also negatives. Due to Reconstruction, hate groups started, there was not any safety for African Americans, and the Black Codes or Jim Crow laws. One of the most infamous hate groups to rise was the Klu Klux Klan. KKK for short. African Americans were terrorized by this group. They are responsible for many hangings, burnings, and other horrors that were inflicted upon African Americans. Also, there was not any safety from the groups. It was not like being in the center of a city was going to help. There are unfortunately many pictures of African Americans being hanged in very populated areas. Also, there was the rise of Black Codes(Jim Crow laws). It is like how the saying goes, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Some of the codes, but not limited to, was the Grandfather clause, which basically said that if your grandfather could not vote, you cannot vote. There were also many other ways that African Americans were restricted from voting. There was poll tax, and unfair evaluations of voting tests. This also included segregation of schools (separate but equal). There was even a law forbidding a white person from marrying a black person. However, even though all of these horrific things came because the end of slavery,

Even though africans americans did not have jobs before the war, their economic situation still changed very little. This was because of a system called sharecropping. Sharecropping was where southern plantation owners would hire African Americans (often their former slaves) and give them pay to work the land. The workers would accept the pay and then the plantation owner says well you need this, this, and this to harvest or plant the crop, then the plantation owner says, “Well i have those things but to use them I’ll take a little bit out of our salary”. The owners did this with everything from tools to food to housing so that eventually the worker was actually in debt to the plantation owner. This then made it so that the worker had no way to leave the plantation and were essentially stuck there almost as if they were still slaves. And sadly this was probably the preferable route for African Americans because the other option was to be homeless. All industrial and white collar jobs were given immediately to white people. Even in the north it was extremely difficult for African Americans to find a steady job that could support a family. Due to this embarrassing amount of economic gains African Americans did not make great strides economically for over 50

The book’s overall theme is, as Henri states in the preface, that "black Americans in the early decades of the century had far more of a hand in shaping their future than historians of the period tend to perceive, or at least to convey." The same can be said to some degree for almost all periods of African and African-American recorded

Brown V. Board Education was one important because it ended school segregation. Most of the people who wanted this to happen were mostly people in school. Also is mostly the African American people who wanted this changed for their own good. Also there was this time this African American family sued a school because her daughter was not allowed to be teacher in a white public school.

The Brown v. Board of Education Court Case served as a highlighted issue in black history. Brown v. Board help different races comes together in public schools. This case became very big 1950s lots of attention was drawn to the case at that time. News reporter and critics had different views and opinions about this case. This case in 1954 causes lots of issues and views towards the black race. The quote “separate but equal” is vital due to “Plessy v. Ferguson” and the famous lawyer Thurgood Marshall who argued this case, and the success of this case itself.

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.

One of the areas that changed were segregation, Truman established a committee to investigate race relations and to safeguard the rights of minorities. The report of this committee published in 1947 was called ‘To Secure These Rights’. It called for many drastic changes to be made to the law e.g. to secure

African Americans in America in history have gone through many hard times trying to just progress out of slavery and obtain freedom and have equal rights. In this paper I will attempt to explain what some of the important events of the time revealed about the role of African Americans in broader American society in, respectively, the 1920s and the late 1960s. I will explain how and why the roles of African Americans in the 1920s differed from their roles in the late 1960s, and explain how events in the 1920s may have contributed to

The history of the struggle for the advancement and progression of African Americans is a larger-than-life story. It reveals their endeavors for the initiation of change in political, financial, educational, and societal conditions. They did everything to shape their future and that of their country i.e. the United States of America. This struggle for the attainment of equal rights has helped them to determine the path and the pace of their improvement and development (Taylor & Mungazi, 2001, p. 1).