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Racial Relations In America relations from 1900 - 2000. I should like to start by saying that anthropologists urge people to remember that the "race" concept is a cultural historical construct, not a biological fact. Although the concept was never valid scientifically, it is even less useful as a social construct in this age of global interaction. Does this very discussion not reaffirm the legitimacy of the "race" concept? Is it not "racist" to even have this discussion? Why not use this and every opportunity to educate people and reinforce the inappropriateness of this historically ugly term that has been the source of so much evil?
In the following essay I am going to make a short trip back into history and assess the racial relations in the USA from 1900 till present day (2000). I will present various educated findings on the given matter together with my personal opinion. One should not forget that until the civil rights movement (1950 s), the white man was the only benefactor of society's benefits in the USA. The whites owned land, could vote, and would get the best employment.
Women, together with blacks were considered inferior and thus discriminated against. Here I am not even talking about the Native Americans (Indians) who were not considered as people even by the blacks and questionable are discriminated against even nowadays (Chappell, 21). The blacks, who ultimately draw the society's attention because of their large numbers prior to the mid 1950 s were segregated in schools, universities, buses, employment, etc. The first conflict in racial relations between the blacks and the whites happened in Montgomery, AL, in December of 1955. At that time NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956.
As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was instrumental in leading the boycott (Ralph, 98). In 1957, Rev. King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president.
The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement. One should not forget that women at that time united with blacks in their attempt to get independence and emancipation from the white men. The same year (1957) there was another racial event, when the US federal troops were supposed to help nine black students to enter the school (Wexler, 129). In 1960, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement.
The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Solely Carmichael (19661967). In August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr, delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in which he stated about his desire to watch normal racial relations all around the USA and the world (Chappell, 23). In July 2, 1965, the US President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment illegal. One months later three Mississippi civil-rights workers are officially declared missing, having disappeared on June 21. The last day they were seen, James E. Cheney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24, had been arrested, incarcerated, and then released on speeding charges.
Their murdered bodies are found after President Johnson sends military personnel to join the search party. It is later revealed that the police released the three men to the Ku Klux Klan. The trio had been working to register black voters. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death in Harlem.
It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned. On April 20, 1971 The US Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continue until the late 1990 s (Draper, 34). On March 22, 1988, Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds.
On Nov. 22, 1993, After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination. On June 23, 2003, Supreme Court Upholds Affirmative Action in Higher Education In the most important affirmative action decision since the 1978 Bakke case, the Supreme Court (54) upholds the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body. " In conclusion, I would like to note that the racial relations in the USA has been ameliorating on the annual basis. As one could see from the timeline racial relations events shown above, this country faced numerous problems that ultimately contributed to the creation of the stronger state with nondiscriminatory racial relations. Bibliography: Chappell, David.
Inside Agitators: White Southerners in the Civil Rights Movement. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. Draper, Alan. Conflict of Interests: Organized Labor and the Civil Rights Movement in the South, 1954 - 1968. Ithaca: ILR Press, 1994. Greenberg, Jack.
Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1994. Grossman, Mark. The ABC-CLIO Companion to the Civil Rights Movement. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1993. Levy, Peter.
Let Freedom Ring: A Documentary History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. New York: Praeger, 1992. Murray, Paul. The Civil Rights Movement: References and Resources. New York: Hall, 1993. Ralph, James.
Northern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr. , Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1993. Wexler, Sanford. The Civil Rights Movement: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 1993.
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