How far was peaceful protest responsible for the successes of the civil rights movement in the years 1955-64?

by supastyla (student)

How far is it accurate to describe black Americans and other ethnic minorities as second class citizens in the period 1945-53?

A second-class citizen is a person who is systematically discriminated against within an area and to some extent, black Americans and other ethnic minorities were treated as second class citizens, not only socially but within politics, legislation and economically too. Black and white Americans were segregated against, however in the years between 1945 and 1953, there were several improvements to their position but by the end of 1953 they were not seen as equal still and therefore still second class citizens. The Jim Crow laws ensured that blacks were not seen as real Americans and were to be treated differently. Blacks were not denied the right to education or to vote, but the quality of education was much poorer for them, and the possibility of registering to vote was so low that it was almost impossible. The geographical divide in America however shows how there were different levels of treatment to blacks, but how far they were treated as equal citizens is debateable.

The social issues are probably the most obvious in showing how black Americans were treated as second class citizens because social inequality caused segregation in restaurants and other public places, on public transport, educational opportunities and importantly the ghetto and overcrowded housing. Blacks and whites were not allowed to sit in restaurants, cinemas or on public transport with white people and the superiority of the white man was even that if a white was on a walkway and there was only room for one, the black man must move off the pavement and allow the white to continue on his way. CORE began introducing sit-ins in segregated restaurants and did begin to fight off the rules of separation between the two ethnicities. Blacks had accepted their position in society and in the south, to begin with at least, there were very few activists and people were not prepared to publicly challenge the Jim Crow laws. Though life was, generally, better in the North, there was still great inequality there too and therefore schools in both areas of the US were segregated and the black schools were inferior, with usually about 5 times more money being spent on the white schools. It wasn’t until 1954 that the inequality of the school system was brought in a highly publicised law case to the Supreme Court (BROWN v BOARD OF EDUCATION). However, northern schools were generally better, shown by King as he moved North to Philadelphia and Boston to complete his education, plus both Thurgood Marshall and Adam Clayton Powell gained qualifications to become a distinguished lawyer (Marshall) and a minister, journalist and a councillor (Powell). Whites were unwilling to live near blacks and black housing was generally built poorly, with no heating and often rat-infested. Black homes were of less value to the state too, for example in Washington DC’s black community, 100 black homes were demolished to make way for the War Department’s Pentagon building and for the extension of Arlington Cemetery during WWII. Segregation on buses and other public transportation was common nationwide too, with the drivers often being rude to blacks and if there was no room left in the white area of the bus, the blacks would have to move and stand up. There was a lot of tension in the workplace as from 1943, companies had to employ blacks and white workers often lashed out at black workers with any ‘weapons’ they could find in some cases. Some white men were outraged that black men could work alongside white women and thought it wasn’t morally right for them to be placed together. However, the GI Bill of Rights did reward returning servicemen with free college education – though the quality of this education varied. Also, due to the migration during the period, blacks gained not only greater safety (as it was easier for white supremacists to intimidate rural blacks whereas large numbers congregating in a town or a city were less vulnerable) but also better economic and political power.

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Blacks were poorly, if at all, represented in politics which is why their situation was so difficult to change as if they had no-one of their own in parliament then they would always be seen as second class. Not only were they unrepresented in parliament, it was made almost impossible for blacks to be able to vote due to the unaffordable poll tax of $16.50 and ridiculous “literacy” questions which even included questions such as ‘How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap?’; this meant that few registered to vote, as little as 3% could vote in 1940, however by 1941, 12% could vote. In the North, things were mostly the same, however despite being able to vote in late 1945, the election of sympathetic representatives wasn’t guaranteed, and in 1945 only 2 black members were elected to Congress (William Dawson for Chicago and Adam Clayton Powell from Harlem). In 1944 however the NAACP won the Supreme Court decision (SMITH v. ALLWRIGHT) which declared the exclusion of blacks from primaries unconstitutional under the 15th Amendment however most Supreme Court rulings were ignored by the south. WWII made many black soldiers realise that they were fighting against the racist evil of Hitler when they themselves are discriminated against in their own country and WWII showed them this, especially when the news of the extermination camps reached the US. The treatment of the Japanese was also bad, and some were imprisoned in concentration camps in the USA and were deprived of property and freedom, similarly, Native Americans were moved off oil rich lands and made homeless. A Philip Randolph helped to unionise railway porters and improve their legal status too, and often used trade unions to put pressure on the government. Black policemen were rare and this meant a bias in legal treatment towards blacks and in almost every court case the jury and the judge would all be white and it would be almost pointless to attempt to plead innocent against a white person. However the growing support for CORE and the NAACP meant that they began to slowly erode away the idea of ‘separate but equal’; it was finally decided later that no two things could be equal and therefore the ruling ‘separate but equal’ was impossible.

King realised at one point in his campaigns that the situation in the North was not so much political struggles but economic and in the South both problems were equally valid. Due to the increasing number of returning soldiers learning in colleges, many became well educated and therefore more likely to have better job opportunities and therefore the group of middle class blacks began to grow. For southern blacks there were low-paid menial jobs on offer with little opportunity for higher placed jobs because of their lack of education and the obvious fact. One common source of income was the sharecropping but this did not bring in much money and as migration occurred, it became less and less popular. There was a resentment of black soldiers as they returned home in search of work and white people became jealous if any black person was promoted beyond a “normal” job; there was tension in the workplace before the black soldiers returned too, and it created a hostile atmosphere and employers avoided employing both blacks and whites where possible. There were however some positive aspects, for instance, in Maryland and Virginia there was a ruling that all black teachers would have equal salaries. A Philip Randolph improved economic opportunities for blacks by helping to end white trade union discrimination against blacks. Blacks had fewer job opportunities than whites in the North too, and Malcom X lied in a ghetto, and took on a variety of low-paid unskilled jobs, such as a shoeshine, railroad waiter and other demeaning jobs. Well-paid jobs did start arising however, such as Detroit car manufacturing but these were still low status. One major advance for economic rights, a group that tried to help blacks escape from their second class citizenship was the Fair Employment Practices Committee which was set up by Roosevelt in response to Randolph demanding equality within the armed forces and the workplace or he’d bring the capital to a standstill. The FEPC aimed to promote equality in defence industries, in which two million blacks were employed. Similarly, one of CORE’s activities was to lead several bus boycotts to force the company to employ more blacks. The FEPC was not very successful in is work; 2/3rds of 8000 job discrimination cases referred to them were dismissed and only 1/5 of Southern cases were black victories. After time too, southern congressmen decreased the FEPC’s funding. As time continued to the end of the period, blacks got better jobs, and they slowly increased their status in economic terms as more and more worked their way into the middle class.

Despite the fact that blacks and other ethnic minorities were given education, housing (mostly) and given the chance to vote (eventually), they were second class citizens – whites were always superior over them and if a white were to be asked they would probably not class black people as citizens of the US. To some extent therefore, blacks were second class citizens but as time passed, they slowly began to rise out of their low status and become more involved in politics, get better jobs and more money and the Jim Crow law effects slowly faded away; however they were far from equal in the American society. The greatest issue there was that stopped them from being first class citizens of America were the social attitudes towards other ethnicities and the reluctance of white people to accept the blacks into their society and treat them as equals. The evidence that blacks were second class citizens outweighs the evidence they were not by a long way and this was the same for years to come after 1953.

Bibliography:

‘Civil Rights in the USA 1945-1968’ – Sanders

‘Better Day Coming’ – Adam Fairclough