3.4 - Status of black Americans Flashcards
(9 cards)
How far was de facto segregation and economic inequality still a problem by the 1970s?
· In 1973 all black Americans had the vote and did you know segregation had ended however the facto segregation and economic inequality indicated continuing inferior status
· 1/3 of black Americans in 1/2 of black American children live below the poverty line
· The black infant mortality rate of 19% was higher than that in some developing nations
· 1/3 of black workers had low status, low skill jobs in low wage occupations with average black earnings being 1/2 of that whites
· Black Americans constituted to prison up the US population but 43% of arrested rapists, 55% of those accused of murder and 69% of those arraigned for robbery
These statistics owed much to the inferior economic and social status as ghetto crime, poverty and unemployment remained problems that even black mayors could not solve
How far did Nixon’s policies help black Americans?
· Despite nixon’s criticisms ofof many aspects of the war on poverty and ‘ all that welfare crap’, Social Security and welfare payments doubled during his presidency
· He and the Supreme Court promoted affirmative action to end economic inequality for instance ruling in favour of affirmative action in Griggs V Duke power company in 1971
· Nixon also ensured that over 250,000 companies with federal contracts employed a fair proportion of minority workers
· Next in support for formative action encourage universities to use positive discrimination on behalf of minority applicants and helped make 1/3 of black Americans middle class by 1980
· However a white backlash developed for example marine veteran Alan Bakke challenged the University of California at Davis for rejecting his application to medical school while accepting minority candidates with lower grade
In bakke v regents of the University of California in 1978 the Supreme Court gave qualified support for the university’s affirmative action on the grounds of the importance of diversity in the community rather than as a remedy for past discrimination
How successful was bussing and the attempt to integrate education?
· White opposition to integrated education demonstrated continuing black social inequality
· In 1971 the Supreme Court ruled that for the full implementation of school desegregation in swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg
· They specified the passing of black and white school children to each other schools as a way of achieving racially mixed schools
· When the US courts endorsed the bussing of children to schools that were often a long distance from the student’s homes, Nixon spoke out against wrenching children from their community
· Despite nixon’s opposition the percentage of southern black American children in segregated schools fell from 68% to just 8% during his presidency
· However de facto segregation proved harder to combat in the north where the white backlash against busing was demonstrated in Boston:
→ Irish American staged protest marches and sittings to demonstrate their opposition to school integration in 1974
→ Irish American senator Ted Kennedy had to flee and hide from an Irish American anti busing mob because he had advocated busing while sending his own children to private school
→ The pro busing Boston Globe employed sharp shooters to defend its building
· Opposition to integrated schools caused private school numbers to rise across America with Boston public schools containing 45,000 whites in 1975 but only 16,000 by 1978
· White flight also accelerated with 6% of the population moving to suburbs in the 1970s
Nixon appointed four conservatives to the Supreme Court it ruled that Detroit school children should not be integrated through busing in milliken V Bradley 1974 and the Democrat Congress legislated against busing in the Education Act of 1975
How far did black Americans win greater political rights in the period 1973-80?
· The Supreme Court sometimes acted to ensure equal political status ruling that no redrawing of political boundaries should leave ethnic minorities worse off in terms of political representation in beer V US 1976
· Some states went further creating districts in which black American voters were grouped together to help ensure the election of black officials
· More black Americans were elected mayors of major cities such as Detroit in 1973, Los Angeles in 1973, Washington DC in 1974 and Birmingham in 1979 and over 20 black Americans representing congressional districts with predominantly black population sat in the US House of Representatives from 1973 to 1980
· However the limitations of black progress were demonstrated in that black candidates rarely won white votes therefore as a result only 1% of elected officials were black in 1980
The sole black American senator in the US Congress was Edward William brooke III who represented the liberal state of Massachusetts from 1967 to 1979
Can the 1960s really be described as witnessing a ‘rights revolution’, or were the 1970s more significant in this respect?
· Contemporary commentators noted a rights revolution in the 1960s but black Americans, Native Americans, women and homosexuals had not achieved equality by 1973
· As a result campaigns for women’s rights and minority rights continued in this. During this time the campaigns for Native Americans and gay rights who came far more certain than in previous decades
· Women, homosexuals, Native Americans and black Americans continue to gain more rights in the period between 1973 to 80
· Women gained greater reproductive rights
· Homosexuals won some victories against discrimination
· Native American tribal sovereignty and land rights had a fair amount of support from the federal government
· However all the groups that sort of quality faced frequent difficulties in sustaining and expanding their rights in the face of conservative opposition
With workers rights especially being increasingly threatened
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
- John F. Kennedy first used the phrase in 1961, in an executive order calling on the federal government to hire more African Americans.
- By 1972, about 300,000 firms on federal contracts used affirmative action.
This meant that 35-45% of black families achieved a middle-class lifestyle during the 1970s.
BAKKE CASE
- Bakke v Regents of the University of California (1978) declared affirmative action constitutional but invalidated the use of racial quotas
- The medical school at the University of California, Davis, as part of the university’s affirmative action program, had reserved 16% of its admission places for minority applicants.
- Allan Bakke, a white California man who had twice unsuccessfully applied for admission to the medical school, filed suit against the university. Bakke argued that he had suffered unfair “reverse discrimination” on the basis of race, arguing that he had higher grades than others admitted.
The Supreme Court, in a highly fractured ruling (split 5-4 decision), agreed that the university’s use of strict racial quotas was unconstitutional and ordered that the medical school admit Bakke, but it also contended that race could be used as one criterion in the admissions decisions of institutions of higher education, upholding the principle of affirmative action.
OTHER KEY CASES:
- 1971 Griggs v. Duke Power Company – the Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of affirmative action
- 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, bussing instituted to desegregate schooling. Sparked riots & sit-ins in Boston MA, Sep 1974, between Irish American and black American areas.
- 1974 Milliken v. Bradley: the Supreme Court ruled that schoolchildren should not be integrated through bussing (it was not schools’ responsibilities). Partly a response to white backlash / white flight. Confirmed in 1975 Education Act.
- 1976 Beer v. United States; no redrawing of political boundaries to reduce political representation of minorities.
1980, Fullilove v Klutznick – declared that 10% of federal jobs should be allocated to ethnic minorities
thurgood Marshall
- NAACP lawyer
- Successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional
The Supreme Court’s first African-American justice (nominated under Johnson).
