racial justice essays

racial justice essays The 1960s and the fight for racial justice The chapter The Fight for Racial Justice spoke of the rising voice against discrimination. In particular legalized segregation in the South. In the Deep South there was persistent economic inequality. Most blacks worked for white landowners who paid them very little. There was also inequality in education and blacks were routinely kept from the voting booth by the use of fear and intimidation. Segregation was rampant-white and colored signs were on water fountains, restrooms, and sections of theaters. Although a lot of this segregation and discrimination occurred in the South, it wasnt confined there by any means. The challenge to segregation in schools came to the courts in the famed case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. It challenged the previous court ruling, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the separate but equal standard in public education. In 1954 Brown overruled Plessy and the notion of separate but equal was discredited as being separate but not equal. The court ruled that segregation was wrong but left it up to local officials to decide how to eliminate it. A struggled began over desegregation. Some localities had more problems than others. In the South, in particular, problems were intensified by years of local traditions and prejudices. Many districts chose to ignore the Supreme Court ruling altogether. In Little Rock, Arkansas the Governor deployed the National Guard to prevent the students from entering Central High School. Eventually the President sent the 101st Airborne Division to restore order and allow the African Americans to enter the school. Desegregation would be an issue for a long time to come but it wasnt the only issue facing Americans in the battle for racial justice. In December 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, Rosa parks refused to give up her bus seat for a white passen...