Majority-Minority Relations Of African Americans During The Civil Rights Movement

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Majority-Minority Relations of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement was a mass movement for African Americans. This movement’s roots began during the early 1900’s, but extreme efforts began during the 1950’s and the 1960’s. In the beginning of the 1950’s, there was a clear divide between our country due to the color of a person’s skin. In the southern states of America, racial inequality in education, economic opportunity, and the political and legal processes was most blatant. The African American population was influenced by this, and so the movement began. The Civil Rights Movement addressed three areas of complete and utter discrimination: education, social segregation, and voting rights. However,…show more content…
Aquirre and J. H. Turner, best describes the relations between the majority and minority during this time period. One of the key points on the General Model of Ethnic Relations is the majority’s negative beliefs and stereotypes of a minority group. An example support this point on the model would be the education system during this time period. Many people of the white population believed African Americans were intellectually inferior, therefore, African Americans should not be allowed the same education. This led to the white population displaying discrimination to African American education, and not giving them equal opportunities to learn. Another point on the General Model of Ethnic Relations is negative beliefs and stereotypes. This can directly relate to the story Dr. Francis discussed with us in class. One day during their trip down south with their youth group, they wanted to eat at a certain restaurant. As they went in, the owner came out, and told them an African American boy could not eat in his restaurant. The owner then continued to say how he was not welcome, but the rest of the group was. The owner identified the boy as an African American, and this led to the owner discriminating against him, due to the identifiableness of his skin color. One last example that fits the General Model of Ethnic Relations is the American voting system during the Civil Rights time period. It was clear that they equality of voting rights was nonexistent. This is due to the simple fact that the white population had a sense of threat of the African Americans. They thought that if African Americans had voting rights, which would leave them to have more power than they should. This is why the white population discriminated against African Americans having the right to

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