Reducing Racial Discrimination in the USA: 1776 to Present

his counterpart – Malcolm X, he believed in achieving the reduction of racial discrimination through peaceful means. Still to this day King is seen as a hero through what he accomplished. King was renowned for his nonviolent peace protests, particularly in Birmingham and Alabama, which helped spread his message through the Southern states.

In 1960, 2new forms of nonviolent, direct-action protests using the Greensboro strategy developed. One of the biggest achievements for King was the March on Washington where he delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. King organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott after the emergence of Rosa Parks; the event was the pavement for King’s fame and leadership. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a success beyond bounds after the Supreme Court ruled Alabama and Montgomery bus laws to be unconstitutional.

Aldon D. Morris described the Montgomery Bus Boycott as “3the innovation for future protests. ” After the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King became the key figure in Civil Rights; Morris claims “4King clearly understood the social power of oratory and used it as a tool for agitating, organisation, fundraising and the desires of the black masses. ” Most notable of all is King’s award of the Noble Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through non-violence, which highlights how significant he was, not just in a nationwide scale but globally.

Overall, it is evident that King played an immense role as an individual in the reduction of Civil Rights, arguably the biggest factor in comparison with anything else. Another notable figure in the civil rights movement was Malcolm X, though historians argue that Malcolm X was not for the greater good

and actually had a negative influence in reducing racial discrimination and helped hinder it. This was mainly due to Malcolm’s views on the white community; he believed in violence to achieve his means and consequently gave himself and the Nation of Islam a bad image.

Malcolm X was seen as the preacher for the Nation of Islam, often appealing to a wider audience, congregating a large black community to convert to the beliefs. He was the public face of the controversial group and chief spokesman. After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X had a new approach and began preaching “It’s not about the colour of your skin, rather the colour of your ideas”. This reunited the whole civil rights movement which helped lead to reduce the racial discrimination of the black community.

Malcolm’s less passive approach gave African-Americans a new ideology to follow, something radical and inspirational, which gave them a footing amongst white Americans; arguably, this is the most important influence Malcolm X had on reducing racial discrimination. Overall, Malcolm X, Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King all played an extremely important role in the reducing racial discrimination. Numerous other factors played a significant role in reducing racial discrimination, in particular the role of Presidents and the Federal Government.

On the one hand you could argue that some hindered and others enhanced the progress. For example, Nixon’s Southern Strategy, a Conservative approach, meant the desegregation of schools took longer than needed after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Brown in Brown VS. The Board of Topeka. It is argued however that Nixon helped reduce racial discrimination as 5Nixon

chaired the President’s Committee on Government Contracts, which investigated charges of racial discrimination in federally related employment. In addition, Martin Luther King considered Nixon a loyal supporter of black civil rights.

Other Presidents continued to help reduce discrimination, most notably Johnson and Kennedy. Kennedy set his agenda to changing the way blacks in America lived as 6Kennedy had routinely supported proposals to relieve the plight of blacks in the South. However, Kennedy’s loyalty to black civil rights is often put into question by historians, as Carl Braucher noted: “7Kennedy approached civil rights issues as moderate by conviction and design. ” In Kennedy’s presidency he instructed the Department of Justice to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960 more vigorously than Einshower.

And President Johnson finally passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after being told by his vice-president “It will lose the vote in the South forever. ” Furthermore, you could argue Presidents played a major role in Civil Rights throughout the USA’s history as Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House in 1901. Earlier Presidents some historians argue did little for civil rights, such as Truman who desegregated the armed forces in 1948 but did not follow through to implement it; perhaps Presidents had a tendency to ignore the civil rights agenda, as they were scared of losing the vote in the South.

Other Presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the Fair Employment Committee, which was the most important and radical liberal movement before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In addition, 8the Roosevelt era represented the first time in their history that African Americans

felt that they could communicate their grievances to their government with the expectancy of sympathetic understanding and interpretation. Roosevelt gave the African-American community hope and noted by Harvard Sitkoff, “9Afro-Americans and their allies could begin to struggle with some expectation of success.”

Overall, there is evidence that some Presidents helped the cause of civil rights and the reduction of racial discrimination, yet earlier Presidents helped to hinder this. An unprecedented factor in reducing racial discrimination was World War two and Vietnam War. African-Americans were not treated well in the army despite a higher enlistment rate compared to Caucasians, with black Americans accounted to roughly 1. 2 million in the armed forces; an example comes from Steve F. Lawson who writes about the discrimination Jackie Robinson suffered: “10despite his athletic prowess, Robinson was barred because of his race from playing on the baseball team at the army training camp. ”

This shows that blacks were still kept segregated in day-to-day activities, ignoring their inability to rise in through the army ranks or even participate in the navy or air force. America was to be seen as ‘free’ and ‘liberating’ against the likes of Hitler, yet the Nazis treated Jews similar to how Alabama and Georgia treated African-Americans.

The treatment of black servicemen led to rise of the black press campaigning for ‘Double V’ – victory against racism abroad and at home. On the eve of America’s entry to war the NAACP campaigned to destroy the barrier that kept the Army Air Corps from accepting black pilots as 11the War Department believed blacks incapable of flying aircraft. Persistent pressure and negative press finally led to

the War Department in 1941 to agree to train African-American pilots.

This was a massive step towards reducing racial discrimination as it desegregated a large part of the army and showed black troops it was not impossible to climb the ranks. In comparison to World War Two, civil rights and the Cold War were closely linked; in World War Two the treatment of Nazis and Jews were compared to that of blacks in Southern states, the same comparison were used in the Cold War, as for America to win the Cold War, civil rights became a necessity as domestic discrimination would make it impossible to win over the Third World.

Politicians were well aware of this and most notably Harry Truman linked the Cold War to the United States’ race relations. Civil rights activists used the phrase “The whole world is watching us” which literally meant Third World countries were watching America’s discrimination of minorities. It is clear World War Two had a major impact on race relations in America and was a key to the reduction of racial discrimination and the Cold War put politicians on the side of civil rights’ activists who aided further in the way minorities and in particular African-Americans were treated.

Another war which had a role in reducing racial discrimination in America was the Vietnam War. However, blacks were forced to enrol into the war which led many influential figures in the civil rights movement to speak against the war in Vietnam. An example was Martin Luther King and his deliverance on the speech – Beyond Vietnam. Amidst increasing tension in the army, black troops embraced

the rising phenomenal of black power which transferred the whole civil rights movement onto the war.

However, this was the first war in which blacks participated in where there were no segregated units. Like World War Two, the Vietnam War was a war on influencing democracy abroad which draws a clear parallel between the two wars. In World War Two black Americans hoped to return with full rights of civil liberties, the same applied in the Vietnam War. Perhaps the Vietnam War hindered reducing racial discrimination, for example the race riot in Lejeune Marine Camp in North Carolina, which showed racial tensions now spread in the army as well as in society.

Harvard Sitkoff writes, “12As the United States disgorged its firepower into Vietnam and the ghettos burst into flames, the hopes of blacks went up in smoke and King’s dream turned into ash. ” Clearly, it could be argued that the Vietnam War helped reduce racial discrimination; however it could also be argued that it actually ruined the civil rights movement at the time. Organizations also played a large factor in reducing racial discrimination and in particular the NAACP which helped improve civil rights for black Americans and worked ruthlessly to reduce racial discrimination when founded in 1909.

From the very start the NAACP investigated lynching and racial violence but solidly focused on speaking tours consequently 13energetic speaking tours between 1912 and 1915 were crucial in giving the NAACP an organized foothold outside the North East. The NAACP instigated a number of methods to deal with the problems they faced, directly influencing politicians, having a direct involvement in legal hearings and

organising demonstrations and events. The NAACP was the key pressure group which gave the civil inequality issue major publicity, which directly helped reduce racial discrimination as they brought public awareness to the matter.

Aldon D. Morris describes the NAACP as “14the dominant black organization for the first half of the twentieth century. ” An example of their influence and major involvement was in the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education. The Brown Case removed segregation in schools, which was partly due to the funding and organization of key NAACP members, the case had a substantial effect in reducing racial discrimination in America and the NAACP had a profound role in doing so.