Prejudice Against Negros and People's Roles Against Prejudice
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Prejudice against African Americans caused many disadvantages for blacks. Slavery was long ago banned by the 1950s but African Americans were far from equal to white people. Black people were second-class citizens. The education boards would give more money to white schools than black schools. Black people would have seperate bathrooms and water fountains. Black people would be banned from restaurants to vending machines. Black people would get less jobs and have less money. No African American's would be able to get into a position to change any of these things because many white people were scared of what electing a black peson would bring. Some southern states even legalized ways to stop black people from voting like putting an expensive tax on the right to vote or creating reading tests that were often rigged. It wasn't until a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white person (the currnet law at that time was that if a white person had no place to sit he could make a black person move) that the Civil Rights Movment started in 1955. The Civil Rights movement was when black people started standing up for their rights and the start of desegregation. When Rosa Parks was arrested news quickly spread until a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr. was aware. He led the infamous boycott of bus services where black people stopped riding the bus in an attempt to bankrupt them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is known as one of the most important leaders in the Civil Rights Movement and was the youngest person to win the Nobel Prize at the age of 35 for his belief that peace can bring more change than violence. Eventually desegregation made it to education, although many states opposed it. At some schools crowds would gather and block children from entering schools. Segregation was basicly gone by 1980 and although there's still racism black people have many famous people amongst them, including our black president, Barack Obama.