I chose the era from 1941 until 1970. The period that can be framed with 1941 and 1970 is the time when the Second Great Migration of African Americans happened in the United States. Most African Americans travelled from the South to the North or to the northern part of either coast. Their destinations were chiefly big industrial cities so that they could be employed in industrial spheres. In their search for a better life, however, discrimination still haunted them in any part of the country back at that time. It was expressed not only in denial but also constant intimidation, threats and other suchlike things (Boustan, 2010, 20).
Segregation that was thriving throughout America (though it should be recognized that people in the South have always been more aggressive towards African Americans than people in other parts of the United States) unfortunately led to a big variety of challenges migrants met. Let me elaborate on some of these challenges. Among other things, they started to be reflected in literature, for instance, in works of Margaret Walker who was not only a writer but Also an African American who herself, living in Minnesota with her husband, experienced all the direness of being haunted (Racial Segregation in the American South: Jim Crow Laws.).
First of all, this was the impossibility to enjoy the right for education. It is hard to believe but very often even the Supreme Court was not a sufficient reason for Universities to admit black people to education. For instance, there was a notorious event when Autherine Lucy was prohibited to enroll. She went all the way to Supreme Court and proved her right to study but in less than a month she was suspended from the University of Alabama, allegedly for her safety but in reality because nobody wanted her to study along with the whites. She was later readmitted but then finally kicked out again, for good now. It was no earlier than 1963, i.e. seven years later that a black student was enrolled at any American University again (The African American Legacy and the Challenges of the 21st Century).
Depriving of educational opportunities was bigger than depriving of instruction. It was deprivation of any prospects for a profession which predefined, therefore, the very dire future of every African American.
The most abundant group of challenges African Americans faced was the group of economic obstacles. Before everything else, African Americans were not hired for decent jobs, if any at all. The maximum they were allowed to do in most cases was technical services and suchlike things. Nobody saw African Americans as managers, doctors, professors or any white collars whatsoever. The fact that working places were generally scarce at that point of time only accentuated the tangibility of the problem. Another economic problem that was very painful for African Americans was housing. Blacks had to live in ghettos that were notorious with their criminal record. They were restricted from buying property in certain areas of towns – in those rare cases when African Americans had enough money from somewhere to buy such property (The History of African-American’s Segregation in the 20th century).
Another encroachment on the rights of African Americas happened in the political sphere. The blacks were virtually made politically taciturn, which can best be deduced from their being deprived of suffrage. To keep the face of a democracy for the United States this was not made directly, though. It was defined, instead, by specific laws that African Americans had to pay a special tax to become eligible for casting a ballot (The African American Legacy and the Challenges of the 21st Century). Of course, apart from it being unconstitutional in itself under the fourteenth amendment, it also meant that blacks had no possibility to comply with this demand as well – as it has already been mentioned above, it was just impossible to find a decent job, if any at all, and to make enough money for such things.
Another – and the final one I will mention – challenge the African Americans faced was social discrimination. This includes host of manifestations of hostility – beginning with as small (though painful) ones as prohibiting blacks use toilets for whites or drive the same bus the whites drive, and finishing with massive movements insults like Ku Klux Klan was. IN this sense, the South was much more conservative and therefore cruel towards African American than the North (Kelly and Lewis, 2000, 73). Therefore, life of African Americans within the given timeframe was very painful not only because of their being deprived of many rights, many of them being fundamental (and, by the way, being therefore already stipulated in UN documents at that time, to which the United States had acceded). Their being subject to constant threat emanating from hostile people and, in many respects, hostile state was also a powerful reason.
Now, how did African Americans succeed to resist and overcome all these obstacles?
In my opinion, there were several things that made African Americans succeed, and these things, I think, were very simple – unity and persistence. Of course, this may sound generic and pathetic, totally not as specific instruments for gaining success, but all the same this is the way it happened. Suffice it to remember that the core principle of Martin Luther King movement was non-violence. He characterized his intended means of achieving equality as the “courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love” (Non-violent resistance). He never intended to fight the whites but rather wanted to implement his famous dream of brotherhood between races (Darby, 1990, 142). That is why, Africans Americans had their power in congregation, unity and persistence. If they had used violent measures like assaults, god forbid – terroristic acts, or just violent riots, the result would hardly be like the one we know. The conflict would have protracted and the state would be much more reluctant to grant any rights whatsoever to people who are so disquiet. To the contrary, massive appeals to the authorities, which was well beyond the rights of every citizen, yielded their fruit: the situation has slowly changed (Free at Last. The U.S. Civil Rights Movement). The mentioned decision of the Supreme Court about admitting Lucy to the University was already a half-way success: blacks made it possible for their rights to be officially recognized by the state. The next step was law enforcement which still took some time, but which eventually also took place.
President’s Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Act of 1960, President Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964, numerous Supreme Court’s decisions that eventually let the black use common public transport, other public infrastructure, gain education and get employed unrestrictedly – all of this was the result of the non-violent resistance on the part of African Americans. They organized numerous meetings, where mostly youth participated, like ones in Southern states in 1960 or in the North East in 1964; they organized a peaceful march to Washington across the country to show their determination. And eventually, they succeeded.
Segregation and discrimination truly penetrated every sphere of lives of African Americans. They were denied fundamental freedoms and rights, they had neither political rights nor economic opportunities that would loom ahead; they were insulted and threatened. However, they managed to change the situation by something that one may even call an unconventional way of struggling, so rarely this happens – by peaceful means, by firmness, persistence and diligence.
Bibliography
"Racial Segregation in the American South: Jim Crow Laws." (2007). Prejudice in the Modern World Reference Library. Global Issues In Context.
Boustan, L. P. (2010). "Was Postwar Suburbanization "White Fight"? Evidence from the Black Migration". Quarterly Journal of Economics 125: 417–443.
Darby, Jean. (1990). Martin Luther King. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications.
Free at Last. The U.S. Civil Rights Movement. (N.d.) Retrieved at: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/media/pdf/books/free-at-last.pdf
Kelley, Robin D. G., and Earl Lewis. (2000). To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nonviolent Resistence. (N.d.). Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. Retrieved at: http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_nonviolent_resistance.1.html
The African American Legacy and the Challenges of the 21st Century. (N.d.). U.S. Department of the Interior. Office of Civil Rights. Retrieved at: https://www.doi.gov/pmb/eeo/AA-HM
The History of African-American’s Segregation in the 20th century. (2014). Hubpages. Retrieved at: http://hubpages.com/politics/Could-African-Americans-be-considered-Second-class-citizens-during-the-20th-Century
