Southern Life in 20th Century

D. Southern Life in 20th Century

Slavery was the actual reflection of the racism in the history of the United States. It was began soon after the English colonist first settled Virginia and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. By the 18th century, court rulings established the racial basis of the American version of slavery to apply chiefly to Black Africans and people of African descent, and occasionally to Native Americans. The 19th century saw a hardening of racial situation in the US. Racial situations were often found in the Old South. When a white got caught smiling at a black woman, society would regard the situation as normal. On the contrary, when a black man caught smiling at a white man, that would create a sense of disgrace towards white community Ayers, 1998: 95. A white woman who let herself fall in love with a black man would risk her reputation. Relationship did not have to end in intercourse or even physical contact to be categorized as intimate and dangerous to a white woman’s reputation and self- respect. The more closely linked to sexuality, the more likely segregation happened Ayers, 1998: 96. Throughout the beginning of the 20 th century, Blacks poured into other cities in the South as well the North, from rural areas at an incredible growth rate. Thus, that changed the politics and society of urban America. Cities where blacks had migrated were called “Black Archipelagos”, islands of vibrant black social life surrounded by seas of white racism and hostility Heathcott in Bang, 2012. These archipelagos had been shaped by rapid migration, acute poverty, and pervasive segregation on the other hand, and tremendous reliance and creativity on the other. Racism in the United States was worse during this time than at any period before or since. Segregation, racial discrimination, and expressions of white supremacy all increased, and so did anti-black violence, including lynching and race riots Bang, 2012. Southern migrants were often treated in alliance with pre- existing racial stratification. The rapid influx of blacks disturbed the racial balance within cities, exacerbating hostility from both black and white Northerners. Stereotyping schemas of Southern blacks were used to attribute issues in urban areas, such as crime and disease, to the presence of African-Americans. According to Bang 2012, the 20 th century marked the peak of American Civil Right Movement with the desegregation of schools in 1954 and the organization of widespread protests across the nation under a younger generation of leaders. Many nonviolent protests in the 1960s led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws which mandated segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly separate but equal status for black Americans and other non-white racial groups in the southern U.S. It became illegal to force segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring. Furthermore, the segregation continued even after the demise of the Jim Crow laws. The data on house prices and attitude towards integration suggested that in the 20th century, segregation was a product of collective actions taken by whites to exclude blacks from their neighborhoods. Segregation also took the form of redlining, the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services, such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarketsto residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. It is argued that there exists a color blindness or an understanding that cultural differences rooted in racial identities are irrelevant for peoples prospects and their overall well-being.

E. Previous Research Findings