African American Racial Inequality Essay

1007 Words5 Pages

The start of the twentieth century marked the rise of activism for African Americans. As early as the First World War in 1914, African American began to migrate from the South to the North with hopes of escaping the hostile racial climate in the South and obtaining employment opportunities. However, even in the North, African Americans were amid a hostile environment as whites became resentful due to threat of competition for employment and rate of pay. Tension enviably rose between whites and blacks, but with the growing African American population, predominant figures emerged to combat against the racial inequalities. While African Americans migrated from the South to the North, the racial inequalities and violence enabled African Americans …show more content…

Why were blacks still treated as second class citizens despite their sacrifices matching those of their white counterparts? In J.A Martin’s report, Negroes Urged to Remain in South (1917), he warned African Americans in wartime America about the racial prejudice in the North. Those attempting to find safe haven in the North would encounter the same types of discrimination as the South (Martin 61). With similar racial conditions in both the North and South, the idea of escaping discrimination and violence became bleak for those who had migrated unless the fundamental framework of equality was reconstructed. As years past, Afro-American’s began to grow weary of the bigotry which resulted in an immense unification of the community and the formation of organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. In Martin Luther King’s speech, The Ethical Demands for Integration (1963), he states that desegregation would not be enough to solve the ethical dilemma amongst colors and non-colors instead integration would have to become the prime objective while advocating civil disobedience (King 58). With blacks from around the nation unified, the Civil Rights movement gained support and strength. The pressure from Civil Rights groups and the foot soldiers of the movement would consequently alter the social, political, and economic