The most persistent experience of social discrimination in the USA is the race relations. In the 17th century onward, the African were brought as slaves. Even before that, the white treated the Native Americans as racially inferior. They were pushed from their own homelands, and their culture was destroyed. The essence of slavery was denial of citizenship and equal civil rights to the black. During the 18th century, most of the black were slaves. They did not enjoy the freedoms that were available to other Americans. Slavery as a system was protected by law till after the Civil War. The fate of the blacks had been sealed by the Supreme Court in the Derd Scott case.
In this case, the court declared that all the blacks had no rights which the white man …show more content…
These laws applied to the placed like waiting rooms, theater, ticket windows, schools, clubs etc. and facilities for Blacks were always inferior. In Plassy vs. Furguson (1896) case, the Supreme Court in its majority judgment put forward the doctrine of the “Separate but Equal”. This meant that two races could be kept separate , if equal facilities were provided to both. In practice, only ‘separate’ was enforced, not “equal”.
But things changed after the Second World War. The civil right movement and other political protests started. Not surprisingly, the things began to change after the Supreme Court judgment in Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. The court had opined that segregation in the public schools was unconstitutional. But this did not do away with the racial discrimination completely. Racial troubles assumed serious proportions in 1940’s.
Attempts to tackle the crises resulted in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Black Americans faced numerous problems and indignities. But, lately the things changed. The Black Americans have asserted themselves forced in almost every aspect of American political