Notwithstanding that African Americans were subjected to racism and discrimination after the abolishment of slavery, their fight to overturn Jim Crow between the years 1930 and 1961 was meet with resistance, particularly by White southerners. As a result, many African Americans employed different strategies to either fight against segregation or cope with it. While there were many different strategies employed, they all fall under four main categories. The first strategy/category is the Blacks who cooperated and accommodated to their “white alliances” in hopes of maintaining peace and making a gradual progress. The second strategy is the idea of using the legal system to fight Jim Crow, particularly in education. This strategy was mainly orchestrated
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Those who migrated to the North were able to enjoy their freedom and seek for better opportunities, while those in the South faced racial hatred, discrimination, and harsh economic conditions. The majority of these Black southerners became sharecroppers, which meant that they would be living the rest of their life in poverty and in debt to the White landowners. Many Black sharecroppers, such as John Lewis’s parents (particularly his mother) accepted this condition in order to avoid any trouble from the Whites and to make the best of their condition. This type of mentality falls under the first strategy of Blacks cooperating and accommodating in hopes for slow progress. William Chafe describes this type of strategy in his book, Civilities and Civil Rights as Blacks working “within the structures of White power for Black advancement” (Chafe, 1980, p. 21). Like many of the sharecroppers, prominent African Americans such as Dr. F.D Bluford, president of A&T College and other Blacks who relied on White economy (victims of economic reprisal) would employ these strategy in their struggle to overturn Jim …show more content…
The idea was old and more importantly there was no progress being made. In fact, the case of Greensboro shed some lights that while Blacks thought telling Whites what they want to hear would help them, it only seemed to have made their struggles stagnate. For one, Whites were only willing to accommodate to Blacks so far as their interests fulfilled Whites’ interests. By telling their alliances what they want to hear, the progressive Whites assumed that Blacks were happy in their conditions, as was the case for Greensboro. While Lewis’s narrative did not focus on this strategy, he expressed in his book how he increasingly got frustrated with those who had that mentality in his family and community. Like Lewis, many Blacks were fed up with the oppression and wanted better lives. This change in ideology would lead Blacks to seek for other
Those who migrated to the North were able to enjoy their freedom and seek for better opportunities, while those in the South faced racial hatred, discrimination, and harsh economic conditions. The majority of these Black southerners became sharecroppers, which meant that they would be living the rest of their life in poverty and in debt to the White landowners. Many Black sharecroppers, such as John Lewis’s parents (particularly his mother) accepted this condition in order to avoid any trouble from the Whites and to make the best of their condition. This type of mentality falls under the first strategy of Blacks cooperating and accommodating in hopes for slow progress. William Chafe describes this type of strategy in his book, Civilities and Civil Rights as Blacks working “within the structures of White power for Black advancement” (Chafe, 1980, p. 21). Like many of the sharecroppers, prominent African Americans such as Dr. F.D Bluford, president of A&T College and other Blacks who relied on White economy (victims of economic reprisal) would employ these strategy in their struggle to overturn Jim …show more content…
The idea was old and more importantly there was no progress being made. In fact, the case of Greensboro shed some lights that while Blacks thought telling Whites what they want to hear would help them, it only seemed to have made their struggles stagnate. For one, Whites were only willing to accommodate to Blacks so far as their interests fulfilled Whites’ interests. By telling their alliances what they want to hear, the progressive Whites assumed that Blacks were happy in their conditions, as was the case for Greensboro. While Lewis’s narrative did not focus on this strategy, he expressed in his book how he increasingly got frustrated with those who had that mentality in his family and community. Like Lewis, many Blacks were fed up with the oppression and wanted better lives. This change in ideology would lead Blacks to seek for other