Segregation & Discrimination (Edexcel GCSE History): Revision Note

Summary

In the 1950s, Black Americans had fewer rights and opportunities and a lower quality of life than White Americans. Nearly all Black Americans were the descendants of enslaved people who were brought to America from Africa against their will. Enslaved Black Americans had been bought, sold to White Americans and forced to work on enormous farms called plantations in the Southern States. 

During the 1860s, the Southern States lost the American Civil War to the Northern States. As a result, in 1865, enslavement was outlawed throughout the United States. However, Black Americans continued to suffer from terrible prejudice and discrimination. Black Americans' lives were usually segregated from White Americans - especially in the South. This prejudice and discrimination affected Black Americans socially, economically and, through the ‘Jim Crow’ laws, politically.

What does segregation mean?

• Segregation means separate 

• In the South of the USA in the 1950s, Black and White Americans were kept separate or segregated

• They were prevented from mixing in most Southern States

• Black and White Americans:

  • Attended different schools 

  • Accessed different public facilities such as buses, cinemas, restaurants, hotels, beaches, waiting rooms and toilets

The Jim Crow Laws and segregation in the South

• The ‘Jim Crow’ laws were a series of laws that only applied to Black Americans which affected peoples’ voting rights and enabled segregation in some Southern states

  • The laws were named after an offensive slang term used to describe Black Americans

Segregation

• The South had a long history of using enslaved Black Americans to work on large, White-owned farms known as plantations

  • Slavery was abolished but the racist attitudes continued to be widely held

• Segregation was legally enforced in the South so that White Americans living there did not have to mix with Black Americans in the South

  • This was the result of an 1896 court case known as Plessy versus Ferguson

• The case ruled that it was legal to segregate Black and White Americans if the facilities were ‘separate but equal’

• In reality, the facilities for White Americans were better than those available to Black Americans

Voting rights

• In theory, Black Americans had been guaranteed the same voting rights as White Americans since 1870 

• Black Americans were a sizeable minority in many states in the South, making up 45% of the population of Mississippi in the 1950s

• Therefore, they should have been able to vote politicians into power who would improve their lives and end segregation

• However, Black Americans’ voting rights were greatly affected by ‘Jim Crow’ laws passed by some states in the South

• The ‘Jim Crow’ state laws stopped Black Americans from voting 

How the Jim Crow Laws prevented Black Americans from voting

• As well as having different voting rights, Black Americans in the South also suffered from violent attacks

  • Often Black Americans were threatened with losing their jobs if they tried to vote

• The result was that, by 1964, just 6.7% of Black people who were eligible to vote in Mississippi were registered

What does discrimination mean?

• Discrimination means to treat people differently, usually worse, because they belong to a certain ethnic group, class or gender

•  Discrimination meant that Black Americans’ lives were very different from White Americans’ lives in the 1950s

Discrimination against Black Americans in the 1950s

• Black Americans suffered from economic discrimination in the following ways: 

  • They were paid lower wages than White Americans

  • Only being hired for menial jobs

  • Being the first to get fired when jobs were cut

• Socially, Black Americans were discriminated against because they:

  • Lived in overcrowded and poor-quality housing

  • Were prevented from living in ‘White Neighbourhoods’

• Schools for Black American children received a fraction of the funding that was received by schools for White American children

• The US Army remained segregated until 1948

• Police and judges often discriminated against Black Americans

  • Violence against Black Americans was often not investigated thoroughly 

  • Black Americans were not allowed to be members of the jury in court

• The Jim Crow laws were a form of political discrimination because they affected the voting rights of Black Americans in some Southern States