Why Was De Jure Segregation In The United States?

The end of de jure segregation came during the time of industrialization and urbanization in the 20th century. One of the main reasons that led to de jure segregation was due to the increase of mechanization. Farms and plantation relied less on labor-intensive work due to machines replacing people. An abundance of strong slaves became less needed. As African Americans moved North to escape the history of slavery, many found the North was more open in allowing slaves to have rights such as vote as the Democratic party adopted rights for African Americans to bridge the gap that was between races (187-188). Also, Franklin Roosevelt brought forth the Fair Employment Practices Commission which helped ensure fair employment. Finally, a significant
revolution for African Americans was the civil rights movement which helped end legalized segregation through lawsuits, marches and demonstrations. These events along with many other race-defying protests helped lead to the end of de jure segregation (188). Overall, in this movement, I firmly believe a lot of this social change was a result of the actions of African Americans acting against the system rather than broad social forces.
Yes, broad social forces did have an effect in changing the social world, but I believe it was weaker than African American actions. I believe this because of many reasons. The first reason being that African Americans networked during this time to control organizations and institutions that supported modes of protest like the NAACP. Secondly, most people of the United States supported the idea of equality for all since America is the land of life and liberty for all. Because of this, most people felt sympathetic towards African Americans and wanted to help them get out of difficult situations. Many groups like White liberals, Jews and college students supported African Americans and collectively there was a significant group supporting the civil rights movement. Because of this African Americans had more resources which mobilized the group out of the situation. Thirdly, these actions of protest caused a lot of media coverage since the events were revolutionary. These media outlets showed viewers the violence that Blacks would often face which brought into question the morals of America
(191-192). The people who pushed for changes were the cause that brought on policy changes which truly got rid of de jure segregation. By the 1960s and 70s, the issue of racial change had succeeded and there is proof of this because there were laws made to prevent discrimination in the armed services, employment discrimination, voting discrimination, and housing discrimination (187-191). Issues that were left unresolved after the 1970s and continue to still be a problem for many African Americans include poverty, wage discrimination, residential discrimination and educational discrimination (234).