Racial Discrimination in the United States: A Historical Review

Racial Discrimination in the United States has been a pressing issue ever since Europeans first brought slaves from Africa to the United States. African slaves were established as inferior to their white owners and subjected to oppressive and cruel treatment. Not all African Americans were slaves, but even these “free blacks” were given very few rights. Even after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery African Americans in the South were subjected to the harsh and discriminatory Jim Crow laws. During the 1950s and early 1960s it was evident that Black leaders were ready and willing for change in the African American community. There were a number of different methods and strategies proposed by civil right activists such as Martin Luther

These nonviolent methods were initially developed and used in India by Gandhi and were later adapted in the U.S by people like Martin Luther King Jr. The philosophy behind nonviolence was that it was a way to bring awareness to the cruelty African Americans had to endure on a daily basis, and not using violence also showed that black people were not out to harm others but rather just wanted to be heard. In other words, as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, in his letter from Birmingham City Jail “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tensions that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue… there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth.” Some different strategies using the philosophy of non-violent direct action that were pursued were sit-ins, boycotts, and marches. The Greensboro sit in took place on February 1, 1960 and was an influential non-violent tactic that spread nationwide. Four African American men sat in a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina refusing to leave till they got served. It got a lot of attention and inspired other college towns to do the same sparking a sit in movement which became quite successful. Along with the Greensboro Boys, women were joining the cause. Rosa Parks is just one of the

became the face of the Civil Rights Movement. He continued the nonviolent approach towards equality and initiated many marches to galvanize public opinion. There were two prominent marches that had a great effect on the progressing nation. The March on Washington was first proposed by A. Philip Randolph, a civil rights activist wanting to improve the economic conditions for blacks by promoting jobs and freedom, but there was little action taken and it ultimately fell through. Roosevelt saw the need for protection in the workforce towards blacks and issued Executive Order 8802. Order 8802 prohibited racial discrimination in the national defense industry stating, "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin." It also created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) which investigated charges of racial discrimination in the workforce. Although Executive Order 8802 was advantageous the FEPC only lasted a mere five years but it did