Why the Progress of Racial Equality Was so Slow in America.
Why the progress of racial equality was so slow in America.
SIGNS OF CHANGE BY 1955:
How far is it accurate to say that the status of black Americans varied considerably in 1945?
Political:
Politically, blacks had no say in elections. They were prevented from voting by the “legal” means of state laws that established the qualifications required to vote. These ranged from the grandfather clause (you had to be able to prove the previous two generations had voted) to the literacy clause (the ability to read).
Where blacks had the vote, they could still be prevented from voting by the mechanics of the election e.g. the eight ballot box law required you to choose the correct ballot box out of a choice of eight! Where all else failed, violence could be used to intimidate blacks and thus prevent them from voting.
Politically, there were no laws preventing blacks from voting in the north, although poverty sometimes prevented registration of the right to vote. When blacks voted, although they had generally supported the Republican Party until 1932, they largely switched their allegiance from 1936 to the Democratic Party.
Social:
The consequence of the Plessy v Ferguson case was the proliferation of segregation across the South. The judges decided that segregation was lawful as long as black and white citizens had access to facilities that were equally good. Transport, education, all public facilities were segregated; even in death southern cemeteries provided segregation.
Segregation in the south was also an attitude of mind which governed even the smallest aspects of behaviour, including how people stood, sat, ate, walked and made eye contact. There were unspoken rules which governed the way that black and white people related to each other. For example whites never called black men ‘Mr’ or black women ‘Mrs’. Black and white children had learned this by the age of three or four.
Despite segregation white people often relied on black people for
SIGNS OF CHANGE BY 1955:
How far is it accurate to say that the status of black Americans varied considerably in 1945?
Political:
Politically, blacks had no say in elections. They were prevented from voting by the “legal” means of state laws that established the qualifications required to vote. These ranged from the grandfather clause (you had to be able to prove the previous two generations had voted) to the literacy clause (the ability to read).
Where blacks had the vote, they could still be prevented from voting by the mechanics of the election e.g. the eight ballot box law required you to choose the correct ballot box out of a choice of eight! Where all else failed, violence could be used to intimidate blacks and thus prevent them from voting.
Politically, there were no laws preventing blacks from voting in the north, although poverty sometimes prevented registration of the right to vote. When blacks voted, although they had generally supported the Republican Party until 1932, they largely switched their allegiance from 1936 to the Democratic Party.
Social:
The consequence of the Plessy v Ferguson case was the proliferation of segregation across the South. The judges decided that segregation was lawful as long as black and white citizens had access to facilities that were equally good. Transport, education, all public facilities were segregated; even in death southern cemeteries provided segregation.
Segregation in the south was also an attitude of mind which governed even the smallest aspects of behaviour, including how people stood, sat, ate, walked and made eye contact. There were unspoken rules which governed the way that black and white people related to each other. For example whites never called black men ‘Mr’ or black women ‘Mrs’. Black and white children had learned this by the age of three or four.
Despite segregation white people often relied on black people for