The Oppression of Black Americans Did Not End With Slavery

The unjustified and brutal killing of George Floyd has triggered an onslaught of protests across the country. It has created a chance for a real dialogue between the white and black community to create new understandings of the reality of the Black American experience with police, and a refocus on improving the quality of life for people of color. As a white man, I have often heard white people question why there aren’t more high-profile success stories from the black community in this country. After all, “They say”, slavery ended over 150 years ago. Why can’t our black peers climb the ladder to success the way Irish, Italian, Jewish and Asian immigrants who came to this country were able to achieve.

The first answer is that many Black Americans have made an enormous impact in business, law, inventors, entertainment, literature, the military, politics, sports and other fields. Our country would be much poorer in multiple ways without contributions made by Black Americans.

The next answer is that unlike other ethnic groups, racism led to a series of actions which specifically excluded Black Americans from successful outcomes. Let's take a look at history. Slavery went on for hundreds of years and destroyed slave family structure and excluded them from education. Slavery consciously created an environment of repression designed to keep slaves meek and productive. These tactics involved brutality.

When slavery ended, Reconstruction promised land and a fresh start to liberated slaves. At first, Black Americans were prominent in politics and started to work their way up the ladder. This ended with the withdrawal of federal troops in 1877. Thereafter, the white power structure moved quickly to limit black’s ability to vote, hold office, and kicked blacks off their land and forced many to be sharecroppers.

Overt violence by whites created intimidation and fear in the black populace. The white power structure intentionally encouraged poor whites to see the black population as a threat and an inferior race. This led to the Ku Klux Klan and creation of segregation, which intentionally created a two-tier racial system and barriers to black achievement. Years later, when the Depression threatened the entire economic system in this country, President Franklin Roosevelt, implemented a series of programs to provide opportunity for struggling Americans like the Civilian Conservation Corp. To get the votes necessary for these bills, Roosevelt made a deal with the Dixiecrat Democratic establishment to exclude blacks from the benefits. In turn, Black Americans were screened out of the general economic recovery.

World War II ended the Depression and returning troops were rewarded with the GI Bill which created a loan system for millions of soldiers to buy homes and start families. Once again, Dixiecrat power excluded black people from these programs. In order for a black family to buy a home, they had to agree to lease deals that made it easy for banks to foreclose. Many of the white homeowners had restrictive covenants in their loans, which made it impossible to sell their home to black people. This created new segregation in housing which forced black people into their own neighborhoods.

Segregated schools were chronically underfunded in the South and residential segregation caused the same impact in the North. Not only were the schools that black people were forced to attend inferior, many colleges had quotas which restricted the number of minorities that could enroll. The empowering effect of education on opportunity was limited to people of color. My father taught in the 1950’s at Jordan High School, in the poorest area of Los Angeles. One year, the valedictorian of the senior class went on to UCLA and flunked out, which illustrates the contrast in curriculum based on your neighborhood. Affirmative action programs did have positive effects on education possibilities and employment opportunities, but not enough.

The policing of black neighborhoods was often done with the preconception that every citizen was a criminal. The brutality and selective enforcement in black communities helped create real impact, especially on young black males. A policy like "stop and frisk" in New York created police records for young black males that ensconced them in the legal system. Bail could be hard to raise and jobs were difficult to get with a record. Pair this with disproportionate imprisonment and the harshness of prisons which created a cycle that was hard to escape. Drug laws created tougher penalties for crack cocaine added to the cycle. Felons lost their right to vote, even if rehabilitated.

The civil rights movement of the 1960's created a series of anti-discrimination legislation. The voting rights protections were undercut in the South by poll taxes and the conscious discouragement of black participation. Look at the state of Georgia today. The Governor, when he was the Secretary of State of Georgia, threw thousands of people off the voting rolls. There is a conscious effort with the 2020 election to suppress the black vote.

Events today continue to challenge the black communities throughout America. The coronavirus has hit the black community harder than the white community. In addition, the unemployment rates have hit black people in a stultifying manner.

I am not a historian, and do not claim this to be a comprehensive and totally objective recitation of the past. To answer the question posed at the beginning of this article of why is there still a struggling underclass in certain Black communities? A better question might be how millions of black people have thrown off the effect of racism and become major successes. Systemic racism created massive barriers to black achievement and it is important to understand that so we can build a better future for our Black brothers and sisters and every other impacted minority who have experienced prejudice