Race Relations in Early 1960's in the USA

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Race Relations in Early 1960's in the USA Early 1960’s During the fifties in USA there was much racial hatred. Segregation was widespread. The NAACP declared that segregation, “is the way in which a society tells a group of human beings that they are inferior to other groups.” Twenty states during 1954 practised segregation as a law. The black schools were always inferior to the white schools. In 1954 the NAACP had challenged the right to segregation in the case of Brown v Board of Education and won. There was however massive resistance which led to violence and murder of NAACP supporters. During 1955 Emmett Till was brutally murdered for saying “bye baby” to a white woman by her husband and his friend. He was so badly beaten her was unrecognisable. The killers were set free which led to riots. For a whole year in Little Rock Arkansas during 1957, it took one thousand paratroopers to protect nine black schoolchildren from angry white mobs who wanted to prevent them attending a previously all white school. One black child had acid thrown in her face. During the early 1960’s black civil rights was still an issue. Segregation, despite being illegal, was still practiced in most schools in the South. Schools, libraries and buses were still segregated and many black people were kept from voting because of fear. Police, polititians and the legal system all discriminated against black people. Also in the North blacks were discriminated against. Here they lived in ghettos, with poor housing, unemployment, poor schools and poor health care. For example, mortality rates for black babies was twice as high as for white babies. The problems of the 50’s caused great turmoil during the sixties. As John F Kennedy said in 1961 of the next decade:- “We live on the edge of danger”. During the early 60’s black Americans wanted their civil rights and were growing impatient with the continuing discrimination. Police still abused their power and government was moving very slowly on

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