Why did race relations remain a major issue 145-89 Flashcards
White opposition, Little Rock, sits ins and freedom rides, Birmingham, March on Washington, rights acts, Vietnam war focus, urban poverty, violent crimes, drug crimes (2 cards)
Urban poverty
The poverty that AAs were subjected to without help, made civil rights an issue.
Even despite the work done to achieve the Civil right act 1964 which desegregated 214 cities.
Many AAs lived in the ‘projects’ -gov. Built tenement tower blocks which housed the poor.
There was widespread poverty which increased violence in these areas.
In 1960, AAs made up 25% of the population of Chicago but only occupied 4% of the physical space of the city.
This was amplified by ‘redlining’ - denial of services (shops, banks) to areas with minority populations.
Rich, middle class families abandoned cities for urban areas and businesses followed them.
This reduced employment opportunities for AAs.
By 1980 1 million of New York’s 8 million residents were recipients of welfare payments.
Drug crimes
Another reasons civil rights remained an issue was the unfair punishment for drug crimes with demonised the AA population.
The illegal drug trade was one of the biggest drivers of crime rate in the 60s.
Criminal gangs smuggled drugs into the US which led to increased gang violence.
Addicts often turned to crime to fund their addiction.
50% of murders in the US was drug related in the 70s.
Nixons war on drugs allocated more resources to police to deal with the violence.
However there was racial bias.
Possession and sale of drugs attracted larger sentences for AAs than the white middle class people.
By the 1990s, AAs, who were only 13% of regular drug users were 79% of people sent to prison for drug possession crimes.
