Examples Of Racism In 1930s America

In Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, the word segregation means a “cause or force the separation of (as from the rest of society).” American society has for decades segregated African-Americans from their White counterparts. Even today, with equal rights for all, many people of color feel segregated in their daily lives. However, today’s segregation does not compare to the 1930’s America.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, racism was a substantial cause of many problems throughout the story, including the main conflict. There were laws specifically designed to mistreat and persecute African-Americans. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, showed how racism affected society back then. Racism affected the way people lived in the 1930’s,

Michael Franco Mr. Rebolini AP Literature June 1, 2016 To Kill a Mockingbird The south for African Americans in the late 1930s was extremely difficult. Everyday life for all Americans involved racism towards blacks.

Racism in 1880 During the years 1870 through 1900, racism vastly continued across the United States. African Americans and Native Americans were treated brutally by white men; from being pushed off their land and having their homes taken away from them, to make room for white families or workers, to being brutally murdered by soldiers or hate groups. Whites controlled virtually everything including businesses, the railroads, farms, and most of the government. Once the African Americans were freed, many had hopes to become self-sufficient farmers like the white citizens around them.

After World War 1, the United States was able to move from war to peace in the 1920s . However, with this transition came racism, the red scare, end of progressivism and bumps within the economy. Domestic problems that the United States had to face was the predicament of African Americans, labor unions that had grown in size and influence , the way that living costs had risen, the Red Scare, etc. For instance, with the tansition from war to peace, the United States had to deal with racism. A type of racism was a hate group known as the KKK (Ku Klux Klan).

The writer, Harper Lee, in chapter 9 of her novel To Kill a Mockingbird conveys social racism. For example, when Atticus tells Scout how lawyers have black clients but not all lawyers try to do a good job at defending the black person. The writer, Harper Lee, in chapter 10 of her novel To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates resistance. For example, when all of Scouts classmates are being rude to her because her dad is on the Tom Robinson rape case Scout ignores them because she had promised her dad that shw wouldn’t get into anymore fights with other kids.

Racial Discrimination was very prevalent during the 1930’s. The line between caucasians and african americans was relevant in the way the african american community was treated in the south. The african american community had very little to no rights, which was strongly represented in the Powell V. Alabama court cases. On March 25th , 1931 Nine African American males jumped on a empty freight train heading to Scottsboro.

What is the purpose of racism? In Theorizing Nationalism, Day and Thompson discuss how racism and nationalism are precisely the same. Racism has the ability to help build nationalism, especially in our young country. LeMay and Barkan in U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Laws & Issues talk about how this racism is used during a specific time period, 1880 to 1920, in the United States of America. Both of these articles argue that when the United States was in a time of peril, they used racism as a unifying factor to bring the country together and as a way to put a group of people lower than themselves to bring their status to a higher point in society.

Around the early 1900s, racism was prominent and wasn't sugarcoated either. African Americans had to deal with many obstacles around this period because of the discrimination involed in their lives. These actions effected many African Americans because it forced some of them to hate the world and limit many of their opportunities in life. Racism is sad reality in our nation that affects all types of people and it continues to shake and alter lives. People use racism as a sort of way to detect the differences with their peers and spike bias towards a group of people.

Humans live in a world where moral values are very clearly set determining what is good and what is bad. We know what scares us and how racism should be treated. Nevertheless, this was not the case back in Alabama during the 1950s. In the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee narrates the lives of the people of Maycomb, Alabama, focusing on the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and the case of a said to be rape. In this emotion filled narrative, readers learn how life was back then not only in general, but for the separate social statuses that there was.

Racism can be introduced to anyone in a novel titled “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Author of the novel Harper Lee, decides to introduce the problem in her book, taking place in the 1930’s, specifically during the Great Depression. Racism is a social issue in the novel all around, in which no trouble should be caused to acknowledge it. Straight from the start, Harper Lee chooses to introduce Maycomb County, a county in which the blacks and whites have separate communities (Lee).

One of the main themes of the novel is Racism. During the time of depression, racism and poverty were a common issue. People with a dark skin tone, i.e the African- Americans were seen as derogatory and treated like dirt. Harper Lee depicts it in a very realistic way.

How did the time period of the novel (30’s) affect how black people were treated? One of the main themes in To Kill a Mockingbird is racial discrimination. Examples of racism and prejudice against black people can be seen throughout the novel. There are several reasons as to why people segregate dark people and they are mostly the important events happening in the 30’s. The time period of which the book was written is the 1930’s

How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator.

“Racism distorts our sense of danger and safety. We are taught to live in fear of people of color. We are exploited economically by the upper class and unable to fight or even see this exploitation because we are taught to scapegoat people of color (Kivel, P).” This quote from the article, The Cost of Racism to White People, barely digs at one of the reasons why racism still occurs in today’s world. There are many motives out there for why racism still occurs.