CHAPTER 7
AFRICAN AMERICANS:
From Segregation to Modern Institutional Discrimination and Racism
Overview
This is the first of five case studies of American minority groups. The focus begins with African Americans for a number of reasons, in spite of the fact that the contact period for Native Americans began a little earlier. African Americans are the largest American minority group and, in many ways, the “most significant.” Changes in black-white relations have been a bellwether for other kinds of changes, and the volume of research on African Americans far surpasses that of other minority groups.
Each of the five case study chapters begins at about the turn of the twentieth century and focuses on major changes in the situation of the group. The emphasis is on the legacy of the contact situation as altered by industrialization and urbanization. This chapter stresses the end of de jure segregation, the movements of protest and resistance since the 1920s, and the overall state of contemporary black-white relations.
The chapter ends, as do all five case study chapters, with an assessment of the situation of African Americans using concepts from earlier chapters, including assimilation, prejudice, and discrimination. To maximize the ease of comparison from group to group, each of the case study chapters includes a similar assessment using the same conceptual framework.
Learning Goals
1. Students will understand the transition from de jure segregation to de facto segregation in America during the 20th century. They will understand the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) was the single most powerful blow to de jure segregation.
2. Students will understand antiblack prejudice and discrimination is now manifested in subtler ways (e.g., modern racism and institutional discrimination).
3. Students will understand the types of nonviolent actions used to gain equality for African Americans, including but not limited to sit-ins, marches, prayer meetings, and voter registration drives.
4. Students will understand the Black Power movement and the ways in which it addressed massive problems of racial inequality that remained after the victories of the Civil Rights movement.
5. Students will understand issues of urban poverty and how they are linked to situations facing many African Americans. They will understand that the overall secondary structural assimilation of African Americans remains low. They will understand the evidence of racial inequality in residence, schooling, politics, jobs, income, unemployment, and poverty.
6. Students will understand different perspectives on the African American family, including the culture of poverty theory.
7. Students will understand the ways in which the Noel and Blauner hypotheses help us understand contemporary black-white relations in the United States.
8. Students will understand key concepts related segregation, modern institutional discrimination and modern racism including but not limited to: de jure segregation, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Plessy v. Ferguson nonviolent direct action, A. Philip Randolph, Rosa Parks, NAACP, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, de facto segregation, Jim Crow, Black Power Movement, Nation of Islam, Marcus Garvey, Malcom X, racial separation, racial segregation, SNCC, Fannie Lou Hammer, racial profiling, oppositional cultures, Moynihan report, culture of poverty theory, white flight, redlining, and reparations.
9. Students will understand how mass media present images of race and gender that reflect (and, in turn create,) modern, softer forms of prejudice and sexism.
10. Students will explore the debates about slave reparations from different perspectives.
Outline
I. Chapter Overview
II. The End of De Jure Segregation - As the U.S. industrialized and urbanized during the 20th century, a series of social, political, and legal processes ultimately destroyed Jim Crow segregation.
A. Wartime Developments
1. In 1941 as the U.S. mobilized for war, a group of African Americans, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened to march on Washington to protest discriminatory treatment.
2. To forestall the march, President Roosevelt banned discrimination in defense-related industries and created the Fair Employment Practices Commission. This was an unprecedented commitment to fair employment rights for black Americans.
B. The Civil Rights Movement
1. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was the single most powerful blow to de jure segregation in which the Supreme Court reversed Plessy v. Ferguson and ruled that racially separate facilities are inherently unequal and unconstitutional.
2. Nonviolent direct action was a central method by which people confronted the system of de jure segregation. For example, Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white male passengers and was jailed for it. Other nonviolent tactics included sit-ins, marches, prayer meetings, and voter registration drives.
3. Landmark legislation came in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, or gender. The law applied to publicly owned facilities, businesses open to the public, and any programs that received federal aid. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 required the same standards be used to register all citizens in federal, state, and local elections.
4. Factors that contributed to the success of the Civil Rights Movement include:
a. Continuing industrialization and urbanization weakened Jim Crow.
b. Post-WWII prosperity that lasted into the 1960s and reduced intensity of intergroup competition.
c. The Civil Rights movement's assimilationist goals didn't threaten many whites who saw the goals as consistent with mainstream American values.
d. Sympathetic coverage by the mass media, especially television reinforced the moral consensus that eventually rejected "old fashioned" racial prejudice.
III. Developments Outside The South
A. De Facto Segregation - segregation resulting from apparently voluntary choices of dominant and minority groups. In other words, no person, law, or group is responsible for the segregation--it "just happens."
B. Urban unrest emerged in the mid-1906s. In 1965, a riot broke out in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles and over the next four years, nearly all large black urban community experienced similar outbursts.
C. The Black Power movement was a loose coalition of organizations and spokespersons that encompassed a variety of ideas and views including black pride and black nationalism. The Black Power movement felt white racism and institutional discrimination were the causes of racial inequality.
1. The Nation of Islam voiced themes of black power and sought autonomy and self-determination. Malcolm X is the group's best-known leader.
IV. Protest, Power, and Pluralism
A. The Black Power Movement in Perspective.
1. By the end of the 1960s, the most militant manifestations of the Black Power movement had faded. Black nationalism was, and remains, more than a reaction to a failed dream. It was a way to define what it means to be black in America and it, along with the Civil Rights movement, helped carve out a new identity for African Americans.
2. Black power served as a new rallying cry for solidarity and unified action to finish "unfinished business."
3. The ideology of the Black Power movement provided an analysis of the problems of American race relations in the 1960s.
B. Gender and Protest
1. Both the Civil Rights movement and Black Power movement tended to be male dominated. African American women were often denied leadership roles. Moreover, the Nation of Islam emphasized female subservience and imposed a strict code of behavior and dress for women and segregated the sexes in many temple and community activities.
2. Because African American women were heavily involved in community and church work, they provided key organizational skills toward black liberation, even if they did so in less glamorous positions.
3. Fammie Lou Hammer was a prominent leader in the black liberation movement. As a result of her activism, she lost her job, was evicted, was jailed and beaten. She founded the Freedom Party which successfully challenged the racially segregated Democratic party and the all-white political structure of the state of Mississippi.
V. Black-White Relations Since the 1960s
A. Continuing Separation, Continuing Violence
1. Both whites and blacks have committed violence and hate crimes on the others. However, the power differentials and the patterns of inequality that have existed in our past guarantee that African Americans will more often be seen as "invaders" of areas where they do not belong.
2. The beating of Rodney King by police officers in Los Angeles led to riots by African Americans. These riots were different from the 1960s because they were more multiracial, involving Hispanics as well as African Americans. However, these events were similar to the riots of the 1960s in that they were spontaneous and expressed bitter discontent with the racial status quo.
B. The Criminal Justice System and African Americans
1. No area of race relations is more volatile and controversial than the relationship between the black community and the criminal justice system.
2. There is considerable mistrust and resentment of police among African Americans, many of who see the criminal justice system as stacked against them.
3. Racial profiling is when police use race as an indicator when calculating if a person is suspicious or dangerous. The tendency to focus more on blacks and disproportionately stop, question, and follow them is a form of discrimination that generates resentment and increases distrust that many blacks feel towards police. However, some people argue that racial profiling is based on some level of fact given that blacks are statistically more likely to be involved in street crimes or the illegal drug trade.
4. Black men are more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system than white males. In many communities, up to a third of all young black men are under the supervision of the system: in jail or prison or on probation or parole.
C. Urbanization and Increasing Class Differentiation.
1. The black middle class, based largely on occupations and businesses serving the black community, has been in existence since before the Civil War. Although the percentage of middle class African Americans has increased, the size and affluence of this group is less than is often assumed.
2. Poverty among African Americans is tied to the fate of America's cities. A. As manufacturing has decline, the service sector has expanded. However, desirable jobs in the service sector have educational prerequisites. Poor transportation systems, lack of car ownership, the absence of affordable housing outside the city center, and other issues keep urban poor people of color confined to the city center. Thus, black-white issues cannot be resolved without also addressing urban issues.
3. Race vs. Class - Wilson's The Declining Significance of Race concluded there is a segmented job market for blacks. The urban underclass is restricted to the low-wage sector and face high rates of unemployment while educated African Americans have job prospects that are more comparable with whites of similar qualifications. However since Wilson's book was written in the 1970s, economic growth slowed during the 1980s and 1990s, and the racial gap in wages widened. Although class is an important factor, race continues to be the most important feature of a person's identity and the most important determinant of life chances.
D. The Family Institution and the Culture of Poverty -
1. Some analysts see the black family as structurally weak and a cause of continuing poverty and other problems. The Moynihan report (1965) concluded that the key barrier facing black Americans was a family structure that trapped black Americans in poverty.
2. Today, most of the differences in black and white families identified by Moynihan are more pronounced.
3. The Culture of Poverty theory argues poverty is perpetuated by particular characteristics of the poor. Poverty is said to encourage fatalism or a sense that one's destiny is beyond one's control. It also creates a present (rather than future) orientation. The central trait of the culture of poverty is the desire for instant gratification. This theory suggests that if female-headed families and other cultural characteristics of the poor could change, urban poverty would be resolved.
4. Other argue that the matriarchal structure of the African American family is the result of urban poverty, not a cause of it. That is, it reflects racial discrimination, the scarcity of jobs, and other problems experienced by the poor.
E. Prejudice and Discrimination
1. Although more overt forms of prejudice have not disappeared,
contemporary prejudice is often indirect and amorphous. The dilemmas of
the black urban underclass provide a clear example of modern institutional
discrimination. As long as cities lack the resources to meet the needs of
their poorer citizens, urban poverty will continue. Those who perpetuate
and benefit from the system are not necessarily prejudiced but their
decisions influence racial inequality in the United States.
F. Assimilation and Pluralism
1. Acculturation. The acculturation process may have been slowed (or possibly reversed) by the Black Power movement. Since the 1960s there has been increasing interest in African culture, language, clothing, and history.
2. Secondary Structural Assimilation refers to integration in public areas such as the job market, schools, and political institutions.
a. A slim majority of African Americans continue to live in the South. Since the 1960s, residential integration has increased slowly, if at all. The 2000 census shows some increase in residential integration while other studies offer different findings. Certain discriminatory practices such as redlining continue to reinforce class differences between races.
b. School integration, which reached its peak in the 1980s, continues to be an issue of importance. Today, about 70% of African American children attend schools with a black majority. The gap between blacks and whites in the quantity of education has decreased over the last century. Part of the difference in educational attainment is due to social class factors.
c. Since World War II, political power has been increasing for African Americans. Two trends have influenced this increase: (1) movement of blacks from the rural south which made it easier to register people to vote and (2) the dismantling of institutions and practices that disenfranchised southern blacks during Jim Crow segregation.
d. Integration into the job market and racial equality in income follow trends in other areas and show improvement for blacks since the end of de jure segregation. However, equality has not been achieved. For examples, white males are much more likely to be employed in the highest-rated occupational areas while black males are overrepresented in the service sector. Unemployment has been at least twice as high for blacks as for whites since the 1940s. Although unemployment rates vary by sex and age, black males frequently have higher unemployment rates than do black females.
3. Measures of primary structural assimilation indicate change. Interracial contact in public areas of society is more common today. For example, interracial marriages are increasing (although they still represent a small portion of all marriages).
VI. Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?
A. The contemporary situation for African Americans in the latter half of the 20th century shows vast improvements in most areas of social life. Yet considerable challenges toward racial equality and justice remain.
1. Progress toward racial equality has slowed considerably since the 1960s and public opinion polls show little support or sympathy for the cause of black Americans.
2. Traditional prejudice has declined but has been replaced by modern racism. Biological racism has been replaced by indifference to racial issues or by blaming the victims.
3. Urban poverty, modern institutional racism, and modern institutional discrimination are less dramatic and more difficult to measure than forms of inequality seen earlier such as slavery or de jure segregation.
VII. Main Points of the Chapter
VIII. Further Reading and Internet Research
Classroom Activities and Suggestions for Discussion
1. One of my students' favorite activities is to analyze music. For this activity, bring in a CD player, CDs that address issues of race, and lyric sheets. (You can easily find most lyrics by search the band's/artist's name + lyrics in a good internet search engine like Google.) Ask students to music for its ability to accurately portray the realities of racial inequality and concepts from the textbook. Possible songs to analyze[1] include:
· Public Enemy's "Burn Hollywood Burn"
· The Disposable Heros of Hiphoprisy - "Socio-genetic Experiment" and"Famous And Dandy (Like Amos 'n' Andy)"
· The Negro Problem - "Doubting Uncle Tom," "Ghetto Godot," and "Buzzing"
· Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney's "Ebony & Ivory"
· James Brown - "I'm Black and I'm Proud"
· Sly and Family Stone "Everyday People"
· Tracy Chapman "Across the Lines"
· Rage Against the Machine - "Sleep Now in the Fire" and "Take the Power Back" [NOTE: You might also have your students analyze the CD cover of The battle of Los Angeles. It's a powerful image about violence, the ghetto, defiance of "the system," black-white relations.]
· Coolio - "Gangsta's Paradise"
· US3 - "Just Another Brother"
· Bob Dylan - "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol" and "Hurricaine"
· Stevie Wonder - "Pastime Paradise"
· Bob Marley - "War"
Ask your students to bring in other songs that they think are relevant. {NOTE: In the section on White Racial Groups you can address how white supremacist groups are also using popular music to attract people to its cause and shape the views of listeners.}
2. Watch films such as Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle (California Newsreel) about the sleeping car porters or A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom (PBS. VHS available from California Newsreel). How do the films expand on what students learned in the text?
3. Watch the popular film, White Man's Burden (Savoy Pictures) staring Danny Glover and John Travolta. In the film we see an alternate or reversed social reality where blacks are the "haves" and whites are the "have nots." How does the film portry life in the inner city, violence, stereotypes, structural barriers, discrimination, racism, prejudice, and so on? Why doesn't Belafonte's character think he's racist? Is he? What theories in the book would help us explain his position? If you're short on time, you may choose to watch only the first few minutes of the film. What do students think their lives would be like if their "roles" were reversed? Give students a few minutes to write down their ideas. Then, discuss them as a class.
4. Have students investigate other acts of civil disobedience
and social movement activism by investigating the Freedom bus rides,
Mississippi riots, lunch counter sit ins, Bloody Sunday (Selma, Alabama), Montomery County bus boycott, voter registration drives,
and so on.
5. Watch and discuss The Road to Brown - The Man Who Killed Jim Crow (California Newsreel).
6. Watch Ethnic Notions a film that explores racist images such as the coon, pickaninny, the mammy, the tom, the sambo, the brute, and the golliwog. What are the images? Who are the images constructed to produce a political outcome? How did they change as society changed? Why? How did particular images legitimate social inequality? For example, how did the images of the sambo and mammy legitimate slavery? How did the images of the brute attempt to legitimate violence toward blacks? How did the image of the Mammy mock black women for breaking gender norms of US society? How did the image of the coon mock the idea of "racial equality"? How do these images relate to contemporary stereotypes of blacks? For a more recent look at stereotypical images in modern mass media, you may wish to watch Color Adjustment (California Newsreel). You might also watch "Birth of a Nation" and discuss the ways it shaped the consciousness of many whites who watched it.
7. Have students explore a variety of racist images by visiting the cybermuseum at Ferris State University. See http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/menu.htm. You may also wish to use a good internet search engine like Google to locate other racist images. What do students think about people who collect racist memorabilia such as mammy dolls and pickaninny salt and pepper shakers? Why would African Americans want to collect such items? Does the collector's race matter? Why or why not?
8. Compare and contrast the lyrics of "Strange Fruit" (lyrics by: Lewis Allan, originally sung by: Billie Holiday) with the contemporary and revised version of "Strange Fruit" by Danja Mowf (From the album "Word Of Mowf"). How do both songs illustrate violence against African Americans? How has the "nature" of that violence changed according to both artists? What do the songs suggest about justice and the criminal justice system?
9. Explore the history of lynching in the United States. One disturbing source for images is http://www.maafa.org, a site that asks us to consider past behavior toward African Americans as a holocaust. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America by James Allen available at bookstores nationally. Images are also available at http://www.journale.com/withoutsanctuary/main.html.
10. Purchase and play "Life as a Black Man" (available at http://www.blackmangame.com). Using concepts from the text, have students explain if the game accurately reflects the experiences of African American men. If so, why? If not, why not?
11. Watch Two Nations of Black America, a PBS feature narrated by Skip Gates Jr. with Cornell West, Bill Wilson, Orlando Paterson, among others. How does this program illustrate diversity of opinion within the black community? How does it illustrate issues of social class? How does it expand on and differ from ideas in the text?