Words: 2984
How effective was federal action in establishing civil rights from 1915 to 2017
This essay will investigate how effective federal action was in improving civil rights from 1915 to 2017. Federal action is action taken through legislation or acts of the central government, such as through the supreme court. For federal action to have being effective in achieving equality, improvements in socio-economic and political rights must have being made and individual discrimination faced by black Americans removed. In the short term, unto 1970 immediate change was not seen. Many black Americans found themselves poor and unable to vote while being the victims of racist attacks. However, in the long term post 1970 to 2000, despite occasional discrimination, the changes introduced helped develop near complete equality and the establishment of civil rights both politically and economically, However, federal action was unable to change the views of Individual people leading to many black Americans to face outright racism.
During the Civil Rights movement, the government, through federal action, passed legislation in an effort to advance the movement and improve equality. Some historians view the federal action that took place as an important part of the effort to achieve equality, arguing the VRA of 1965 was “one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom”. However, other historians argue the actual impact of federal action was negligible. They argue racist attitudes still existed and changes to the law was only glossing over the real issues. They argue that the progress was paved by other factors such as protests and leaders like MLK
Steven. F. Lawson argues federal action taken by the government played an irreplaceable role in reforming civil rights. That legal support was offered through the supreme court allowing for the challenges to inequality and individual discrimination, while legal changes such as the 1965 Voting Rights Act were a “watershed in the black freedom struggle”. Previously the right to vote for black Americans was seen as a privilege rather than a right, many obstacles such as the poll tax and literacy tests prevented black from voting and exercising their “privilege”. However, through federal action the barrier to vote were dismantled, the poll tax removed and finally the VRA of 1965 “a watershed moment” established the privilege to vote as a right to vote.
He worked an independent scholar after working at various colleges and obtained a PhD at the Colombia university, this indicates his academic .His interpretations cover a date range from 1962 to 2013, with his first article being just before the Voting Rights Act and his last being into Obama’s presidency. He has produced works such as “Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968” and “To Secure These Rights: President Harry S Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights Boston” This leads the emphasis of his work to change over time, initially his work focused upon the importance and need for federal action while his later focus was on the impact of the success of federal action. Consequently, its likely he produced a convincing argument on the development of federal action. He used many newspapers to form his opinion and this may have the consequence of influencing many of his political views on the topic of federal action. He is far more of a political historian with many of his works left leaning politically, this may lead to omission of racial ideas and how these still affected black Americans.
James. T. Patterson argues while federal action legally offered “the right to vote” for African Americans, and had legally improved the opportunities they could access. He emphasis how the legal right was not enough, this is highlighted in works such as “Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974”. In his opinion the Voting Rights Act “could only do so much for black people, who faced deep socio economic disadvantage rooted in racism and discrimination”. He claims African Americans no longer legally faced discrimination, but post Voting Right Act they were abandoned by the state while still being denied the opportunities of employment and housing. He argues “everyday socio economic concerned the African American population the most”. This holds true even more so in southern America, where even after the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed racially motivated attacks are still carried out.
He was educated at Harvard University indicating a successful and researched education. In his interests of political history, legal history, and social history. This wide range of topics can lead him to form a balanced interpretation based on multiple factors effecting the civil rights movement. This seen in his published works. They take place from 1967 to 2012. As this is post-VRA is likely he will emphasise the nature immediate improvement while overlooking the progress made from past federal action. To develop his work he used extracts from Ann petry’s “The street” (1946) that focuses on the ghettoisation of African American communities. This offer him reliable insight into socio-economic issue black Americans still faced, However, this may lead interpretation to overlook the impact of federal action while overemphasising the socio-economic problems. Consequently some of his works may be focused on raising awareness for this issue rather than exploring how far federal action tried to resolve them, this fits with his style as a social historian.
Despite the efforts of the government, federal action proved insufficient to improve the poverty of black Americans. During the 1920’s 60% of people lived below the poverty line, this was despite the economic prosperity of the US and many of the 60% were black Americans who suffered racist attacks. During this time black socio-economic problem were not considered a priority. This remained a contest theme and even after the 1965 VRA that was suppose to equalise opportunities, nothing changed. Socio-Economic motivated riots broke out on the 11 Aug 1965 in the black areas of los angles, killing 34 people. These socio economic problems continued in 1995 poverty levels were 29.3% amongst black and 8.5% amongst whites and still in 2015 where poverty levels were 26.2% in comparison to white 10.1%. The mounting discontent of socio-economic problems can be embodied by the riots. It’s unlikely this level of rioting would commence over simply the failure of the VRA, but instead a result of the continued hope of socio-economic improvement promised in past legislation that never manifested. At a time where MLK preached peaceful protests, this was an outright rejection of his values that had been previously followed. This indicates a complete loss of faith in federal action forcing people to break away from mainstream civil rights action to seek change. This continuity of frustration at the failure of federal action can be explained by the very small reduction of the poverty levels from the time of legislation in 1965 to 2015. Even over the long term federal action made little impact to remove socio-economic disparities within society and didn’t help develop black civil rights..
While Federal action didn’t directly improve the poverty of black Americans, it succeeded in improving black education and employment in the long term. The supreme court ensured civl rights are upheld, in a court Appeal from the united states district court for the district of Kansas on 1553 in Eastern District of South Carolina. Its purpose to inform the district of Kansas that segregation in school was denying equal opportunity to education. As this is an official document to the court, this source provides factual evidence that can be reviewed and used to see how the supreme court interpreted data that allowed them to reach decisions regarding civl rights. You can see how the appeals process was now made available to black Americans to challenge abuses in their civil rights to force change. Directed at the south, a particularly racist area, it’s useful for investigating how socio-economic problems were challenged all across America not just in the north. It shows the recognition of socio economic problems, especially the lingering racism by the supreme court and the effort they took to review and improve. However, this appeal took place shortly during the Brown vs Board court hearing in 9 Dec 1952 and may have been a short term political response to the public attitudes rather then a long term development in seeking black civil right. While this was accepted in a court, the source fails to investigate if these rights were upheld post ruling. It may have been the case that black Americans were still excluded. Despite this uncertainty, the impact of this can be definitely seen. From 1970 to 1990 black police offices more that doubled and the number of black college students increased from 330,000 in the 1960s to more than a million in 1978. The rise in employment and education of black americas, especially in the police, a historically racist institution shows that not only had federal action just offered more opportunities, but that these opportunities were accessible allowing black Americans to permeate into employment and educational opportunities. This took a big step in ending the perpetuation of poverty that saw black people denied from education and therefore work. The long term impact can be seen in the first black president, Barak Obama, took office in 2009. This indicates the majority of the population now supported the development of the black Americans socio economic position. It also indicates the success of federal action to the highest degree in its regard by allowing a black American to become president, this would require a quality education, political career and good social standing. Thanks to changing attitudes and federal action this was all provided. This would have been inconceivable even post 1965 VRA and highlights how effective federal action was.
Its important not to overlook the shortfalls of federal action in directly improving the economic situation of black Americans. It was not until the 1950s that the socio-economic needs were beginning to be recognised and even when action was taken it was usually only helpful to certain areas and not the wider black population. Acts intended to bolster the economic position of black American seemed to have a limited effect in the short term, especially from the 1950s to 1980s. However, its important not to overlook how other acts boosted the overall position of black Americans in the long term. Through offering access to better educational opportunities and allowing black Americans to join the job market, their social and economic position improved allowing them to break the cycle of poverty, the definitive impact of this can be seen especially from the 1990s onwards that full established civil rights.
A huge part of federal action was ensuring the political rights of black Americans were guaranteed. In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Supreme Court struck down a grandfather clause which functionally exempted only White people from literacy tests. Oklahoma's "grandfather clause," designed to disfranchise people of color and enforce segregation, is found unconstitutional in Guinn v. United States . The clause allows illiterate men to vote if they can prove that their grandfathers could vote. Because the grandfathers of most African American men in 1915 had been slaves, they did not have the right to vote. Consequently, the clause enabled illiterate white men to vote but not illiterate African Americans.The Court also ruled against White primaries in Nixon v. Herndon (1927) . The long term effect of these contained efforts can be seen post 1965 Voting Rights Act. 250,000 black Americans had registered to vote, this played a dramatic impact especially in the southern states where only 4/13 states had less than 50% of black Americans who registered to vote by December 1965. The government had being aiming to improve black civil rights for a long time by removing barriers to black Americans voting such as poll taxes and literacy tests as well as establishing black Americans as a lawful part of the political process. The huge number of black Americans who registered to within 3 months of the act being seen is demonstrative of its success in this regard. The court rulings over a long period of time indicated to the black community that they were supported by the federal government. This was particularly important in the south were when black Americans were fearful of the repercussions of themselves partaking in the political process and this support over a long term period fully established black civil rights and ensured they would be supported.
While many black Americans legally had the right to vote they found themselves unable to do so. States used their power to block black voters. In Breedlove v. Suttles (1937), the Court upheld the constitutionality of a poll tax requirement for voting, allowing states to exclude poor black voters. Because many African Americans can not afford to pay poll taxes, they are denied the right to vote. This act was challenged it violated both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Despite this, Georgia’s poll tax is upheld, making Breedlove v. Suttles a major obstacle to African American voting rights. Further setbacks can be seen in the 1964 Alabama voting test. It included questions such as: “to what national law making body does each state send senators and representatives”. the test was changed over 4 times with over 100 different versions of it. Its purpose was subtly block black voters. Due to the white dominated education system, it was unlikely black people would receive a good enough education to be able to answer these style questions. This effectively waived their right to vote. However, It’s important not to overemphasise the effect of this source as it only represents the voting procedures in Alabama. It offers insight into southern states used legislative power to exclude black Americans from the political process. Issue of state legislation persisted into the 21st century where The Florida 2000 race declared 179,855 votes were declared spoiled and many voters being excluded from voting. In all of these cases states were able to obstruct the voting rights of black Americans through abusing their socio-economic position, poverty and insufficient education gave states a way to remove the political rights established. It demonstrates federal action was only willing to go so far to shake the political order. The reluctance to do this meant federal action was unable to establish civil rights for black Americans.
Even from 1915 it was a focus of all presidents to establish the right to vote for black Americans. However, the right to vote did not mean political of civil rights. In the short term many black Americans did not benefit from obtaining the right to vote. 250,000 was a very small number of the black population and many found themselves blocked from voting by states even after the 1965 until 2013. nonetheless, It would be a mistake to underestimate the long term impact of federal action. Much of the voter discrimination took place as a result of states being able to abuse the lesser socio-economic position of black Americans. Contained efforts of federal action removed voting hurdles for black Americans while changing attitudes and the improvement of the socio-economic position of black Americans in the long term allowed for the complete integration of black Americans into the political process and full civil rights.
In both the justice system and employment there is clear evidence of institutional racism. In 1955 when the Georgia board of education chose to fired all black employees. The term was coined in 1967 in "Black Power: The Politics of Liberation." To describe this treatment. The author Stokely Carmichae, was a leading member of the black activist group, the “Black Panthers”. The purpose of this was to draw attention to issue facing back Americans and this offers a helpful insight into the motivating attitudes to the group and especially the leaders concerns in regards to their progression of civil rights though federal action. As this group is very popular the attitudes and concerns it expresses would be typical of the wider black community’s response to attempt by government to improve conditions. Written from a radical black Americans perspective it lacks any alternative perspectives, more moderate members of the black community may feel federal action had been more or less impactful. Many black Americans found themselves discriminated against employment, from this their only option is to challenge this at the courts. However, the courts and the justice system have historically being dominated by white people and racist attitudes. This results in black cases being neglected and given an unfair ruling. This can clearly be seen in the shooting of Michael Brown who was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson on the 9th august 2014 and was not indicted. This represents not only racism coming from individuals but the repeated nature of these crimes, with a failure to arrest the suspects. Not only is this an initial failure of federal action to prevent this but also a failure to pursue appropriate legal recourse. Federal action aimed to improve civil rights through the introduction of laws and access to legal recourse to challenge them is broken, but this is render ineffective if the means to do so have deeply rooted racist attitudes.
Federal action made overt attempts to improve how black americas were treated in their individual lives and reduce the amount of discrimination they felt on an individual basis. The court case. In R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, (1992), the court heard the case a group of a white teenager burning a cross I the front garden of a black American family was not a lawful expression of the 1st amendment charing the teenager. On both occasions this shows that not only had black americas’s awareness of their own civil rights increased, federal action also offered them the opportunity to ensure they received justice in line with their civil rights. The courts ruling on the cases also lends to the idea that judges are Jurys were becoming more aware of the civil rights and liberties that should be enjoyed be everyone and ensured this happened. Actions in the past that would have been ruled under the 1st amendment were now viewed as criminal due to the racism implications they had. This shows federal was effective in improving civil rights.
When it came to talking individual discrimination, a lack of evidence of federal action highlights the ineffectiveness. The more subtle occurrences of individual discrimination went unnoticed as highlighted by Stokely Carmichae. And when people find themselves victims of this, their only action is to oppose it in the court. However, one again the lack of helpful rulings in this regard highlight how ineffective federal action was. Instances of institutional racism started as overt discrimination. Over generations attitudes that competed racism have become ingrained within all areas of society and still exist today. This failure of federal action to tackle this represents a clear lack of understudying of the issue black Americans still face and how to tackle them. This trend continued from 1515 to 2017 where black Americans are still faced with discrimination, just in a more covert form.
Federal action was a process that did not have immediate effect. There were president who did not take action and time periods where no change was made such as from 1515 to 1540. It took a supportive government and the dawn of new ideas to bring change and establish civil rights. All factors of civil rights, socio-economic, political and individual discrimination were all tied together. Substantial progress could not be made unless black Americans position in all three improved. As a result of this in the short term, federal action made no improvement to civil rights. Due to the vast amount of laws that took advantage of the poor position of black Americans and the racist attitudes rooted in society no change was made. However, in the long term, when laws were repealed and civil rights continually enforced, Black Americans were able to seamlessly integrate into society will full political right and an equal socio-economic position. However, the institutions left behind racist attitudes still exist and this creates a perpetuation of institutional racism and discrimination that black people cannot escape.
Bibliography
Lawson, Steven, Debating the civil rights movement 1945 – 68, 2006
Patterson, James. Grand expectations: The united states 1945-1974, 1996
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Watts riots. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_riots [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].
U.S Department of commerce (1996). Poverty in the United States: 1995 Census]. Retrieved from https://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-194.pdf
Starks, G. (2017). African Americans by the numbers.
Bbc.co.uk. (2018). BBC – GCSE Bitesize: The 1920s overview. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/usa/1920srev1.shtml [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].
Hartman, J. and Lewis, J. (2016). Challenges to Equality. Florence: Taylor and Francis.
U.S Department of commerce (1979). School Entrollment – Social and Economic characteristics of students: October 1978 [Census]. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/1979/demo/p20-335.pdf
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Guinn v. United States. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinn_v._United_States [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Nixon v. Herndon. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_v._Herndon [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].
ACLU – American Civil Liberties union. Voting rights timeline: March 2005 [Report]. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/voting_rights_act_timeline20111222.pdf
John Lewis & Archie E. Allen, Black Voter Registration E orts in the South, 48 Notre Dame L. Rev. 105 (1972). Available at: h p://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol48/iss1/6
Greg Palast. (2018). Why Kerry Conceded(Though He Had Most of The Votes) – Greg Palast. [online] Available at: http://www.gregpalast.com/why-kerry-concededrnthough-he-had-the-most-votes/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Breedlove v. Suttles. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breedlove_v._Suttles [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].
Gander, K. (2018). What happened on the day that Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson?. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-brown-shooting-what-happened-in-ferguson-10450257.html [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].
Adam Fairclough. The Costs of Brown: Black Teachers and School Integration, March 2006 [Report]. Retrieved from https://www.umass.edu/legal/Hilbink/250/Adam%20Fairclough%20-%20The%20Costs%20of%20Brown.pdf
En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Gideon v. Wainwright. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_v._Wainwright [Accessed 19 Dec. 2017].
En.wikipedia.org. (2017). R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.A.V._v._City_of_St._Paul [Accessed 19 Dec. 2017].