Kevin Boyle's Arc Of Justice

By this time Detroit had become the epicenter of the American automobile. Detroit’s grand boulevards, were now lost in this ever expanding industrial Mecca. Detroit was home to some of America’s biggest names in automotives, including Walter Chrysler, The Dodge Brothers, and the outspoken Henry Ford. Workers in these factories often earned more in wages than many unskilled labor positions around the country. As news of the high-wage jobs in the up-and-coming motor city made its way around the country, migrants began to flood the city in hopes of a better life. Overcrowding among blacks and the have-nots of society was a harsh reality in Detroit’s inner city ghetto, which went by the name of Black Bottom. Several families would cram into single family flats, often grateful to even have a place to stay. Many made due without luxuries like running water, and disease ran rampant along the dirty over-crowded streets. This migration was not often welcomed among white Detroiters. A message of “One Hundred Percent Americanism” was being spread and upheld by the Ku Klux Klan, and Negroes were not Americans. Many white Detroiters, whether they were with the KKK or not, felt that segregation was the way it should be. They feared that if blacks were to breach the color line into white neighborhoods then property values would plummet, real estate agents would not show the houses and the neighborhood would be ultimately

The theme of “a failure of justice” for African Americans living in the present-day United States dates

Racism was a big problem during the 18 and 19’s century. White people always thought that they were at the higher level in the society and they treated black harshly. They could trade them in the markets. They also thought the deserved to have better life, better education, better house, etc. Why this happened? The government was the chief culprit. The government educated white people that they were above the blacks. Because of that, they taught their children in the same idea. Luckily, the growing number of people realized that it was unfair and they tried to make the government treated everyone equally. More than that, the government laid down the law of protecting all of the colored people; however, even the laws passed, the racism still happens today. Black people were classified as robbers, murders, or thieves and a lot of people judge them with this category.

A large influx of colored people created many problems. First, there was a major problem in the availability in housing, of which was responded to with racism. This is the root for the hatred between the black and white communities. There wasn’t enough housing in the “black belt” community, so Negroes began to spill into white neighborhoods. The very existence of a colored person in a neighborhood would lower the property values. When a house was sold to a colored person, the rent for the house would be higher than the previous, white owner’s rent. Real Estate companies believed that “it is a matter of common knowledge that house after house…whether under white or black agents, comes to the Negro at an increased rental” (Sandburg 46). They sold housing despite the fact that “the Negro in Chicago, paid a lower wage than the white workman” (47), and that black people would have

During the mid-20th century there was much racial discrimination, specifically in home ownership. During this period there was mass immigration of Southern blacks to the north. In Lawndale Chicago, there was adverse reactions to this. As the

White supremacist leaders, were acting in pure race rage against specifically color people, purely based on the ethnicity, white people felt treated because slavery was rising. Political tension were rising up do to not knowing how or even if they should free slaves and how slave did not had no right at all.

Kevin Boyle, the author of Arc of Justice, is a professor of American history at Northwestern University, whose research is based on 20th century American history with a focus on race, politics, and class which is the main theme of his famous book Arc of Justice. Accordingly, Kevin Boyle won the National Book Award with AOJ and was invited to be an Organization of American Historians lecturer for 2006-2007.

This question is important because it first reveals how American cities “simmered with hatred, deeply divided as always…. Time and again in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, urban white proved themselves capable of savagery toward their black neighbors…” (6). Unless documented in novels such as Arc of Justice, the deep racism and brutal mistreatment of black people in the past may fade away from memory. The question is also important because it explains how “the Sweet case did help move America away from the brutal intolerance of the

The white people wanted all the resources for themselves; they did not want any other racial group to gain the same level of wealth or power.

In Kevin Boyle’s Arc of Justice: A saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, the author creates a way to describe the discrimination and horrible racial treatment inflicted on the African American community following the civil war and continuing into the 1900’s by following a black doctor’s life and his controversy in equality. The author sets the scene in the booming city of Detroit, a place many blacks ventured to when trying to escape the cruelty Jim Crow Laws forced upon many African Americans. The great migration of blacks fleeing to Detroit in search of a new life brought an increase of over seventy thousand people in just the short span of fifteen years. This sudden unwanted abundance of people, still disliked even in the North, lead to a city full of racial prejudices and unjust discrimination.

In the 1950 's African Americans had to deal with the impact of racism and employment. Many of them moved from the South of the world to the North and West. From the article Great Migration we can conclude that African Americans wanted to escape Jim Crow racism in the Southern states and seek a new beginning with better living opportunities (Scott). The housing industry was the greatest cause of segregated housing in Chicago. The south of this city consisted of overpriced, overcrowded, and poorly maintained apartments and homes. Most Blacks living in the ghetto had hopes of leaving to better suburban neighborhoods, but segregated housing kept them stuck in the ghetto. Andrew declares how white people were not willing to rent or give African Americans a decent land to build homes on because they didn 't want them to become a part of their communities (Wiese). Whites would do inappropriate behaviors to let Blacks know they wanted them to leave and were not welcomed. Meanwhile Whites lived with amenities, most Blacks lived in poor conditions and paycheck to paycheck. Most African Americans had low wage jobs and were limited to employment opportunities. If they were not born with rich parents they had to work and earn half the amount of money white people earned. The majority

The result of all the events going on brought out the ‘Jim Crow’ laws to divide blacks and whites as a form of segregation. Whites say it was to put the blacks in their place. These laws stopped the shared use of restaurants, schools, public transport, housing and hotels - at that point being referred to as ‘white’ schools, transport etc. As the years passed the blacks were slowly gaining more opportunities and people were even seeing black candidates being elected to Congress, State governments and city councils. They also started attending universities.

The issues of slavery led to racism in the United States. In order to treat slaves like property, slave owners had to be racist. People who worked in the office for the government were all rich

In our modern society where economic resources are gained by paid labor, there is often room for an unequal distribution of wealth. Hence, a laissez fare or “hands off” approach to the distribution of such economic resources will often case produce problems and inefficiencies in a society. Rawls says in his writing excerpts, “A Theory of Justice” from the Ethics in Practice textbook that a state ought to enforce constraints on the distribution of wealth because some types of redistribution are unjust. Rawls principle of justice revolves around a basic structure of society in order to regulate agreements and specify social cooperation. It is used in order to establish what agreements, governments and social issues will be established in accordance to the place. Rawls argues that the principle of justice is just if and only if it was chosen from the original position. Only Rawls principle of justice would be chosen from the original position, therefore only Rawls Principle of Justice are just.

I was born and partially raised in what some call Motown or the Motor City, but in my eyes, it was just Detroit, Michigan. My father is a native of the area and it is one of his favorite places in the world. You’ll practically have to pry the city out of the hands of a true Detroiter. However, I started to become aware of my families’ finances as I grew older. My mother (who is from Canada and does not have a heartwarming connection to the city) started to become disgruntled because she began to realize how much our property value was going down, yet the mortgage became more and more expensive every year. I became curious as to how the money we were paying for our Detroit home could buy a home at least twice as big in the suburbs. We’ve since moved to the suburbs living in a house that is much bigger and just a tad bit more expensive. I noticed that as soon as we moved out of the city. Our quality of living increased exponentially. However, all throughout my years in school, I heard about how Detroit was once considered ‘the Paris of the Midwest,’ with a booming economy and beautiful architecture. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the real estate in particular. Homes that were once big and beautiful across Detroit’s east side are either abandoned or they have been burned down, so there is nothing but blocks of abandoned lots. I am aware of the riots that took place in the 60’s and how white flight took place. However I could not fathom how the majority leaving a