Describe the disadvantages that Black Americans faced in the early 1950's

Describe the disadvantages that Black Americans faced in the early 1950’s

In the early 1950’s, nearly a century after the black slaves had been freed, they still faced widespread discrimination and disadvantages. In 1863, following the civil war between Northern and southern states, President Lincoln passed the Emancipation proclamation to make all slaves free men. The Southern States were seen as the rebels of the country and so could not make their own laws until the 1880’s. As soon as they could make their own laws the South governments set up the Jim Crow laws. These laws were a way of separating the black and white communities. Segregation was the right to be separated but ‘equal’ this law set up many disadvantages for the black Americans, as although the races became separate they did not become equal. The whites’ facilities were better built and a lot more money was put into them.

Segregation made it impossible for the two races to mix, the blacks had different toilets, restaurants, schools and even drinking fountains. The blacks facilities were of much poorer condition, this was because of an endless cycle; they could not get a good education; this meant that they could not get a good enough job to produce enough money to pay tax and non-tax payers were not allowed to vote, so they couldn’t vote for the government that they believed would help the black community. This meant that they could not afford clean and healthy living conditions; for example black people had to share outside toilets and had to walk to get running water, and couldn’t afford to pay for a good education. As the education for the black pupils was of inferior quality, the black students had to put up with dreadful teachers, second, third or even worse hand text books, appalling classrooms and awful facilities. As many blacks were stopped deliberately from voting, by the government making it so that only tax payers or people that passed the test could vote the blacks did not have the freedom of speech that was promised to them in the USA’s civil rights.

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Nearly all the political views were from the white people, as hardly any blacks had the right education so that they could not get high-quality jobs, almost all of the police, lawyers and government were white, this meant that when the white members of the community committed a crime they often got away with it. For example when Emmett Till was murdered in 1955, the two men that murdered him got away without going to jail or even having to pay a fine. The two men even sold their story to a local newspaper after and still did not get into any trouble. The men had murdered the 14-year-old school boy only because he had a white girlfriend. This shows how much the blacks were discriminated against in the South and how different the lifestyles of the North and South were. The Southern States like Alabama and Mississippi had totally their own laws. For example there were black codes which prevented the blacks to move. The Klu Klux Klan; a secretive organisation of white people that wanted to get rid of the blacks lynched and assaulted the black Americans. As most police were white and often members of the Klu Klux Klan, they allowed lynching and discrimination against the blacks, turning a blind eye to their problems and suffering.

The black Americans lived in much poorer living conditions, often living in slums and this resulted in more racial issues to occur. Many of the white community feared and hated the blacks, as they did not want the blacks to take their jobs and money after the poverty in the southern States. The Klu Klux Klan stirred up racist beliefs, for example pointing out how dirty the blacks were when in fact they didn’t have the facilities to wash. They didn’t make enough money to have any power in the Southern States as they could not get the right job, this made it difficult for the blacks as all the laws and punishments were against them.

There were many factors that illustrated how the black Americans were discriminated against; segregation wasn’t equal, for example Rosa Parks was taken to court for sitting in the wrong part of the bus; they had much poorer living and social conditions, they had no power in the political world and they had a lot less money and lower place in economics than the whites. There was also the Klu Klux Klan that tried to make the blacks lives a misery, and although was illegal in the Northern laws, no attention was paid to the ‘Washington Laws’ in the Southern States. The disadvantages faced by the blacks were many and effected how the black community grew, poorer living conditions, a worse education, disenfranchisement, unfair constitution and racial prejudice. All the factors linked together to make it so that the black people of America could not get the rights to all the Civil Rights that they were entitled to. Despite all the rhetoric about civil rights the average black American did not receive the rights they deserved.