Inequality
Below are a few items that have furthered racial discrimination in American society:
White Primaries, Poll taxes, Literacy tests, and Plessy v. Ferguson
White Primaries: White primaries were simply put, another way for the the Caucasian majority to further limit the voting and influence of majorities (mostly that of African Americans) in primaries that would elect the candidates that would run for office. This types of primaries usually took place in the heavily democratic south, and by excluding African Americans they directly influenced the outcome of the voting (which would most likely tend to favor the Republican party)
Poll Taxes: Poll taxes were levied on the right to vote and often fell upon a time of year when sharecroppers had a paltry sum of money on hand, thus, in being timed so deviously, they could not afford to vote and gained no foothold in the outcome of elections. Their vote then, if ever received, was of the least importance by the time they could cast a ballot.
Literacy Tests: A literacy test refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level. The federal government first employed literacy tests as part of the immigration process in 1917, but after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 these were suspended. Having had tried a replication of one of these tests, I can affirm that an African American living during the time of their use would have quite the difficult time in passing one. Not to say that they were illiterate, but, due to their probable living conditions and level within society, it would have been fairly difficult to have been educated with the content of the questions. Even I, after taking my fair share of U.S history classes (and still am) find some of the question out of my familiarity.
Plessy v. Ferguson: In this Supreme court case, a man named Homer Plessy had refused to leave a railway car that was held for whites only, and being even only one eighth of African descent, he was still demanded to leave. He was then arrested for his refusal and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of this part of the Jim Crow laws on the basis that segregation in public facilities was not unconstitutional so long as he separate facilites were substantially equal.
The following, in contrast, is one way in which segregation was fought against:
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
Background: In this situation, Linda Brown who was an African American student in Topeka Kansas was required by state law to attend a segregated school. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), looking for the perfect case to challenge legal school segregation, choose this case to test the Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of "separate but equal" and thereby force the court to rule that school segregation was by its very nature unequal and violated the Fourteenth Amendment's requirement of providing equal protection of the laws.
that the
The precedent of segregation was set aside and ruled the act of segregation was inherently unconstitutional because of its violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. All lower courts were ordered to desegregate public schools, but, it was met with some stagnation in the South whom threatened to close their schools. President Eisenhower was forced to send Federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling.
Opinion: I would never say that the Federal government has done "enough" to fight discrimination, but, I am no fool in seeing the pattern of progress. It always takes time for change to take place, and it is inherent within society for things to consistently become better for the greater good of the people. Currently in my scope of life and understanding, segregation, discrimination, and its various forms are no longer as prominent in my life or many others. However, it is never perfect, but in comparing the United States to what it used to be, there is an obvious increase in almost all people's rights to vote for whom they want to lead them, live where they wish, learn where they want, and to express their beliefs and protest wrong doings against them. So to answer a question of whether the Federal Government has done enough to fight discrimination, it has not, but it shall endeavor to do so, and until then it shall shape society into something better than it has been in the past. At the very least, this is the most optimistic view and we should all fight the good fight.
Below are a few items that have furthered racial discrimination in American society:
White Primaries, Poll taxes, Literacy tests, and Plessy v. Ferguson
White Primaries: White primaries were simply put, another way for the the Caucasian majority to further limit the voting and influence of majorities (mostly that of African Americans) in primaries that would elect the candidates that would run for office. This types of primaries usually took place in the heavily democratic south, and by excluding African Americans they directly influenced the outcome of the voting (which would most likely tend to favor the Republican party)
Poll Taxes: Poll taxes were levied on the right to vote and often fell upon a time of year when sharecroppers had a paltry sum of money on hand, thus, in being timed so deviously, they could not afford to vote and gained no foothold in the outcome of elections. Their vote then, if ever received, was of the least importance by the time they could cast a ballot.
Literacy Tests: A literacy test refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level. The federal government first employed literacy tests as part of the immigration process in 1917, but after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 these were suspended. Having had tried a replication of one of these tests, I can affirm that an African American living during the time of their use would have quite the difficult time in passing one. Not to say that they were illiterate, but, due to their probable living conditions and level within society, it would have been fairly difficult to have been educated with the content of the questions. Even I, after taking my fair share of U.S history classes (and still am) find some of the question out of my familiarity.
Plessy v. Ferguson: In this Supreme court case, a man named Homer Plessy had refused to leave a railway car that was held for whites only, and being even only one eighth of African descent, he was still demanded to leave. He was then arrested for his refusal and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of this part of the Jim Crow laws on the basis that segregation in public facilities was not unconstitutional so long as he separate facilites were substantially equal.
The following, in contrast, is one way in which segregation was fought against:
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
Background: In this situation, Linda Brown who was an African American student in Topeka Kansas was required by state law to attend a segregated school. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), looking for the perfect case to challenge legal school segregation, choose this case to test the Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of "separate but equal" and thereby force the court to rule that school segregation was by its very nature unequal and violated the Fourteenth Amendment's requirement of providing equal protection of the laws.
that the
The precedent of segregation was set aside and ruled the act of segregation was inherently unconstitutional because of its violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. All lower courts were ordered to desegregate public schools, but, it was met with some stagnation in the South whom threatened to close their schools. President Eisenhower was forced to send Federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling.
Opinion: I would never say that the Federal government has done "enough" to fight discrimination, but, I am no fool in seeing the pattern of progress. It always takes time for change to take place, and it is inherent within society for things to consistently become better for the greater good of the people. Currently in my scope of life and understanding, segregation, discrimination, and its various forms are no longer as prominent in my life or many others. However, it is never perfect, but in comparing the United States to what it used to be, there is an obvious increase in almost all people's rights to vote for whom they want to lead them, live where they wish, learn where they want, and to express their beliefs and protest wrong doings against them. So to answer a question of whether the Federal Government has done enough to fight discrimination, it has not, but it shall endeavor to do so, and until then it shall shape society into something better than it has been in the past. At the very least, this is the most optimistic view and we should all fight the good fight.