In the 1990’s - President Clinton was mostly involved with the Irish Peace Process and the Middle East Peace Process.
Another reason why Black people failed to achieve equality was because most of them lived in the inner city suburbs. These areas received little investment because most people with the money to invest were white and they were drawn away because of what had happened in the race riots. The race riots caused lots of damage to people’s property and the potential investors in the inner cities saw it as a risk because the same problem could occur again.
Lack of funding also affected education in the Black inner cities. There were also very few jobs available to Black people and the ones which were available were low paid. They were also jobs without any major prospects. These positions were poor in contrast with the jobs available in other areas of the city. It was hard to move away from the inner cities as the jobs paid so little that Black people could not afford property in other areas. This was a continuous cycle and kept Black people in the inferior position that they had been in all their lives.
The race riots were a major reason why many White people thought that Black people were inferior and also uncivilised. The fact that 250 people were killed and around 10,000 people were injured in the race riots did not help the Black Movement. This is because blame for these injuries and deaths were placed on the Black people.
The racial attitudes of people who were raised with the firm belief that Black people were inferior did not help the Civil Rights Movement. Whatever the Government did to try to desegregate the United States could not change these people’s beliefs. The Government could change the way Black people were treated by authorities, such as not being allowed into colleges because they were black, but could never make people give jobs to or sell houses to Black people because of resistance to their skin colour. These actions are of a personal level and would continue to live on in people whatever legislation was passed.
The Government was dealing with the symptoms of racism (desegregation) but were unable or unwilling to address the cause (people’s attitudes, beliefs and prejudices against Black people), therefore, White people, in general, complied with the Governments wishes because of economic advantages, rather than because they believed in desegregation
