The American Dream, for White People Only

A white picket fence, a brand new car, children running to school, and a stellar job; —these are just a few elements of the American dream which became a reality for many white working class families after World War Two. With the economy beginning to flourish, white Americans began to pick the fruits of their affluent society. However, with racism still alive and laws allowing segregation still in play, poverty was still a reality for many African American families. While the white working class flourished in the suburbs, African Americans were pocketed inside the city. While the jobs relocated with them, African Americans were left unemployed and poor. While white children began to plan for their future in schools, African Americans were left in poor schools and restricted from joining the best universities. Evidently, white working class Americans benefited from the housing industry, employment, and education every American dream contains, while African Americans were barred from joining this dream.

With an economy flourishing after World War Two, the housing industry prospered in suburbs and thus allowed for an exodus of white working class families from the city. The Federal Housing Administration began insuring thirty year mortgages with only about a five to ten percent down payment. Furthermore, with large areas of inexpensive land in suburbia, the housing industry in the suburbs began to boom. In contrast, not only did the FHA not approve loans for African Americans or those in racially mixed neighborhoods, but suburbs like Levittown “barred members of other than the Caucasian race” (Schuller,86-87). Consequently, 95 percent of those living in the suburbs in the 1950’s were white and the government’s tax policy permitte...

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...v. Board of Education President Eisenhower himself called the appointment of Earl Warren as justice “the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made” (Schaller,116). However, this ruling itself enough couldn’t stand against segregation as students who were brave enough to now exercise their rights were threatened and high school such as Arkansas’s Little Rock public high school closed down temporarily in order to prevent segregation (Schaller,119). White American parents were living the American dream while many African American families had to watch their children begin to have the same troubles they did. Fortunately enough, the younger generation of African Americans of the 1950’s and sixties were determined to not have the same fate as their parents and were eager to fight to the very end for the American dream they watched their fellow white American families live.