Did Martin Luther King have a clear political party affiliation?
Martin Luther King Jr. was undoubtedly a political man, influenced by nonviolent resisters like Gandhi and dedicated to social change, but I think he avoided labels like Republican or Democrat, probably because he found them divisive and useless in trying to create equality between the races. He once said:“I don’t think the Republican Party is a party full of the almighty God nor is the Democratic party. They both have weaknesses … And I’m not inextricably bound by either party.”[1]In 1952, he wrote a latter to Coretta Scott—his future wife—in which he said:“I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic…”He continued by saying:“[Capitalism] has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes…”[2]He would echo this sentiment 15 years later in his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, saying:“Capitalism has often left a gap of superfluous wealth and abject poverty [and] has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few.”[3]Personally, I’d call him a democratic socialist. But to my knowledge, he never publicly identified himself with that ideology. He’s left-leaning for sure, though.Footnotes[1] http://okra.stanford.edu/transcr...[2] The Forgotten Socialist History of Martin Luther King Jr.[3] The Forgotten Socialist History of Martin Luther King Jr.
Why was the Jim Crow Laws invented? need help?
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States after 1876 requiring the separation of African-Americans from white Americans in public facilities, such as public schools, hotels, water fountains, restaurants, libraries, buses, and trains, as well as the legal restrictions placed on blacks from exercising their right to vote. The term Jim Crow comes from the minstrel show song "Jump Jim Crow" written in 1828 and performed by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice, a white English migrant to the U.S. and the first popularizer of blackface performance, which became an immediate success. A caricature of a shabbily dressed rural black named "Jim Crow" became a standard character in minstrel shows. By 1837, Jim Crow was also used to refer to racial segregation generally. It was not until 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education and 1964, with the enactment of that year's Civil Rights Act, that these discriminatory laws were finally made illegal. Until the "Jim Crow" regime was dismantled, it contributed to a great migration of African Americans to other parts of the United States.
How was life for African Americans under Jim Crow laws?
Allow Martin Luther King to answer. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he explains why blacks can’t wait for equality:”When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that "Funtown" is closed to colored children, and see the depressing cloud of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored," when your first name becomes "nigger" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodyness"-then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”
Why are so few African-Americans Republican?
The are many good answers here, but I think there is another angle that wasn't given much attention. Both political parties purport to adhere to certain ideologies - Republicans = conservative & Democrats = progressive. However, both parties also have certain narratives - things they do and say that fit a previous set of behaviors. Later this year (I hope not) there will be some instance where a black person or people will be treated unfairly. Al Sharpton will get on the next plane to lead a protest - and before he lands the political right will react. Sharpton will lead a protest saying that some black kid didn't deserve to die. Fox News will go through the kids entire record to prove that someone who got suspended for cutting class 5 years earlier deserved to die. Sharpton will say it's because of racism. The political right will attack the character of the dead guy.I am black. I have a wife of 15 years, a graduate degree, a decent job, and an 8 year old son. I disagree with Al Sharpton on most of what he says and does. However, my biggest fear in life is having to bury my son. In 10 years he is going to leave the house and go out on his own. He and I will have 'the talk' before he goes. I will lose sleep in the beginning when he goes out and acts his age. Democrats acknowledge my fear and try to connect with me on that level. Republicans say that I shouldn't fear local police with water cannons and tanks - nosy IRS agents are the real threat. Right now, many (not all) black Americans fear police interaction with them or someone they know. We see the water crisis in Flint and we are angry but not surprised. We teach our kids about the 4th amendment in high school, then they learn that the 4th amendment is conditional when they are hanging out after school. We look on TV and see other people taunting the federal gov't in Oregon (for 2 months!) to come take their guns from their dead hands. We get shot in Walmart for handling a BB gun in an 'open carry' state. Regardless of party platform or bullet points on a website, I know how each side will react during the next crisis. When I have to bury my son in 8 years, Pres. Clinton will attempt to feel my pain. Pres Trump will go on TV and explain why Jordan deserved to die for jumping a subway turnstile. As a black man and parent of a future black man, I can't let that happen.
What purpose did the jim crow system serve?
The Civil War brought an end to the slavery system in the South. For a time during Reconstruction, federal troops occupied the states of the former Confederacy and kept things in order. Following the 1876 election, the troops moved out, Southern Democrats took over, and Jim Crow laws were enacted. Southerners were not about to lose control of their former slaves. The purpose of Jim Crow laws was to keep African-Americans in their place, to exert control over them, and to maintain the status quo. The Jim Crow laws maintained the status quo by denying the right to vote to African-Americans, by instituting discrimination laws, and through outright intimidation. Anyone breaking Jim Crow laws or crossing a line was threatened with arrests, beatings, or death. The Jim Crow laws were enacted between 1876-1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in southern states. All public facilities were segregated by laws, schools, public transportation, and workplaces. The U.S. military was segregated. Laws were passed to make voter registration and electoral laws more restrictive. I know of one county in Mississippi that had no African-American registered voters in 1955. There were many others. Not being registered to vote meant they couldn't serve on juries or run for public office. African-Americans were denied voter registration through poll taxes, literacy tests, or comprehensive tests. Things started to change with federal laws and rulings. The Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954 made discrimination in the public schools illegal. The Civil Rights Law of 1964 ended discrimination in public places. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended it. With federally sanctioned voting rights came power. African-Americans could vote people into office or vote them out. There is still discrimination, even in the North. But it is not the law of the land anymore.
What purpose did the jim crow system serve?
The Civil War brought an end to the slavery system in the South. For a time during Reconstruction, federal troops occupied the states of the former Confederacy and kept things in order. Following the 1876 election, the troops moved out, Southern Democrats took over, and Jim Crow laws were enacted. Southerners were not about to lose control of their former slaves. The purpose of Jim Crow laws was to keep African-Americans in their place, to exert control over them, and to maintain the status quo. The Jim Crow laws maintained the status quo by denying the right to vote to African-Americans, by instituting discrimination laws, and through outright intimidation. Anyone breaking Jim Crow laws or crossing a line was threatened with arrests, beatings, or death. The Jim Crow laws were enacted between 1876-1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in southern states. All public facilities were segregated by laws, schools, public transportation, and workplaces. The U.S. military was segregated. Laws were passed to make voter registration and electoral laws more restrictive. I know of one county in Mississippi that had no African-American registered voters in 1955. There were many others. Not being registered to vote meant they couldn't serve on juries or run for public office. African-Americans were denied voter registration through poll taxes, literacy tests, or comprehensive tests. Things started to change with federal laws and rulings. The Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954 made discrimination in the public schools illegal. The Civil Rights Law of 1964 ended discrimination in public places. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended it. With federally sanctioned voting rights came power. African-Americans could vote people into office or vote them out. There is still discrimination, even in the North. But it is not the law of the land anymore.
What was the significance of Jim Crow Laws?
It segregated Blacks and Whites. In public places like transit, schools, and restaurants. These laws were only in the south. One phrase for it was "Seperate but equal."
What was the significance of Jim Crow Laws?
It segregated Blacks and Whites. In public places like transit, schools, and restaurants. These laws were only in the south. One phrase for it was "Seperate but equal."
How did the Reconstruction (1865-1877) fail to bring social and economic equality to former slaves?
The Jim Crow Laws and the occupation of the Confederate states by federal troops were two divisive issues. The KKK was a group of murderous southerners who opposed any consideration of bringing the ex slaves into society. Ex slaves could only find work in agriculture or the lumber industry and as domestics. There segregation of the whites and blacks was even supported by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1896 case Plessy vs Ferguson that segregation was all right if there were separate but equal facilities for the blacks. That is after the Reconstruction Era, but it points out how pervasive segregation was in the South. The 15th amendment was bridged by Southern whites who made black male adult voters pass reading tests and pay poll taxes before they could vote. There were even laws forbidding blacks from voting unless their grandfathers had voted, which was impossible because they were slaves and there was harsh punishment for anyone teaching slaves how to read and write.
What were Jim Crow's laws?
The 1880s witnessed a profusion of segregationist legislation, separating blacks and whites. The system of Southern segregation was often called the Jim Crow system, after an 1830s minstrel show character. This character, a black slave, embodied negative stereotypes of blacks. One after another, Southern states passed laws segregating blacks and restricting African American rights in almost every conceivable way. For example, Tennessee initiated segregated seating on railroad cars in 1881. Florida (1887), Mississippi (1888), and Texas (1889) followed. In Alabama, laws prohibited blacks and whites from playing checkers together; in Louisiana, statutes ordered that there be separate entrances for blacks and whites at circuses. All Southern states prohibited interracial marriages. Conditions for blacks in the South deteriorated further when the Supreme Court ruled against federal guarantees of African American rights. In 1883 the Court declared the Civil Rights Law of 1875 unconstitutional. In a series of cases, the Court also drastically undermined the 14th Amendment's protection of black citizenship rights and narrowed federal protection of the right to vote guaranteed by the 15th Amendment. Finally in 1896 the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that segregation was legal. At the time of the Civil War, black males had won the right to vote in most Northern states. The 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1870, secured their right to vote throughout the nation. Despite the 15th Amendment, the states of the former Confederacy effectively rescinded the voting rights of blacks in the 1880s. As part of this system, a variety of devices, such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and property qualifications, prevented virtually all blacks from voting.