Racial equality facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Racial equality means everyone, no matter their race or background, is treated fairly and equally. It means that laws and systems treat all people with the same rights and chances. Today, in many parts of the world, treating all races equally is becoming the normal way things are done. Before the 1960s, it was very hard for Black, Asian, and Indigenous people to get equal treatment. But in recent years, new laws have been passed to make sure everyone has fair chances in school, jobs, and other parts of life. Racial equality can mean having the same opportunities, or it can mean that different racial groups have similar results in life, like in health or wealth.

History of Racial Equality

American Civil War and Slavery

In 1860, about one-third of all people in the Southern United States were enslaved. The American Civil War was fought for many reasons, including to end this practice. In September 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This important document officially ended slavery in the United States. It also gave protection and legal rights to the millions of Black people who had just become free.

Life After Slavery

After the Civil War, three million enslaved people were freed. Even though they were free, Black people still faced a lot of unfair treatment. They often had to depend on white landowners for work. Segregation, which means keeping people of different races separate, was very common. This was especially true in the South. Schools, hospitals, and housing were often segregated. Black Americans were also often victims of violence and did not get fair treatment from the justice system. This made them feel like second-class citizens.

Health and Living Conditions

Where a person lived often affected their access to basic healthcare. Poor areas in cities often did not have the same healthcare services as other places. Being separated from other parts of society made it harder for people in these areas to stay healthy. Also, crowded living conditions helped infectious diseases spread easily among residents.

Leaders for Equality

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a very important leader in the United States. He fought for civil rights and racial equality. King became a great leader because he stood up for Black men and women who were treated unfairly. He played many roles in society and won an award for his work. Martin Luther King Jr. helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He was also a key speaker at the March on Washington. He was one of the youngest people to win the Nobel Peace Prize. King always handled his opinions peacefully. He kept his anger about segregation to himself. But he showed his strong desire for equality in his speeches and peaceful protests.

King showed his commitment to civil rights during the Montgomery bus boycott. This boycott started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. After Parks was arrested, King encouraged Black people to stop using the buses. This boycott lasted for 382 days. King faced many challenges, including arrest and violent threats. But the boycott led to a big victory: Black men and women were allowed to ride buses in Montgomery equally with white people.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Montgomery, Alabama. She went to an all-Black college called Alabama State College. Later, she worked as a secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Rosa Parks became an activist after an event that sparked many others. On December 1, 1955, Parks was riding the bus home from work. She was told to give up her seat for a white man. Parks was tired of the unfair way Black people were treated. She refused and was arrested and fined $14.

Parks' refusal and arrest caused a big problem, especially for the bus company owners. A boycott of the Montgomery bus system began. The goal was to end segregation on public transportation. Martin Luther King Jr. joined in to motivate the Black community and share his passion for equality. This boycott lasted 382 days and ended on December 21, 1956. After the bus boycott, both Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. became national heroes. The Supreme Court also said it was against the law to segregate seats on Montgomery buses.

Churches and Equality

The Church of God believed that "interracial worship was a sign of the true Church." Both white and Black ministers regularly led services in their churches. They invited people of all races to worship together. Members who felt "entirely sanctified" said they were "saved, sanctified, and prejudice removed." Sometimes, outsiders would attack Church of God services because they supported racial equality. But Church of God members were "undeterred even by violence." They "maintained their strong interracial position" as a key part of their belief in the unity of all believers.

Groups and Organizations for Change

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Martin Luther King Jr. founded the SCLC. He brought together many Black leaders in 1957. He became the President of this group. The SCLC worked to improve communities by organizing peaceful protests and boycotts. These actions aimed to fight against discrimination and segregation between races.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

The NAACP was created on February 12, 1909, in Springfield, Illinois. This group was against violence directed toward Black people. Their main goal was to end racial inequality. They wanted to make sure all citizens had equal political, educational, social, and economic opportunities. Their main office was in New York. Moorfield Storey was named president. W. E. B. Du Bois, a Black leader, was the only Black Director of Publications.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was a civil rights group. They came together to fight unfairness and segregation in a nonviolent way. CORE grew a lot after the 1950s. It started with James Farmer, who later became the group's leader and a civil rights activist in 1941. He visited a movie theater in his home state in the South. He saw the "crow's nest," an area only for Black people. He was against the Jim Crow laws. He realized that he and his friends were supporting these laws by their daily actions. He soon wrote a memo and called for a group of strong-minded and strong-bodied people. They would take personal, nonviolent actions to end discrimination.

CORE was started in 1942 in Chicago. It was part of a "Peace-Lover" organization called the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). CORE used nonviolent actions like sit-ins. These were done at lunch counters in Chicago. By 1947, CORE helped with an interracial bus ride across the upper South. They were testing state buses that the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered to be desegregated. This was based on the Morgan v. Virginia decision in 1946. This led to some success for the places that were tested. But it did not get much national attention, which was their main goal. By 1960, a new wave of nonviolent direct action protests began with the student sit-in movement. CORE's national director, James Farmer, repeated the Journey of Reconciliation. Another Supreme Court ruling, Boynton v. Virginia (1960), ordered an end to segregation in interstate bus terminals. This led to the Freedom Rides. The Freedom Riders traveled deep into the South. They were attacked by people who supported segregation in Alabama.

CORE started in the North and focused mainly on public areas. About two decades before, the North had segregated places where Black people were not allowed. These places included restaurants, bowling alleys, skating rinks, and barber shops. More successful efforts were made in work settings with interracial workers and in housing co-operatives. CORE's main goal was to increase public awareness in the North. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, CORE moved to border states like Missouri, Maryland, and Oklahoma.

CORE and NAACP Achievements

In early April, CORE and NAACP joined forces to bring about change in racial equality. Both groups of protesters planned to stop construction of the city's Municipal Services Building. They marched in front of Mayor James Tate's North Philadelphia home. Many protesters also got into fights with police and white union members. The two groups caused many discussions about racial politics, discrimination, and jobs.

CORE's Nonviolent Method

CORE's method for fighting racial injustice was always nonviolence. CORE was the first organization to use nonviolent actions to stop many problems affecting the Black community. The student sit-ins began in February 1960. Within that year, 130 eating places in Southern communities opened up to everyone. People were interested in how CORE approached the issue of segregation.

Growth and Goals

CORE grew in the early 1940s but remained made up of small groups. It stayed small because students who were part of the group would graduate and move away. Also, others fought for a specific cause and left once the issue was resolved. CORE was a volunteer organization; it had no paid staff.

In the South, CORE's main goals were:

Desegregation (ending separation)
Voter registration (helping people sign up to vote)

In the North, CORE worked for:

Better jobs
Better housing
School integration (mixing schools)

Many outsiders started to notice the group's efforts. They supported them and started the Freedom Rides. CORE became more involved in the black power movement around the mid-1960s. Then things shifted from integration and nonviolent actions to organizing communities, separating people, and black power. Also, as white and Black people started working together to fight segregation, some white liberals did not like the idea. CORE's issues changed over time, so they worked on different actions as new problems came up.

Protests for Change

Sit-ins

Sit-ins were the oldest and most used technique by CORE. CORE divided people into three groups: one with all Black individuals, one with all white individuals, and one that was mixed-race. These three groups would go to a segregated eating area before the busiest time. They would wait quietly to be served. This method was used to open up restaurants and later other places.

Standing in Line

This method was used at cafeterias, ticket booths, and other places where people stand in line to be served. If someone was refused service, CORE members in line before or after them would also refuse to move. This would interrupt the service. CORE did this at movie theaters in Kentucky and a swimming pool in New Jersey. This technique was also important for stopping segregation.

Racial Equality Today

Changing Attitudes

Since 1942, two main things have changed regarding racial equality. One is how white Americans view treating Black people equally. The other is the differences between people in the South and those outside the South. These two issues were studied by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). They asked questions about five main topics that affected Black people at the time. These topics were tracked from 1965 to 1980, looking at the year, region, age group, and education. Many educational systems in the South and non-Southern areas supported segregated schools for Black people. They also did not want Black people living near their neighborhoods or interracial marriages to happen.

Changes in the United States population have led to more distrust and fear of non-white racial groups. Researchers Maureen Craig, Julian Rucker, and Jennifer Richeson explain that "Whites who live in areas with larger racial minority populations tend to feel more threatened." They also show "more racial bias, and less support for racial integration than Whites living in areas with smaller minority populations." This means that more racial diversity can sometimes lead to more racial bias and discrimination. However, evidence suggests that positive contact between two racial groups can help promote racial equality. Interacting with minority groups can reduce feelings of threat and increase trust between racial groups. In general, racial diversity within a neighborhood creates a more welcoming feeling and builds trust. But, racial diversity across large cities has sometimes led to more prejudice.

One reason for negative racial attitudes toward Black people is the idea of biological racism. This is the belief that differences between races are due to biology. A 2019 study found that 57% of people believed Black people were naturally lazier than white people. The same study found that during President Obama's time in office, racial prejudice became more strongly linked to not supporting racial equality policies. These policies include equal job opportunities and school desegregation. So, even if we don't know the exact number of Americans who believe in biological racism, prejudice based on racial differences still shapes American politics. White supremacist groups often use racial differences to say that white people are superior. Some researchers even think that more media attention on white supremacist groups could increase these racist beliefs.

Current State of Racial Equality

Even though the UDHR has led to more racial equality, racism and racial inequality still exist in almost all countries. Discrimination based on race means that racial minorities often get fewer job opportunities than white people. They also have less access to education and healthcare. They also face higher rates of being put in jail. Jody Heymann, Aleta Sprague, and Amy Raub wrote about the failures of Brown v. Board of Education. They noted that "From 1988 to 2014, the percentage of 'hyper-segregated schools,' where 90% or more of the students are minorities, grew from 5.7% to 18.4%." This shows that even with Supreme Court efforts, segregation still exists in some American schools. The difference in resources and opportunities between white communities and racial minorities is large. On average, white communities receive three times more than the least-privileged minority communities.

Indirect forms of discrimination still exist in many ways. One example is pretrial risk assessment tests. These tests use computer programs to guess how likely someone who was previously in jail is to commit crimes again. Even though they were made to remove racial bias, these programs have been found to guess higher crime rates for Black people. They guess lower rates for white Americans. These tests, like Jim Crow era literacy tests, do not seem to be openly discriminatory. They appear to be race-neutral. However, the problem is that the people who design these tools mix up "risk" with not trusting authority. They also mix it with the unfair social and political conditions that can lead someone to commit crimes. This way of thinking is flawed because oppressed racial minorities are more likely to be critical of the systems that oppress them.

Many countries have successfully promoted racial equality through their laws and constitutions. Countries like Brazil, Colombia, and South Africa made sure racial equality was in their constitutions. They did this by writing them with the help of minority communities. Other countries, including Canada, Mexico, the UK, and India, have parts in their constitutions that allow for affirmative action. This means taking steps to promote racial equality in the future and fix past inequalities. For example, to address the unfairness of the caste system, India's constitution was written to give proportional representation in government to members of previously oppressed castes. This part of the Indian constitution was originally for 10 years. But it has been renewed every 10 years since it started.

U.S. Laws for Equality

Thirteenth Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment was passed on January 31, 1865. Its goal was to end slavery and forced labor in all states. The only exception was as punishment for a crime. Because of this exception, many people, especially in the South, misused the amendment. An article from Gettysburg College states, "Many in Congress believed that slavery was bad for white workers in the South." This was because enslaved people were seen as a long-term investment. White workers could not get ahead because slavery was cheaper in the long run. The Thirteenth Amendment only legally ended slavery. However, many people took advantage of the exception. They created convict lease programs. This was a hidden form of slavery and was not legally ended until the late 1900s.

Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1868. It gave citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., no matter their race. Like other amendments passed after the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was not popular in the Southern states. It faced a lot of opposition because it gave individual rights to people who had been enslaved.

Fifteenth Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) made it illegal for any state to stop people from voting based on their race, ethnicity, or if they had been enslaved before. This amendment was surprisingly supported by both the North and the South. This was mainly because Northern states had many movements for Black male voting rights. Southern states thought the Black population could add more votes for Southern ideas.

Supreme Court Decisions

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was a very important decision by the Supreme Court. It said that segregation was legal as long as facilities were "separate but equal." The decision also said that individual states had the power to enforce their segregation laws. This decision affected how "blackness" was defined and how citizenship was understood. It also affected how states controlled the separation of races in public places.

Brown v. Board of Education (1952) was a Supreme Court decision that came after Plessy v. Ferguson. It ruled that "separate cannot be equal" in schools. Therefore, segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Many people believe this case was responsible for ending segregation in schools. However, the court decision did not have an immediate impact. Schools largely remained segregated. Schools were allowed to take as much time as needed to desegregate. This delayed any real change toward racial equality for Black and white Americans.

Loving v. Virginia (1967) was a Supreme Court decision that allowed interracial marriage in the United States. It made any laws banning this right unconstitutional.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was put into place because of the civil rights movement and protests. These were mainly led by people like Martin Luther King Jr. and many others. "In 1964, the federal government passed the Civil Rights Act." This law banned racial discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or national identity. This act took important power away from many Southern states. It effectively reversed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling by saying that racial segregation was unacceptable and unconstitutional.

Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow laws were put in place in the late 19th century. They were enforced in the South to separate Black and white Americans. These laws mainly focused on separation in workplaces and in people's minds. During these times, it was hard for Black people to find jobs and support their families, which led to poverty. It was also easier for Black people to be punished for harmless activities, leading to racial injustice. This happened despite the amendments and Supreme Court cases. The Jim Crow laws were finally ended in the 1960s.