Blacks in the rural South fall to the bottom of the economic ladder; blacks in the North are first to be thrown into unemployment. Mexicans also lose their jobs when workforces are restructured, particularly in California. There is increasing eviden...
The 1950s are not as calm and contented as the politics and popular culture of the era suggest. After decades of strained relations, an open battle against racial segregation begins. A series of suits challenge the constitutionality of paying black...
The fight against the racism of the Nazis in World War II raises the consciousness of Americans about racism in U.S. society. Black veterans return home with rising expectations, no longer willing to accept second-class status. During the Cold War i...
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka came to the Supreme Court in May 1954. Unlike many court decisions that affect only a few, this decision would impact millions of children. Chief Justice Earl Warren puts off the implementation phase for a year ...
The black community begins to challenge the constraints segregation imposes. A new mass-based political movement begins to coalesce among black members of urban southern churches. Martin Luther King emerges as chief spokesman and black women as the ...
Johnson expands on Kennedy's idea of a war on poverty and lays out an agenda for what he calls the "Great Society." In an effort to create full employment, Johnson instigates an $11 billion tax cut and creates programs poor people can use to bring t...
Racial injustice is no longer limited to South or rural areas. Sixty-nine percent of blacks now live in cities, often in embattled inner-city neighborhoods where there is a growing sense of abandonment and anger. The Watts Riot in the summer of 1965...
Military service is an important integrative device, however, mixing is not going on across certain racial lines. During the war, white soldiers are not allowed to receive black blood, training bases in south are entirely segregated, and northern bl...
During the summer of 1964, almost 100 years after ratification of 15th amendment, thousands of civil rights workers spread throughout the South to work on behalf of black voter registration. Martin Luther King leads a group of demonstrators from Sel...