Psychology assignment.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT RESULTED IN MORE OR LESS INCLUSIVE SOCIAL POLICIES AND DRAMATICALLY CHANGED THE ECONOMICS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LANDSCAPE OF THE NATION

! Question 6 from from Lectures and Williams (Chapter 3)

Leg 3 of the Welfare State

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Question 6 Discuss the various factors, during the 1960’s and mid 1970’s, that led toward the partial inclusion of African Americans and the poor in the American Welfare State. Be sure to also discuss how each leg of the Welfare State continues to privilege Whites.

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Economic Shifts ■ The 1960s and 1970s led to a dramatic shift in social policy and the partial inclusion of Blacks,

women, and the poor in the American Welfare State (Leg 3, of the Welfare State spurred on by technological advancements

■ With the end of sharecropping and increasing total replacement of blacks by cotton-picking machines, blacks were forced to leave the South and look for work in the North

■ The population shift of blacks living in the rural South in 1940 (77%) to (53%) concentrated them in the inner cities where they would find work

■ New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia were major urban centers were blacks became employed in unskilled jobs and manual labor

■ Educational Trends: The G.I. Bill – Diminished the distance between the middle and upper classes, but sharply increased the

distance between middle and working classes – Was supposed to be race neutral policy but benefited whites more than blacks – Educational and health assistance was offered to veterans however it was irrelevant to

blacks who disproportionally had poor health and the level of literacy were below any of the GI Bill’s provisions

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Post WWII Housing Programs ■ Due to segregation, many blacks were concentrated in the inner cities ■ There was a shortage of quality housing for the poor which lead to overcrowding ■ Housing policies prohibited blacks from ownership ■ Federal and local government made capital available for middle class whites to purchase homes

– Allowing tax dedication for home mortgages – Opening new areas for residential development and building new schools in the suburbs

■ Development of suburban America through loan support and tax expenditures to those who would reside there (white families) – Only whites could accrue enough money to live in the suburbs – Racial discriminatory housing practices: redlining

■ Businesses began to move to the suburbs ■ Single family homes and massive jobs were common characteristic of the suburbs ■ Interstate Highways - Led to employment increases in every occupational classification in the suburban rings but blue-collar, clerical, and sales jobs declined sharply in the inner cities.

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Deindustrialization (Automation) of the Inner Cities ■ New automobiles opened up development of the suburbs and killed the hopes for early

development of mass transportation for the poor ■ Black workers in the inner cities (twice the ratio of whites) were cast into permanent

unemployment and poverty ■ Labor became replaced by machines therefore displacing black workers and the poor ■ Employment increases in every occupational classification in the suburban rings of Northern

metropolises, but blue-collar, clerical and sales jobs declined sharply in inner cities ■ Interstate Highways

– Moving plants from central cities to newly emerging suburban areas – Federal government funded the interstate highway system and the right of metropolitan

expressways around cities from the 1950s onward ▪ Introduction of New Automobiles - Production of new automobiles opened up development of the suburbs and simultaneously killed hopes for early development of mass transportation for the poor

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Attack on White Privilege ■ Beginning in 1954 with Brown v Board, a series of Supreme Court discussions began to tear

away at the white exclusionary power structure ■ Blacks were staking claim for equal access to services which had been denied to them

previously. ■ Created a stark divide among the white population ■ Violence against blacks, student, Latinos and welfare activist were common form of white

resistance

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Third Leg of the Welfare State ■ Legislation preserved privilege by adding a third leg for blacks and women however the first two legs

continued to serve whites ■ Brown v Board of Education ■ Affirmative Action 1954 ■ Civil Rights Acts 1957

– weakly protected voting rights but successfully brought civil rights to the forefront of the political agenda

■ Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Outlawed discrimination on the basis of race in public facilities, schools and jobs – Utilized the federal government’s ability to regulate interstate commerce, to outlaw discrimination in

hotels, restaurants, and other public accommodations with economic consequences for states receiving federal funding

– Title VII banned discrimination against anyone because of race, color or national origin in the sale, rental or financing of housing units however red-lining still preserved privilege in housing

■ Voting Rights Acts – Outlawed unlawful practices of excluding people from voting based on literacy tests or other such

ploys

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War on Poverty ■ Advanced the economic concerns of the impoverished ■ Three foci of the War on Poverty

1. Community Action 2. Education and job training

o Program initiatives such as Head Start and Upward Bound o Job Corps-never produced their intended effects and created new barriers for black

men in the workforce 3. Affirmative Action

■ Anti-poverty programs managed to cut the poverty rate from double digits in the 1960s to the single digits in the 1970s

■ Housing initiatives failed because of difficulty of changing the structure of local government

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