Black people in the USA in 1945 Essay Example for Free

Black people in the the States in 1945 EssayBlacks in the USA in 1945 were not conside rose-cheeked as advert the treatment of people was based on their skin colour, a practice that had been going on for m some(prenominal) years before, til now after the Reconstruction of society after the Civil War in which the blacks were liberated from slavery. In theory, blacks were free to work and live where they wanted, that the figures at the measure told a different story by 1960, around 17% of the workforce of white-collar workers, i.e. professional, technical, administration, etc., were blacks, while the whites re chief(prenominal)ed the absolute majority at 47%. The blue-collar work, such as craftsmen, manual labourers, etc. jobs that are ren featureed for needing less skill and education had 40% of the workforce as blacks, and 36% were whites. Blacks just werent provided the education and qualifications to do the professional types of work due to separation of black and white fa cilities. Not only were they held back at getting the higher-class jobs, they were paid less for the same work that whites did in 1950, blacks earned about 53% of a whites wage. This figure remained the same everyplace the next 20 years, with it rising 11% to blacks earning 64% of a whites wage. All over the USA, blacks were discriminated against in almost all areas of life, whether it is the law of the state, or just by the custom of the local society.After the abolishment of slavery, slaves had the choice of moving away from their causation homes and having their own lives unfortunately, many blacks didnt have any cash to move halfway across the USA to the northern states that had fought to free them. Those who did have the finance to travel rarely had enough money afterwards to sustain a good quality of life after they had moved. The custom of de facto came into play in some of the Northern states ghettos and places where the majority of the population were black sprung up in towns and cities. Segregation by custom in the North was contrasted with segregation by law, or de jure, in the South- Jim exult laws forbade blacks, for example, to discharge white facilities, or sit on buses with whites, etc.Places where de facto was in force came up with other ways to separate blacks from whites to keep the Southern order of things scarlet lining was when banks were not allowed to give money for mortgages if they suspected it would be a risky investment- if a black family moved into a certain area, it would lower the prices of the touch houses. Thismeant that places such as ghettos were built up, when the majority of the population were black. This type of segregation wasnt by law, that by custom, blacks werent forced to live in black areas, barely they felt pressured to live in certain places because of the practises such as red lining in effect.Although it is in the Constitution that everyone is exist and has the same civil rights, it is beliefs same r ed lining that push a wedge between races it may not seem constitutional, but it is up to the coercive Court in the USA to decide what is constitutional. They decided that slavery was lawful mainly due the fact that the Southern states economy was based on slavery they were needed to produce cotton, the main export in the 19th century. Without them, the economy would have fallen apart. After the 13th am haltment to the Constitution, slavery was no longer legal, but the Supreme Court unruffled remained to overlook state laws that continued diversity and practices that could be seen as worse then slavery- for example, the Ku Klux Klan were allowed to terrorise and lynch blacks, yet lynching was not made illegal.The Supreme Court declared that the 14th amendment forbids states, but not citizens, from discriminating (1) Separate facilities for blacks and whites were considered as the solution to the discrimination problem the Supreme Court believed that the blacks were separate but e qual when they were forced to use different buildings, transport, schools and hospitals then the whites. Since the Supreme Court approved laws and could declare them unconstitutional if they wanted to, they were the ones who the blacks has to convince if they wanted to change anything in legal cases, the trial had to be taken to the Supreme Court to have any impact, since the State Courts were always going to be in favour of the Jim Crow laws. The Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) case was when Homer Plessy refused to sit in the coloured car of a train and sat in the white section instead.The case went to Supreme Court, and they command that Plessy was guilty and sentenced him to pay a fine or go to jail. This was considered the most shameful ruling of the Supreme Court in history it envisions the extent of the discrimination against blacks, even after slavery was abolished- even though Plessy was 1/8 black and 7/8 white, he was still considered as black in the eyes of the Louisiana law. Although many people thought that this ruling wasshocking, there wasnt much that could be done, since they did not have a definite leader to show them what the do everything that the driveway did was relatively unorganised, with maybe one person leading the others. People such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Booker T. Washington time-tested to unite blacks under one leadership, but it did not work, because everyone has different opinion on what should be done about the discrimination problem.Dr Martin King Jr. was a black leader that advocated peaceful resistance because of this, many whites accepted him because they knew that he would not cause violence, but blacks did not like this as peaceful admit could only take them so far- they felt that King was worn outer then some of the other extremist black leaders, such as Malcolm X. Kings approach to fighting against their oppression wasnt enough to keep the blacks following him they preferred people who were willing to do more for the benefit of all blacks.Another leader who was thought as weak by fellow blacks was Booker T. Washington he was accused of being an accommodationist to the whites, as he wasnt campaigning for equal civil rights, he was concentrating on equal job opportunities- this wasnt what the blacks were fighting for they wanted to be free to do what the whites could do, not only in jobs but in other aspects of life too. The leaders of the movement were not united, therefore they were not strong- many leaders were critical of others, for example, W.E.B DuBois criticised Washington, saying that blacks cannot get mixer comparison if they do not get political equality first.The New palm is a phrase used to explain the actions taken after Black Tuesday when the US Stock market crashed to stop the effects of the low gear disturbing the lives of the public. Laws were passed to help stop the consequences of the Depression becoming a long-term problem within the first hundred days, President Roos evelt passed a law that take down workers salaries and pensions by up to 15%- a move that people did not like, yet it saved a lot of money for the government. Another act was passed that stated that the government could inspect banks before letting them open again so they could see if the bank was eligible to lend and hold money.This prevented banks lending out money that they did not have, therefore they did not losing money for their customers and wouldnt have to close, as theywould have to have done if they did lend out money they didnt have. The New Deal was produced so the government could help all of those that were affected by the Depression this helped the blacks because they were some of the poorest people in the USA at the time, and as many as 8% of blacks were unemployed in 1955. For the blacks, the New Deal slightly improved their way of living as it was designed to help everyone without discrimination. Soon after New Deal was set up, the situation for blacks was impro ved socially by the outbreak of the Second World War.When the Americans were brought into the war, they needed as many men as they could to fight blacks had regiments where they could spousal relationship and be equal to whites, but they still were not allowed to belong to the same regiment as the whites- there were some who did, but they were rare, they normally belonged to an all-black regiment. At the end of the war, the blacks got more ambitious they were allowed to fight for their country, but America wasnt even grateful enough of them to let them be equal. This would have enraged African Americans since they had fought so heavy(p) to be a part of America, so the Civil Rights movement activity increased, which put pressure on the government to do something. The Nazi ideology besides pushed the government into action, because what the Americans were doing to the blacks could be compared to the Germans discriminating against the Jews in Germany the blacks realised this, so dem anded equality, as they didnt want the same to happen to them.In conclusion, the position of blacks in 1945 was not equal to whites even after a century of supposed freedom from slavery, blacks were still treated as inferiors to whites. Laws and acts were in effect that encouraged the discrimination of blacks. Amendments such as the rights for blacks to vote and the rights for them to be equal were passed, but there were so many other laws that cancelled them out. Jim Crow laws in the South and practises such as red lining in the North made it impossible for blacks to be seen as equal politically, whilst rebellions by extremist whites and groups such as the Ku Klux Klan stopped blacks gaining any social standing or equality.Blacks were supposed to be equal, but by 1945, some may comment that the position of them was worse then slavery, as the blacks were on their own inthere poverty and discrimination before, they had their slave owners who would clothe and feed them to keep product ive workers- they would never be out on the streets as slaves, but as free people, they received basically no help. Things that whites took for granted, such as clean and good-quality facilities, and jobs that are fair and just are things that blacks counted themselves lucky if they managed to get any equality. People like Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. DuBois tried to get equality, twain through violence and peaceful means, but it didnt have much effect to the political and social standing of blacks. The discrimination of blacks continued right into the 20th century, even up into the 21st century. It was slow going for the blacks right to equality, but actions by both blacks and whites changed things for the better. However, in 1945, blacks were not considered as equal, but as 3/5s of a human being.Bibliography(1) http//www.alternativeinsight.com/Reparations-Slavery.htmlField, Ron Civil Rights in America 1865-1980 Cambridge University Presshttp//www.lawbuzz.com/can_you/plessy/p lessy.htmhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal