The Role Of Segregation In The United States

Students of color in the United States struggle to access higher education, as a result of institutional racism and discrimination. This is troubling because college education is considered a way to increase opportunity and chances of success with finding employment and earning a high salary. This disparity can be attributed to the history of racial segregation in the US education system, which has produced differences of opportunity between students of color and white students (Chaisson 2004). It is difficult for students of color in higher education; specifically those who attend predominantly white institutions (PWI’s), because they must confront systemic racism at these institutions as well as in the larger US society. How can we combat these disparities? Is equal opportunity and equality in higher education is the answer? Seemingly this would be the solution, but Brower (2004) argues that it is not enough to have legal equal access to education because, “for those entering college, 56 percent of black Americans, compared to 36 percent of white Americans, never graduate.” (pg. 96). Although this statistic directly focuses on African American college populations, it has implications for all students of color. This begs the question, what makes students of color and white students so different? Based on the sociohistorical context of higher education in the US, the variable that changes the success of a college student and their likelihood to graduate is race.

Segregation played a major role throughout the lives of the African Americans. They were viewed as unequal, and were set apart from the norms of society. In the South, the African Americans were forced to use water fountains for blacks only. They were refused service at many local restaurants, and forced to give up their seat on the bus to a white individual. African Americans wanted and needed to take action to gain equality. Throughout the years, they tried all they could to obtain equality and enjoy the same freedoms as the white population.

In Spite of the devastating history of segregation in the United States. A lot has changed in the past fifty years since segregation ended. The United States shifted from arresting African Americans for using “white only” facilities to integrated schools all over the country. Influential individuals such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr helped pave the way for African Americans to live as equals to along with their white counterparts in the United States of America.

Just fifty years ago, America was a society of segregation and racism. The dictionary defines racism as “the belief that a particular race is superior to another.” Although it is clear times have changed, racism is still seen in modern american society. It’s also clear that relationships between African Americans and whites are generally better than they were in the forties and fifties. Today, it is rare to witness a black man walk down the street and step off the sidewalk to let a white man walk by, or to see a black man sitting on a different section of the bus or train because a white man told him he has too. But superiority of races is still happening. A lot of this has the do with the ignorance of others. Passed down generation to

Equality was once a repulsive concept within America, today it seems to be a foregone conclusion. Indeed, we have made so many strides in the way that we view race that it seems a gross misstep every time that it needs to be addressed. Even our President, an African American who overcame tremendous odds to rise to the highest office does not have the answers to our issues with race, rather he calls on us all to “ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career.” For most, these questions point to sources outside of themselves, but perhaps there a bit of introspection is the answer. Systematic segregation can

Society, as we know it today, consists of people who have evolved and developed mentally, culturally, geographically, and physiologically. Because people come from different walks of life, segregation has played a significant role in America. It is seemingly inescapable. The term segregation is known for its infamous history and the negative impact it has had on society. Due to its reputation, it is very uncommon that one studies the word in a positive way contrary to its negative connotation, to find that it has two sides, both pros and cons. Due to this fact, in this paper I will discuss the pros and cons that can be associated with segregation.

As an inhabitant of planet earth, I have watched the people grow and prosper and then fall back to old habits. Years ago, we were separated by race and even though we claim that time is over, it is not. Our country is a great example of segregation because we not only segregate by race, but by gender and sexual orientation as well. America was founded on preconceived expectations of gender and race leading to a segregation of consciousness that structures opinions around the injustices of stereotypes.

Race is invisible to white, because they don’t have to think about it. When white people are in poverty, they never think to consider their skin color as a factor to why they are. Whites are mostly oblivious to this happening in general, because it does not happen to them.

During the early 1960s, Birmingham, Alabama was considered to be one of the most racially divided cities in the United States despite the city's population of approximately 350,000 people and 60 percent being white and 40 percent being African Americans. Birmingham, Alabama’s law enforcement, firefighters, salesperson in department stores, school bus drivers, bank tellers, and cashiers had no employed African Americans. African Americans who were secretaries were not allowed to work for white professionals. Many jobs available for African Americans consisted of manual labor in factories, provided maid and yard services, or working in other African American neighborhoods. Jobs that had to lay off employees for whatever reasons would often lay

Segregation and racism are deeply rooted in American history, but racism has been a constant problem. Remnants of slavery were still in America, but in the form of segregation. Segregation is still wrong though, as it restricted the rights that every man, woman, and child should have.

After further research on each parts of the reconstruction, I have concluded that the African Americans did not reach full citizenship for many reasons, but three stood out: Black codes, Sharecropping and Poll taxes. First of all, the Black codes served three purposes and most codes called for the segregation of blacks and whites in public places. The purposes were to limit the rights of freedmen, help planters find workers to replace their slaves and to keep freedmen at the bottom of the social order in the South. Although this helped them on their way it also tore them down. Segregation came with the codes, Black kids had no public school to go to, African Americans right to vote or serve on juries was denied, and work was scarce. Therefore

To understand the issue of racial segregation in the United States, we need to remember about the process of country formation. We know that the United States was formed, initially, by British settlers, who gave rise to the Thirteen Colonies in the east coast of the country. However, the colonies of the South had a development different from those of the North. While in the North there was a model of small private ownership, with free work and wage labor, and the development of industry. On the other hand, in the South, the most common model was the large land ownership and monoculture, which characterizes the so-called plantation. In this model, contrary to what was practiced in the North, the use of slave labor was set, more precisely of

Racial segregation was a big part of our nation’s history. Our country deemed it acceptable to make African Americans use different water fountains, in fear of them giving white civilians diseases. White Americans forced blacks to use different bathrooms, and were allowed to be denied housing, if the landlord felt it was necessary. They were forced to sit in the back of public city buses. In the 1880’s, Jim Crow laws were passed, stating that segregation was allowed and to be enforced. Our society made African Americans fear not doing doing what we said, in fear of being hurt or killed by police officers that did not feel like blacks were equal to whites. Racial segregation, in my opinion, shaped how our society operated in the 1900’s.

How can racial segregation be separate, but equal? Racial Segregation is anything, but equal given the fact that the superior race (white) had more privileges, segregating schools gave the idea that children of color held lower status, and that in both cases Plessy v. Ferguson & Brown v. Board of Education were in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. With the separation of races the superior race would have more privileges. Segregating colored children from white children in schools created an idea that children of color held lower status in the community than white children. Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education were both taken to court, because of the inequality of racial segregation.

“So it is right for us to celebrate today Dr. King’s dream and his vision of unity. And yet it is also important on this day to remind ourselves that such progress did not come easily; that Dr. King’s faith was hard-won; that it sprung out of a harsh reality and some bitter disappointments,”- President Obama. This quote that president Obama stated has shown how far we have came, and the progress has happened, but it did not come easily. America has become a more just and tolerant society since the implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because segregation has lessened to almost little to none, women have way more rights, and everyone has the right to vote now as long as they are over 18. Some people may disagree, and say that segregation hasn’t changed much, and there is still a lot of racism but many things have changed because if there was still segregation African Americans, and White would not be aloud to go to school together, and many other reasons why segregation has lessened and everyone has gained more rights.