Racial Segregation Across The United States
Alex Brown
English 1221.8
Dr. Bauer
25 April 2014
Racial Segregation Across the United States America faces racial discrimination and segregation. The issues are more prevalent in the South, but exist in the North as well. The abolition of slavery and the repealing of the Jim Crow Laws brought an end to the idea that African Americans are inferior from a political standpoint. Southern authors, Ernest Gaines and Toni Morrison, use their novels, A Lesson Before Dying and The Bluest Eye, to highlight the many flaws in the new, so-called “equality,” and show racial segregation denied African Americans the American Dream in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Racial Segregation in the 1940’s and 1950’s can be seen in facilities across the United States. These facilities can be separated by the "colored line" in the town and have inequality among the treatment of people within. This segregation denies African Americans the American Dream due to the fact they do not have the same opportunity as Whites to be successful. In A Lesson Before Dying, Gaines allows the reader to see the inequality between African Americans and everyone else in the South through his depictions. Right from the beginning, segregation is seen in the town of Bayonne: “There was a Catholic church uptown for whites; a Catholic church back of town for colored. There was a white movie theater uptown; a colored movie theater back of town. There were two elementary schools uptown, one Catholic, one public, for whites; and the same back of town for colored” (Gaines 25). Each different type of institution clearly has one building in town for Whites and one in the back of town for African Americans. Segregation is heavily integrated in this society and is the first major aspect Gaines brings to the attention of the reader. In addition, Morrison opens the readers eyes to see similar racial segregation in The Bluest Eye through the difference in the housing facilities of African Americans and Whites. The
English 1221.8
Dr. Bauer
25 April 2014
Racial Segregation Across the United States America faces racial discrimination and segregation. The issues are more prevalent in the South, but exist in the North as well. The abolition of slavery and the repealing of the Jim Crow Laws brought an end to the idea that African Americans are inferior from a political standpoint. Southern authors, Ernest Gaines and Toni Morrison, use their novels, A Lesson Before Dying and The Bluest Eye, to highlight the many flaws in the new, so-called “equality,” and show racial segregation denied African Americans the American Dream in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Racial Segregation in the 1940’s and 1950’s can be seen in facilities across the United States. These facilities can be separated by the "colored line" in the town and have inequality among the treatment of people within. This segregation denies African Americans the American Dream due to the fact they do not have the same opportunity as Whites to be successful. In A Lesson Before Dying, Gaines allows the reader to see the inequality between African Americans and everyone else in the South through his depictions. Right from the beginning, segregation is seen in the town of Bayonne: “There was a Catholic church uptown for whites; a Catholic church back of town for colored. There was a white movie theater uptown; a colored movie theater back of town. There were two elementary schools uptown, one Catholic, one public, for whites; and the same back of town for colored” (Gaines 25). Each different type of institution clearly has one building in town for Whites and one in the back of town for African Americans. Segregation is heavily integrated in this society and is the first major aspect Gaines brings to the attention of the reader. In addition, Morrison opens the readers eyes to see similar racial segregation in The Bluest Eye through the difference in the housing facilities of African Americans and Whites. The