American Politics In The Early 1900s

The U.S. Politics of the Early 1900s and its Effects on the People Politics is a profoundly important part of any society; it helps people establish and maintain order. The United States has always been viewed as the leader of the free world, but the U.S. is not and has not always been perfect. Slavery and racial division have haunted politicians and everyday people since even before the Declaration of Independence was signed. In Black Boy, Richard Wright describes some of the racial divide and tensions that existed in his childhood. Richard Wright’s accounts of these issues and the politics surrounding them helps address and explain how politics had a significant influence and effect on the lives of African Americans during the early 1900s. In the early 1900s, there

For example, at the train station, “...there were two lines of people at the ticket window, a ‘white’ line and a ‘black’ line….When I boarded the train...we Negroes were in one part of the train and the whites were in another” (Wright 46). This is an example of how the divide existed even in small things such as buying a train ticket because of the Jim Crow laws. In this time period, “...laws authorized legal punishments for consorting with the opposite race” (Hansan). This segregation existed everywhere, from going to the bathroom to waiting rooms at the doctor’s office. A large portion of the politicians and political parties at the time, either tolerated or supported these laws (Hochschild and Weaver). Another example seen in Black Boy, is when Richard says, “...my father was a black peasant who had gone to the city seeking life, but who had failed in the city” (Wright 35). This powerful statement by Wright displays how blacks were seen as lower and did not have access to the opportunities that whites did. Politics helped contribute to this because the laws and rhetoric that oppressed blacks made it seem normal and just to pay African American workers less or