Racism and segregation are just as evident today as they were in the 1950's. Although we all try to close our eyes and make it seem as though we do not have racism in the United States, we do. Segregation in schools is not something in the past anymore, segregation is unfortunately still around and is affecting everyone in the country. Even though it has been a long time since slavery and segregation, racism amongst Americans is still present today.
In 1954 there was a little girl who was in the third grade named Linda Brown, she had to go to school four miles away because the "white" school would not let her attend. Even though the "white" school was only a few blocks away they would not let her go there and instead she had to go to a school where the school was a dangerous four miles away. When her father decided that this was unfair, he decided to do something about it. Her father decided to look for help in the NAACP, they were eager to help. They went onto say that because blacks were forced to go to different schools that they were being considered inferior to whites therefore making schools unequal.
Americans are now are being reminded of race everyday because one of the presidential candidates is black. While we try to say that race no longer takes part in our world, it does. In politics and in the world, race is a huge part of the united states. It's as if though people are being racist to themselves.
This poll shows that African Americans and other races believe that there is still racism in the united states today.
In the 1960's George C. Wallace said "Segregation now, segregation forever." but then again, "In this speech, delivered to a largely white student audience at the University of California at Berkeley on October 1966, Carmichael states the Civil Rights Act exists in order to ease the conscience of white America, and that the fight against white supremacy was not yet finished," even then, Carmichael knew that racism was not something that was just going to go away.
As Harriet Breecher Stowe once said, "When whites were captured, taken prisoner by Indians, they were separated from their families, and Indians would keep them, let's say, hoeing corn. Rhetorically, Mrs. Stowe asked, Is escaping a sin? Are the Indians now "your masters"? Are you now "their servants"? duty-bound to stay with them? to not escape? Is that God's will for you? If opportunity to escape occurs, is escaping a sin? or taking Indians' food or supplies for the journey with you? Instinctively, Northerners understood Mrs. Stowe's point: There were no masters, none authorized by Bible or Constitution, and so, no obligation to obey them. But rather, there is a right to escape, to use standard self-defense methods, and, for others to aid you in escaping, a right to rescue." During the Civil War, blacks were slaves and even though the war didn't start because of slavery, slavery was a huge part of the war. After the war slavery became illegal but segregation was still there. In 1954 the law was passed that made segregation illegal.
Even though we try everyday to make racism and segregation go away, it seems as though that day's not coming very soon.
Works Cited:
Cozzens, Lisa. "Early Civil Rights Struggles: Brown v. Board of Education." www.watson.org. http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html (accessed Oct. 2, 2008).
Heffner, Richard D.. A Documentary History of the United States: (Seventh Revised Edition). New York: Signet, 2002.
Mcconnell, William. Great Speeches in History - The 1960's (hardcover edition) (Great Speeches in History). Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2002.
"Abolitionists Opposing Slavery and Tobacco." Index - Slavery - Tobacco. http://medicolegal.tripod.com/abolitionists.htm (accessed Oct. 3, 2008).
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