oosevelt provided little support for fear of angering southern Democrats. It soon faded away in 1943.
Though Roosevelt had addressed racial discrimination and segregation to various degrees in government agencies and government contractors, the armed forces remained a segregated world. The marines and coast guard barred blacks altogether. Activists were continually challenging the armed forces to open up more opportunities, but segregation would not end in the military until the late 1940s under order of President Harry Truman (served 1945-1953).
Black Americans had historically been among the nation’s most underprivileged segments of society. During the early nineteenth century, black slaves were a key element of the U.S. economy providing cheap labor for the South’s agricultural region. Freedom following the Civil War brought little relief, as white supremacy remained a key part of American daily life and segregation became the norm. Segregation means maintaining a separation of the races.
Jim Crow Laws
Following defeat of the South in the American Civil War the U.S. government attempted to force social and economic change in the South. This program was known as Reconstruction. These efforts met strong southern resistance. By 1877 reform programs had lost their momentum, and white southerners regained control of the region. Political leaders began promoting segregationist policies and reversing the few gains in racial equality achieved through Reconstruction policies.
State legislatures created a legal system, referred to as Jim Crow laws, separating the races in every aspect of daily life. This system particularly affected access to public facilities. Anyone even suspected of having black ancestry was subjected to these segregationist policies. The name Jim Crow came from a popular white minstrel show performer of the 1800s who played a black character. The name became a derogatory symbol for blacks.
Jim Crow laws survived legal challenges in the 1890s. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation was legally acceptable to promote the public good. The Court’s “separate but equal” doctrine resembled more “separate but unequal” treatment. It dominated segregationists’ policies through the 1930s and beyond. Racism became the legacy of slavery.
Jim Crow laws required the separation of races in every facet of life, including transportation, schools, lodging, public parks, theaters, hospitals, neighborhoods, cemeteries, and restaurants. Business owners and public institutions could not allow black and white customers to intermingle. Inter-racial marriages were prohibited. Blacks had to live with inferior facilities, access, and service. The objective was to deprive blacks of key economic and social opportunities. They were also deprived of adequate food, shelter, clothing, education, and health care. The laws also limited black voting rights through various discriminatory voting requirements, including literacy tests and poll taxes. Whites controlled political power.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), created in 1909, took the lead in combating Jim Crow laws. The NAACP began legally challenging housing segregation during the 1910s. NAACP lawyers soon gained a major victory in a Louisville, Kentucky, case. In Buchanan v. Warley (1917), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that government-supported segregated housing laws were unconstitutional. However, the NAACP suffered a major setback nine years later when challenging private contracts banning the sale of housing to blacks. In Corrigan v. Buckley (1926), the Court ruled private individuals had the right to discriminate in such sales. The Corrigan decision dominated legal views on racial segregation into the 1930s.
The Great Migration
Between 1910 and 1930 approximately one million southern blacks moved to northern cities. They were escaping racial discrimination, poverty, crop failures, and lynchings, as well as seeking employment in the new industrial centers. However, once in the North many found they lacked adeq