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African Americans' Civil Rights in USA, 1929-1990.

Uploaded by cepb on Nov 08, 2007

[size=15:5623715336]During the period 1929 to 1990, the lives of the black people changed a lot, and overall by 1990, their lives had greatly improved.

In 1920, 10% of the US population was black and most of them lived in the southern states. As a result of the [i:5623715336]Jim Crow[/i:5623715336] segregation laws, they suffered the worst education, the lowest jobs, and they lived in separate areas of cities, known as ghettoes. There was a constant risk of attack by the Ku Klux Klan, and the lynchings of black people for petty crimes (without trial) were common public events.

Black people lived lives totally apart from white people. Even in the army during the Second World War, the Jim Crow Army was for the black people and the main army for the whites. Despite the black people fighting for their country, they were still victims of bullying by most of the GIs in the army. During the Second World War, the membership of the NAACP, (the movement for black people’s civil rights) had increased by 9 times by 1945. As a result of this, extra pressure was put on the government to improve the situation of the black people. Despite this, the only improvement made, was the law which made segregation in weapon factories illegal. The black people of USA still faced mass segregation economically, socially and politically. And although they had the right to vote, a written test had to be passed in order to confirm their right to vote. With poor education, this was virtually impossible for most African Americans.

Small victories were won all the time. One example is the Bus Boycott in 1956. Black people were forced to move to the back of public buses, in order to make room for the whites. In 1955, Rosa Parks, a middle aged African American, refused to move to the back because of her tiredness. After causing outrage, she was arrested which drew much public attention. As a way of protest, for 13 months after, the black people boycotted the buses in Montgomery under the leadership of Martin Luther King, and since 75% of the bus users were black, this had a huge effect on the bus company. As a result, in 1956, the law was passed to make segregation on buses illegal. However, many of the transport companies refused to comply, so the law was passed in 1957 which enforced...

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Uploaded by:   cepb

Date:   11/08/2007

Category:   American

Length:   4 pages (841 words)

Views:   6447

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