The Problem of Racism :: essays research papers

Racism has many meanings, one of which is the discrimination of a group of people due to their race, color, and religion. In addition, racism is hatred for all races apart from one that is considered the master race. Racism stemmed from the past and is still active today. Racism in the past was purely violent especially in the early 20th Century. When slavery was abolished in America in 1865 racial tension settled in. As the free slaves, where allowed to move freely around the land a majority of the white population still saw them as slaves and did not want to mix with them. Fewer than 50% of the population supported the abolition of slavery. The South was a hotbed for racism in the late 19th Century. Segregation was introduced in the 1920's and 30's. Blacks and whites were kept apart from each other. Sometimes there was a single white line between the races, the blacks were given poor surroundings to reside in, while the whites had comfortable surroundings. People found crossing the line on both sides were given severe punishments especially on the white side of the town. Lynching was a common punishment that was used many times by the white community, sometimes it was arranged. There were separate toilets, separate washbasins, separate shops, separate restaurants and coffee houses and even separate drinking fountains and in schools. The schools were separated for the blacks and the whites it ended in 1954 with schools being told to let the black children go to the same schools as the whites. There were countless demonstrations from the white parents. Segregation was also present on the buses, blacks had to sit on the three back seats and if the bus was full and a white person got on the bus the black person had to give up his/her seat. There was an incident that sparked the whole pacifist movement from Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks was going home from a day shopping, the bus she was on was packed. A white person got on the bus and told her to get up and let him sit down. She refused profusely and was physically thrown of the bus. She was then arrested and imprisoned. This caused a boycott of the bus service from the black population. Many businesses went out of business and the segregation on the buses came to an end. This forced a bill to be