From the two short stories you have read what do we learn about what

From the two short stories you have read what do we learn about what

it was like for American black people to live in Americain the 1950s?

From the two short stories; The Gold Cadillac by M.D. Taylor and 1955

by Alice Walker, both set in 1950s America and both written by black

female writers we learn about the segregation, racism and poverty of

1950s black America. Both these stories are set in the deep south of

America. The gold Cadillac is about a young black girl who knows

nothing about racism and discovers it for the first time as she

travels with her family into the Deep South in a gold Cadillac. 1955

is written from the point of view of a black woman who has experienced

the racism her whole life.

America in the 1950s was segregated in the Deep South; it was divided

into black ghettos. Even radio stations were divided into stations

playing only black music and ones only playing white music. Before

Elvis Presley black music would not be played to a white audience so

it did not get the recognition it deserved, but Elvis's music was

played on all stations and democratised music. Black people did not

have the freedom that white people had and were discriminated

everywhere they went, black people could not use the same buses and

could not eat in the same restaurants as white people and were

discriminated by police because the law was nearly completely run by

white people, they were turned away at shops and were discriminated

against in nearly all other places. In M.D. Taylor's "The Gold

Cadillac" the family are driving through the Deep South and the girl

sees signs saying "White only coloured not allowed" In Alice walker's

"1955" Gracie Mae tells her husband J.T. to put his shirt on because

Traynor who is a white man comes to the door, this is because white

people had to be treated with more respect because they were seen as

more important than black people. The American civil war took place in

1865 and slavery was abolished in the Deep South, but 90 years later

there is still resentment from whites towards blacks.

The two short stories are all about the prejudice against blacks in

the Deep South and how it affects people's lives and freedom. In "The

Gold Cadillac" the family is trying to aspire to be rich as they live