Chris Peach
African American Citizens in 1950
I do agree strongly that African Americans were still treated as second class citizens in 1950 although a lot had changed and was changing. After the second world war, black people became more respected because they started to realise that black people were just as good, and no different as any other people, the people who they fought with realised this almost instantly, a white man said ‘They’re just like any of the other boys to us. Other soldiers did not only believe that they were equal to them, they respected them and trusted their life on them just as you would do with any other person in the war.
When the black soldiers went abroad to Europe to help win the war they soon realised that segregation and racism was not present in the same way as it was in America, people were not as bothered whether you were black or white, the black service men even had nights out with the women and they got treated as heroes, this boosted their confidence and self-esteem. This was only a small step though it did nothing to change the situation in America and the white commanders refused to let the black men go out and mingle with the local citizens, I agree this is wrong and does show that black people were being treated as second class citizens, but only by the Americans.
A lot changed in the years after the Second World War, black people stared to move north because segregation had been abolished there and it still remained in the south, although black people tended to live in worse accommodation, but this was generally because they were poorer from having lived in the south and having low paid jobs, although this still occurred in the north as well, white people normally got paid more than black people even if it was the same job. They were still being treated as second class citizens although things had improved slightly in the years following the war.
President Truman was the first American president to support civil rights; he did a speech called ‘To secure these rights.’ The speech brought up issues such as lynching, desegregation and training against racism, he wasn’t very successful despite all his efforts yet he did manage to get the armed forces desegregated and get black people appointed in some government positions such as Ralph Bunche who was appointed American Ambassador of the United Nations. I do agree that African American citizens were still being treated as second class, although I do believe it was starting to change and that they people were starting to respect black people more and that it was nowhere bad as it had been before, lynching was stopped, desegregation had begun in areas of the US especially the North and most of all I think white people where starting to realise that black citizens were equal to them and even though president Truman wasn’t that successful, but he started a campaign that people followed up and helped us to get were are now against racism and I believe he started the war against racism and most of all how people viewed it.
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