Describe the main ways in which blacks felt themselves discriminated against in the United States in the period from 1945 to 1960.

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Describe the main ways in which blacks felt themselves discriminated against in the United States in the period from 1945 to 1960

By Ali Gosling

During the period of 1945 to 1960, life for Black Americans was very difficult. Discrimination plagued the country, which created extreme inequality between themselves and the white Americans. In all areas of society, different rules and laws stood for the different races as the whites thought the blacks to be inferior and not deserving of a life like their own. This caused segregation, separating races into classes of wealth and authority. The blacks fought for equal opportunities, risking their lives to change the racial opinions that prevented liberty in the United States.

Every area of life was affected by this discrimination, socially blacks were not even considered worthy of using the same public facilities. They couldn’t eat in the same restaurants, drink at the same fountains, walk in the same local parks, use the same bathrooms and in severe cases, have mixed marriages. This showed the unfairness in classes. Whites only restaurants were modern, up-market and stylish, whereas the blacks were cheap, dirty and below standards. Many protested against this with sit-ins, when blacks sat in the white restaurants in protest to the laws, but it was a long time until anything was changed. Also, it was a rule that blacks could only sit at the back of buses, and they must give up their seats to a white person, no matter what the circumstances.

As part of a growing civil rights movement, many people protested against these laws, claiming them to be unethical. Rosa Parks is one example of how the blacks fought against the discrimination cast upon them.  On December 1st, 1955, Rosa parks refused to move out of her seat to make way for a white man, in Montgomery, Alabama. As a result, she was arrested, charged, fined and imprisoned creating uproar within the black community. This provoked a yearlong protest against the bus laws, in which the black community joined together and refused to use the buses. Instead, they walked for miles or shared car journeys; consequently this caused the Bus Company to loose passengers and therefore money. After a year of stalemate, the Bus Company finally gave in and equality was brought to the buses. Freedom riders ensured that the newly enforced law was kept intact. The boycotts of the buses was considered a massive success and saw the introduction of Martin Luther King, an inspiring figure who led the attack to rid America of racial discrimination.

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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 ...

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