How Far Is It Accurate to Describe Black Americans as Second Class Citizens in the Years 1945-55?
- Submitted by: sukhyd
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- Category: History: American
- Date Submitted: 12/09/2010 05:57 PM
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How far is it accurate to describe black Americans as second class citizens in the years 1945-55?
Pre 1945, Truman’s predecessor Roosevelt helped unemployment and ended slavery, so the black population switched from the republican vote to democratic and Truman needed to take action to keep the support. Black people in the south were treated worse than those in the North, which resulted in mass migration as there were more industrial jobs in the city, but even in the North the pay was still unequal and in the South especially, the economical, social and political aspects were significantly lower for Blacks as housing was substandard, all facilities and transport was segregated and there was more extreme racism but in the North there was no segregation on transport and in education but there were less job opportunities for the black unemployed people. In the South only 15% could vote but in the North the black population could determine the balance of power so more voted. Overall things were improving for black people in the North rather than the Southern states.
After the Second World War, politics was dominated by the cold war- USSR and USA, communism versus capitalism respectively, the USA were in conflict as they believed communism was wrong and resulted in a lack of freedom, but in contradiction to this, freedom wasn’t available for all in America either so there were elements of hypocrisy due to lack of equality.
Harry S Truman was a democrat and took presidential office from 1945-53. He was the first sympathetic president to civil rights. He understood that there were social developments in place and the black population began to have a voice such as organisations like the NAACP. Immobilised Black American soldiers were given the chance to have a college education and they had took advantage of this, they had also been treated like heroes in Europe but were unequal in the USA- Truman saw this was injustice and though they shouldn’t be subject to...
Pre 1945, Truman’s predecessor Roosevelt helped unemployment and ended slavery, so the black population switched from the republican vote to democratic and Truman needed to take action to keep the support. Black people in the south were treated worse than those in the North, which resulted in mass migration as there were more industrial jobs in the city, but even in the North the pay was still unequal and in the South especially, the economical, social and political aspects were significantly lower for Blacks as housing was substandard, all facilities and transport was segregated and there was more extreme racism but in the North there was no segregation on transport and in education but there were less job opportunities for the black unemployed people. In the South only 15% could vote but in the North the black population could determine the balance of power so more voted. Overall things were improving for black people in the North rather than the Southern states.
After the Second World War, politics was dominated by the cold war- USSR and USA, communism versus capitalism respectively, the USA were in conflict as they believed communism was wrong and resulted in a lack of freedom, but in contradiction to this, freedom wasn’t available for all in America either so there were elements of hypocrisy due to lack of equality.
Harry S Truman was a democrat and took presidential office from 1945-53. He was the first sympathetic president to civil rights. He understood that there were social developments in place and the black population began to have a voice such as organisations like the NAACP. Immobilised Black American soldiers were given the chance to have a college education and they had took advantage of this, they had also been treated like heroes in Europe but were unequal in the USA- Truman saw this was injustice and though they shouldn’t be subject to...