Racism in 1930s
The victorious chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel once said,” Hatred, racism, and extremism have no place in our society.” Although that might apply to the era we live in right now, 1930s was completely different from now because it was controlled by racism. There was no kindness shown whatsoever towards black people because of their color. In the 1930s the whites had power while the blacks didn’t. This was shown through the Scottsboro Case with the boys because they didn’t get any justice. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was also a big factor back then because they were the people that kind of controlled that time period because they had, and with the Jim Crow Laws that just made black people have no rights. Racism was a deadly disease that spread through the decade of the 1930s. To begin, a very good example of racism in the 1930s is shown by the Scottsboro trial and boys. Racism was shown at the point of when the boys got off the train. They didn’t do anything, but since they were black they accused of nothing. In the article from The Black Past it state,” The Scottsboro deputies found two white woman, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, and pressured them into accusing the nine youth of raping.” Just because they were black they got accused of rape even though they didn’t do it. Everything was determined by race in the 1930s and during the trial, the Jim Crow Laws didn’t give them any justice at all. In the same article it explains that the trial was one of the famous trials in the south. With this information provided it shows that being black wasn’t easy in court and with the Jim Crow Laws they had right or freedom. Once they got accused for something, it was over for them. “The charge of raping white woman was an explosive accusation, and within two weeks the Scottsboro boys were convicted and eight sentenced to death.” This information from the article of The Black Past proves that back then people took rape to a whole nother level. Especially if you were black there was no way of getting out of a case of rape. If you were black and you were accused with rape then you might as well be dead at the moment you were accused. All this was mainly because of the reason that 99% of those people were either racist or in the KKK which made it even worse. Although, the Scottsboro trial was a bad sign of racism so was the Ku Klux Klan, maybe equally or even worse. They were a big organization of racist white people that hated black people and wanted the worst for them. From the website History.com it states,”KKK dedicated itself to an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters(black and white) in an effect to reverse the policies of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy..” They would do anything in order to get any sort of power for themselves. They would even go out of their way to hurt their own kind of people just because those people liked black people. Anyone that liked black people was a threat to them and later on they decided that they would just be fully racist to every race. The article Ku Klux Klan gives me the information that after the first generation the Klan started to hate not just blacks, but Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. Since they didn’t have that much power just hating blacks they had to move on to other races. They didn’t get what they wanted all the time so they had to stuff in order to get what they wanted. Some of those choices they made were to make death happen. In the same article it says,” At least 10 percent of the black legislators elected during the 1867-1868 constitutional conventions became victims of violence during reconstruction, including seven who were killed.” This quote shows that when they were building the KKK up again, they had to kill some black people so other people would be scared. This gave them power and with the Jim Crow Laws on their side, they were pretty much invisible. After all, Jim Crow Laws is just another bad thing that contributed to racism in the 1930s as much as any of the other topics. These laws gave black people no rights at all with anything. In the text from Britannica.com it includes,” Passed laws requiring the separation of whites from “persons of color” in public transportation and schools.” These laws made blacks a shadow wherever they went and they couldn’t go to any school with white people. They were like dirt to white people and they just stepped all over them. Black people couldn’t even use the same restrooms as a white person. The Jim Crow Laws pretty much affected every part of daily life because there was segregation within schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants. These facts from the article Jim Crow Law proves how daily life for blacks were during the Jim Crow Laws. If they wanted to ride the bus, they would have to look for a colored bus that probably wasn’t as good as the white bus. Blacks didn’t have the choice or opinion for anything back then. From the same article it gives me information that blacks didn’t get any right to vote because of their education and other racial criteria. With this information, it shows that blacks weren’t well educated either. Since they were black they couldn’t get anything they wanted and Jim Crow Laws put them that way. As all of the colored people got dumber it was easier for white people to step over them because of their lack of education and their stupidity. In conclusion, racism was a deadly disease that played a big factor in the 1930s. In all, the Scottsboro trial and boys were treated poorly just because of their color. With the KKK included with that, the blacks got no advantage at all. Then, the Jim Crow Laws just gave the blacks no rights at all . They had no freedom while the whites did and this was unfair for the blacks at that time. Overall, racism was something that shouldn’t have happened in that time period and with the pride of the blacks, they gained the courage to fight for their freedom and wipe out most of the existence of racism. |