Government Policies
Early Constitutional References
* Representation
Supreme Court Rulings
* Dred Scott
State Policies
* Slave Codes
Amendments
* 13th and 14th
Slavery’s Aftermath
• The period of reconstruction 1867-1877
– Military Governors
– Black participation in the political process
– Fifteenth Amendment ratified 1870
Slavery’s Aftermath
• The emergence of segregation laws (Jim Crow)
• Supreme court decisions and segregation
– Plessy v. Ferguson
– Williams v. Mississippi
• White primary elections
Reparations For Slavery
• Slavery reparations- act of making amends for
the injustices of slavery
– An official apology
– Financial compensation
– Corporations that benefit from slavery and
financial compensation
• Commission to study appropriate remedies
Political Leadership
Booker T. Washington
• Born a slave on a Virginia plantation
• Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Politics of accommodation
• Self help and economic self determination
Political Leadership
W.E.B. DuBois
• Born to a free family in Massachusetts
• First African-American to receive a Doctorate
from Harvard
• Niagara Movement
• Racism as the problem of Whites
• Advocated the policy of the talented tenth
Political Leadership
• DuBois - and the NAACP
• Black consciousness “ Soul of Black Folks”
• Du Bois and Atlanta University
– Study of African Americans in the South
The Exodus Northward
• Demographic shift of Blacks from the South to
the West and North during the early part of the
Twentieth Century
1. The search for a better economic
opportunities
• Life in the North was economically better
than in the agrarian South
2. Escape racial apartheid and violence in the
South
The Civil Rights
Movement
• Desegregation of public schools.
• De jure segregation
– NAACP - Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka Kansas, and U. S. Supreme Court
decision
– James Meredith (1962) University of
Mississippi
Major Events of the Civil
Rights Movement
Civil Disobedience
• Rosa Parks - December 1, 1955 and the
Montgomery Alabama bus boycott
• Martin Luther King, Jr. - Montgomery
Improvement Association
• King and civil disobedience as means to bring
about political and real change
– People have the right (moral duty) to disobey
unjust laws
Black Power
• Black consciousness and power movement
emerged out of continued deprivation
– Black Power movement of the 1960’s (Charmichael) primary focus was on political
and economic self determination
– Black Pride
– Black Panther Party - founded by Huey
Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland,
California
The Religious Force
• Religion has always been a source of political
change and spiritual strength from slavery to the
present
• Most African Americans are over-whelmingly
Protestant
• The Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, has
attracted a large number of followers and
received the most attention
Black Population, 2000
Cities with Populations of 100,000 or More That are at Least 50%
African American, 2000
City
Population
Atlanta, Ga.
Baltimore, Md.
Birmingham, Ala.
Detroit, Mich.
Gary, Ind.
Jackson, Miss.
Memphis, Tenn.
Newark, N.J.
New Orleans, La.
Richmond, Va.
Savannah, Ga.
Washington, D.C.
Percent African
American
416,474
61.4%
651,154
64.3
242,820
73.5
951,270
81.6
102,746
84.0
184,256
70.6
650,100
61.4
273,546
53.5
484,674
67.3
197,790
57.2
131,510
57.1
572,059
60.0
BlackWhite
Income Gap
Religious Profile of African
Americans
Politics
• The number of Black elected officials between
1970 and 2001 has increased by more than
five-fold
– Population concentration and election
patterns
• Gerrymandering the courts and minority
controlled political districts
Education
• Quality and quantity of education
• Educational gap between between Blacks and
Whites
– Always been present
– Gap is narrowing in recent years
Education
• There are also a number of qualitative
differences in the schooling of African
American children
– insensitive teachers and unresponsive
administrators
– poor counseling
– overcrowded classes
– irrelevant curricula
– poor school facilities
School Segregation
• De jure patterns of segregation - according to
policy or law children were assigned to
schools on the basis of race
– U.S Supreme Court decision in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Topeka,
Kansas.
• De facto educational segregation
– Income and residential segregation
School Segregation
• Tracking - school isolation and internal
segregation
– Tracking and lower academic standards and
achievement
– Lower tracks results in lack of college
preparedness
Higher Education
• Over the years there has been an increase in African American students going to college and graduating
• Upward trend to higher education has declined and in
part is a function of
– decline in educational financial aid
– push for higher standards
– employment opportunities
– negative publicity and a decline in enforcement of
affirmative action
– racial incidents on college campuses
The Economic Picture
• Approximately 29% of African-Americans are
middle class or higher
• In 2003 the median income of Black households
was $29,681 and White non-Hispanic
households had a median income of $45,631
• Twenty-four percent of Black families live in
poverty in comparison to 8% of White nonHispanic families
• The disparity in wealth between Blacks and
Whites is greater than for income
Income
Distribution:
Black Versus
White
Comparing Wealth
Employment
• National unemployment rate is higher for
Blacks than Whites
– More severe during economic downturns or
recessions
– Worse for African-Americans between the
ages of 16-24
– Underemployment-working in a job in
which one is over qualified
Employment
• Factors related to the rate of unemployment
among African-Americans
– High concentration of African-Americans in
depressed central city economies
– Increased job competition from other
immigrant groups and white middle-class
women
– Illegal job opportunities
Housing
• Factors that contribute to housing segregation.
1. Personal prejudices
2. Steering by real estate companies
3. Lack of vigorous enforcement of anti-bias
legislation
4. Public housing policies and patterns of
construction.
5. Bank financial and loan bias
6. Persistence of redlining
7. Zoning laws and residential segregation
Criminal Justice
• Victimization surveys: African-Americans are
more likely to be victims of violent crime and
property crime
• Differential justice
– police protection
– racial profiling
– sentencing
– victim discounting
Health Care
• High rates of disease
– In part function of class and less access to
health care resources
– Fewer Black health care professionals
– Environmental racism: more likely to live in
toxic environments
Intergroup Relations Continuum