The Black Predicament1. The issue of civil rights, or the freedoms and liberties that should be given to people no matter their race, ethnicity, lifestyles, or beliefs, has been around for hundreds of years.
i. The questionable ways of classifying people are called suspect classifications and involve race, gender, and ethnicity.
2. Even though they account for more than 12% of the nation’s population, blacks could not until recently vote, attend integrated schools, ride in front seats of buses, or buy homes in white neighborhoods in many parts of the country, basically because not enough people demanded that such rights for them be enforced, and many people (whites) felt threatened or detested blacks’ presence.
i. In the Deep South, where black were the majority, the minority whites feared the competition for jobs, land, public service, and living space, and they were simply racist, and this led to many lynchings and violence against blacks.
ii. Not only were blacks oppressed, they either had no means to rise up against such oppression or organize to gain support.
iii. Little was done, despite public shock at such events because lynchings were local crimes (not federal) and most public attitudes were either apathetic or against black rights.
3. At a political disadvantage, 1960s black civil rights protesters found that they would either have to gain new allies or move the policy-making arena to a place where the opposition was not as advantaged.
i. Partly by accident and by plan, they followed both routes, publicizing their cause to many Americans and also carefully securing Congressional action in Congress and the federal courts.
ii. After initial successes (getting Blacks the right AND the means to vote), the civil rights movements turned from fundamental human rights to more of manpower development, economic progress, and the housing and neighborhood improvement.
