Integration vs Segregation: The Struggle in the Southern Collegiate System The time after World War II (Postwar 1950s, and 60s) was a time of change in America. The main change from the time from before the war was the rise of Liberalism. This political idea would bring about changes in in the economic and the industrial corners of the world. Due to this we saw the rise of consumerism in teenagers and also the stimulation of the housing and automobile industries. It also saw the rise highway construction and suburban society (known as Levitowns or suburbia). However it did not bring change to an issue that had been within the United States since really when the country had begun. This problem was racial discrimination and it was an idea that …show more content…
They believed that blacks would be a plague upon the Universities of the south. As Governor of Georgia Herman Talmedge said “erasing segregation in schools is a step towards National suicide”. (Pratt 31) Many Southern politicians, professors, and students also believed that people that supported the desegregation of schools or supported the Civil Rights Movement believed them to be part of the Communists Party. Roy V. Harris, a member of the Board of Regents at the University of Georgia, once stated that ideas of mixing and mingling races in this country were ideas of the Communist Party. (Pratt 33). Another view from students and professors at southern “pure” universities was that the African American race was evolutionary inferior to that of a common white man thus making their intelligence much less than. This was argued to be one of the reasons that blacks could and should not be admitted to prestigious white universities due to their lack intelligence due to an evolution defect. After a racial riot at the University of Georgia Math 254 Professor Thomas Brahana, who agreed that schools should be integrated, asked his students to write their views on integration. One student wrote “The main reason I say I do not want to integration is that I believe the Negroid race is inferior to the Caucasian race… The Negro has an …show more content…
While many whites argued that the black race was inferior to that of the race of intellect, many civil rights activists and NAACP members claimed that their students had the same credentials to get into their colleges as the white students did. The desegregationist claimed if they were not judged by the color of skin that their students could easily graduate from prestigious southern universities such as the University of Mississippi and University of Georgia. This claim was proven when the University of Georgia’s first black students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, were admitted to the University of Georgia and would graduate from the University. This alone proved that the segregationist were wrong about evolutionary deformities within the black community. Some supporters of the Civil Rights movement felt like the white supremacy was much like that of “ Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin” much like whites did about the NAACP for trying to integrate public white universities . In a letter from a soldier stationed in Tokyo, Japan he plainly states “Congratulations! You guys have stood firmly to principle… Segregation is a real fuel for Commie Propaganda, and its continuance will certainly endanger the very existence of our country…. Incidentally I’m white and from Texas” (Pratt 35). Even though the segregationist ideas were very harmful on a
After the end of World War II, the United States went through many changes. Most of the changes were for the better, but some had an adverse effect on certain population centers. Many programs, agencies and policies were created to transform American society and government.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s race was a huge issue in America. Jackie Robinson, however, was one of the main reasons that changed,
During the time of World War II, there was a dramatic change in the society of America and its way of life. Men were needed at war, and the women were left at home. People were mistrusted and were falsely accused of something they didn’t do. Some people were even pushed away because they were different. These people are the minorities of America.
Those studying the experience of African Americans in World War II consistently ask one central question: “Was World War II a turning point for African Americans?” In elaboration, does World War II symbolize a prolongation of policies of segregation and discrimination both on the home front and the war front, or does it represent the start of the Civil Rights Movement that brought racial equality? The data points to the war experience being a transition leading to the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s.
Since the beginning of slavery, African Americans have been held at a lower standard for education. American government prohibited African Americans from learning how to read, developing inequality in education and further success. White supremacists’ intentions were to allow White Americans to continue to prosper further and create barriers to prevent African Americans from succeeding. An academic journalist, Nathaniel Jackson, employed the words of John Ogbu of the University of Berkley, “…the monopolization of resources for academic enterprise (colleges, universities, foundation, and government funding agency review boards, journals, and other publishing put-lets) by the dominant group and the provisions of only limited and controlled access
While we all would agree that racism is immoral and has no place in a modern society, that was not the case in the U.S. in the 1940s. At the time African Americans were treated as second-class citizens, it was made near-impossible for them to vote, and they were discriminated in many ways including in education, socially and in employment. It was a time in which segregation and racism perforated the laws and society, a time in which African Americans were “separate but equal,” segregation was legal and in full force. Apartheid was also everywhere from the books to in society. Blacks were not truly seen as equal as they were seen the the lesser of the two and it very much felt that way. Blacks were oppressed in many ways including having unreachable requirements to vote, such regulations included literacy tests, poll taxes, and elaborate registration systems, but it only started there.
Furthermore, despite the Federal government’s attempts to combat white vigilance, violence was still continuously used against African Americans. Although higher education was now available to African Americans with the opening of universities such as Howard and Fisk, many ex slaves remained uneducated and therefore maintained an inferior position in society. Like French political observer Tocqueville noted, although slavery no longer existed, ‘racial prejudice’ continued. This allows us to draw the conclusion that while the reconstruction period succeeded in aiding African Americans in the fight for civil rights, its goals were not full-filled.
On February 26, 1946 Herman Sweatt, who had excellent academic credentials and met all standards for acceptance into the university, was denied admission into the University of Texas Law School because of his African American race. At the time, the University of Texas had a separate law school for African Americans to attend because segregation was still widely accepted in the United States. The University of Texas Law School had 16 full-time professors, 3 part-time professors, 850 students, and over 65,000 volumes in their library along with an excellent reputation ("Find Law"). Meanwhile the separate college for African Americans had 5 full-time professors, 23 attending students, and only 16,500 volumes to study (“Find Law”). The inequality between the two schools was obvious, and many applicants began to question change among the university. Herman, along with many others, denied their acceptance into the separate college and decided to fight for equal education. Being on the verging years of civil rights and sixties revolution, the student’s will power was driven by their years of being unequal in their cruel society. These denials would prove to be the beginning of a long and stressful road that would later influence the decision of Brown vs. Board of Education (Cantu).
Harlan, Louis R. “The Southern Education Board and the Race Issue in the Public.” The Journal of Southern History 23.2 (1957): 189-202.
Due to a conglomerate of factors at work in the 1960s there was a growing sense among the American white working class that they would ultimately be completely left out of an ever-evolving, ever-changing America, come the end of the 1970s. Some of the aforementioned factors, namely, are the Civil Rights movements, the economic shifts brought on by political policy changes, and the ever-present controversy surrounding the ongoing Vietnam War. The issue of Civil Rights, and for example, integration, was incredible polarizing in that it caused a great divide and debate among many American demographics. Economically, America was reacting to the effects of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency with the growing impact of policies such as welfare, and
The United States was a divided nation at the time of World War II. Divided by race and racism. This Division had been much greater in the past with the institution of slavery. As the years went by the those beliefs did deteriorate slowly, but they were still present during the years of World War II. This division was lived out in two forms, legislation and social behavior. The legislation came in the form of the “Jim Crow” laws. The belief that some people were naturally superior and others inferior, scientific racism, was the accepted belief of the time These cultural traits were waning. After World War II ended they would decline even more rapidly.
Prior to World War I there was much social, economic, and political inequality for African Americans. This made it difficult for African Americans to accept their own ethnicity and integrate with the rest of American society. By the end of World War II however African Americans had made great strides towards reaching complete equality, developing their culture, securing basic rights, and incorporating into American society.
The success of Civil Right Movement in the 1960s turned a new historical chapter for African Americans to be protected equally by the law. In this progress against discrimination and racial segregation, there were numerous significant contributions by individuals such as Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, Fred L. Shuttlesworth, etc.; also the institutions and communities like Historically Black Colleges and universities (HBCUs). Eventhough Texas Southern University (TSU) has encountered vast difficulties in their progress of establishment and development, they have affirmed the rights, the value and the voice of African Americans because
Samuels, Albert L., Black Colleges and the Challenge to Desegregation. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2004.
People worked together to create things like the Bessemer process, a mass production of steels to the first nuclear weapon in 1945 (The first atomic bomb test is successfully exploded). However America came to a wall in the 60’s. Racial discrimination has always been a problem before, but it wasn’t until the 60’s because that was the time when the minorities started to stand up. Martin Luther King Jr said “the freedom I dream would someday ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city (The Dream, the Reality: Civil Rights in the ‘60s and