The fight against segregation was so extremely difficult as the white hatred towards blacks was so strong. This was shown with the enforcement of the “Jim Crow” laws and organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan. These groups were a reflection of the frightening depth of racial hatred of white Americans. They believed that blacks should be no more than slaves should, as they were inferior to whites and did not deserve to be treated as equals. The job of the KKK was to strike fear into the black people so they would not protest against the unfair authority, and therefore protect white supremacy. They did this by lynching, torturing and horrifically murdering innocent blacks (burning alive and hanging for example) to show their superiority. An example of this is the death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was brutally murdered for whistling at a white girl. The men accused were clearly guilty, but were declared innocent by an unjust, bias court. This shows the unfair treatment judicially in the corrupt legal system. Such organisations scared all blacks in America and are an example of the extreme discrimination that blacks faced in what was considered to be an immoral country.
It was not just in public that the blacks were discriminated against, housing statistics showed that the majority of blacks were living in ghettos with appalling conditions whilst the whites enjoyed upper-class, expensive housing in richer, suburban areas. This situation was one of the hardest for the blacks to protest as it affected the lives of everybody. Property values would drop a great deal if an African American family moved into a neighbourhood that wasn’t a ghetto. So most banks, realtors and homeowners would not sell nicer homes to blacks as they did not want to live in a mixed society, and most blacks could not afford the housing anyway. “In 1960, a civil rights commission report said that 57% of all non-white housing was below standards”, whereas the vast majority of white housing was well above standard. Harlem is one example of blacks being forced to live together in a rundown area, and this segregation still remains today. President Truman tried to give greater federal aid to impoverished blacks by opening more public housing in 1948. However, the administrations urban renewal programme often left blacks homeless, as there was less space in the newer, more spacious public housing units that the slums replaced. As a result of the bad living conditions the blacks faced, “African Americans life expectancy was 7 years less than whites, and their infant mortality was twice as great as whites.” With the situation as bad as this, it would take decades to create equal living in housing.
The problem of discrimination in housing could not be solved until the problem of unequal jobs and wages were confronted. African Americans found it almost impossible to get mortgages from mortgage lenders, as their salaries were not good enough. “Black unemployment was two and a half times that of whites and the average black family income was less than half that of the whites”, this statistic summed up the economic deprivation experienced by the blacks. Without the money to move into the more expensive housing, no progress could be made on the housing situation. The average black income was always much lower than whites and “only 52% of the national average”. A black person could do exactly the same job as a white person, but still get paid less because of the colour of their skin. However not only did the blacks get paid less, the jobs they were given were bottom of the employment scale. As they were considered inferior, they would be given the worst jobs, like road sweepers and factory workers, because the whites felt that a black person should not have a better job than any white person should. Unsurprisingly the whites were happy with the situation as showed in a poll conducted in 1949. It showed that “only 33% of whites wanted the introduction of the fair employment bill”; this was because the whites were doing well as a result of the racial discrimination in the economy.
One reason that the whites got better jobs than the blacks was because they were better educated and blacks were not given an equal chance. Schools were strictly segregated, so black children were forced to go to schools that could not provide as good an education. Even if a ‘white only’ school was closer, the black children would still have to travel the further distance. There are many examples of this injustice. In 1957, 9 black students applied to go to Little Rock High School, but there was strong white resistance from the community who abused and attacked the students when trying to enter. After much disagreement, the children were allowed to attend under the surveillance of National Guard. The actions of the whites as the blacks tried to enter the school shows how passionately they opposed desegregation, even though a law had been past in the “BROWN Vs BOARD OF EDUCATION” decision, that resulted in segregation in schools becoming an illegal act. However, even though a law was passed, “the number of black children in schools with white pupils was still only 15.9%, and black educational achievement remained well below white levels." Many whites did all they could to keep the black and white children separate, showing the discrimination towards blacks in education. With a better education from a mixed school, the black people could look for better jobs with better pay and therefore afford better housing.
Perhaps the biggest discrimination against the black people of America was politically; with the prevention of them getting the vote. Although federal laws were passed allowing all races to vote, white authorities still tried to prevent blacks from voting. It was extremely easy for white people to vote, but it was made very difficult for blacks to obtain the same privilege. There were many more black voters in the North than in the south as the south used as many laws as possible to prevent the blacks from voting. They set requirements including the ability to read and write, which disqualified many blacks who had no access to education, property ownership, something that very few blacks were able to acquire and paying a poll tax, a burden too great for most of the extremely poor southern blacks. Even the select few that fitted with all these categories were allowed to vote for the democratic primaries because they were only open to whites. Also, the courthouse was frequently not in session for registrations, and when it was, any excuse was used to prevent a black person from voting. One way this was done was to ask impossible questions to see if they were liable to vote. “How many bubbles in a bar of soap” is just one example. The Justice Department brought 57 lawsuits against local officials for obstructing African Americans who wished to register their right to vote. Polls showed that “only 6% of voters supported the civil rights programme”, this demonstrates the whites opinion on the blacks getting the vote. In 1963, only 800,000 out of 20million black people were on the voting rolls. “In some places, blacks made up to 50% of the population, but only 1% of the votes.” Without the vote, the discriminated black people in America could not change the country to create equality and racial justice, and this is just how the racial majority of whites wanted it to stay.
So although not all whites in America were racist, the majority used their superiority and power to discriminate all blacks living in the United States between 1945 and 1960. The mass activism and civil disobedience that took place by blacks showed their unhappiness with a country riddled with racism showed their fight for civil rights. There were many areas in which blacks were discriminated against, and it took a long time before equality was created between the races and the blacks were classed as true American citizens.