The racial struggle in America: Early 20th century Essay Example

loyalty to United States, they would be able to win their freedom. The image demonstrates the solidarity amongst the community to fight in anyway mean or form, for their rights.It also indirectly shows that the blacks wanted to show that they were equal citizens of the United States under the flag ready to defend it and in return, they expected protection and equal rights under the same flag. The blacks were completely mistaken.

When the war was over, and the soldiers came back, they displaced the black form their jobs in the cities. In the suburbs where the blacks had migrated during the war, racial tensions grew as the whites looked at the blacks with suspicion. The war had increased the resolve of the black community and unified them to some extent in the face of injustice.Black movements challenging the segregation, lack of economic opportunities grew. National association for the advancement of colored people (NAACP) was born.

Movements such as NAACP urged colored people not only to seek refuge and protection from the government also to become proactive themselves and defend themselves and retaliate against the injustices and the attacks of the whites. Youths joined in great numbers to these movements. Anne moody also talked about joining civil rights movement NAACP against her mother’s will (2).Angry and bloody riots began afterwards in Chicago and Mississippi as people grew dissatisfied with the passive approach of some of the civil rights movements, towards the situation. Anne moody described how uncertain she became of the direction of martin Luther king Jr’s movement after she heard the speech ‘I have a dream’ in Washington. She felt that these people

did not realize the poverty situation of the colored people (2).

The World War 1 was followed by years of repression. The economy was not moving forward. The blame for all the troubles was given to immigration.The blame for the radicalization of the society was also given to the immigration. The south of the country saw the reorganization of the Ku Klux Klan after the war. They blamed the blacks and other foreigners for all the ills of the society at the time.

The Klan started from the south and gained influence in some of the central parts of the country. The image shown in Brinkley’s book (3) shows the Klan members marching on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, holding the American flag. The image demonstrates the power and influence that the Klan held, even in Washington at the time.The country was marred with racial tension and image demonstrates the government’s inability or lack of willingness to control or handle the problem. The Klan considered itself to be cleansing the country from foreign ills. It considered itself to be doing justice and trying to save the country, under whose flag they served (2).

In reality the Klan targeted Jews, blacks and Catholics alike. Their ways were brutal and lynching was considered a common practice. Using the laws introduced by Jim Crow, the whites of the country, especially in the south gradually in the 1920s banned colored people from voting.They were segregated, in the work place and in the communities (2). They were provided with reduced economic opportunities. And with the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan and its integration into the government, its force and authority

was one to be reckoned with.

Government officials and many office bearers throughout the country became its members in the 1920s (3). The movement gradually broke down due to infighting and scandalous allegations of misconduct, and also due to the civil rights movement gaining strength in the later decades.