Focus Task- Optimistic and Pessimistic Civil Rights View

(sorry I saved it as a draft and never posted it)

1. African Americans were able to vote

- Optimistic view: African Americans could register and vote for any sort of election since the beginning of the century.

- Pessimistic view: Because of threats, even to the extent of violence, most if not all African Americans feared voting, which lead to only about 5% of African Americans in Mississippi to be registered.

2. African Americans could have jobs/employment.

- Optimistic view: Now that slavery was over in the South, African Americans could hold jobs, including teaching at schools.

- Negative view: There was still much discrimination in the work place, either with hiring workers, or in salary/wage. White teachers in the South earned 30% more than African American teachers.

3. Segregation of schools

- Optimistic view: If African American children and white children were to go to different schools, then there would be less danger for African Americas, and less discrimination.

- Pessimistic view: No matter how 'equal' the government tries to make segregated schools equal, they cannot be equal if they are separate.

4. Integration of schools

- Optimistic view: African Americans now had the same opportunity as white children for learning. When schools were segregated, schools for African Americans were less taken after and given less attention. Bringing African American children into white schools gave them the same opportunity.

- Pessimistic view: African American children were always in constant danger of harassment. In the example of the Little Rock Nine, nine African Americans were to be moved from a far away school for only African Americans to an integrated school. First, the principal of the school refused to allow them to attend the school because of the 'hazard to their safety', as he had claimed, but once President Eisenhower sent official troops to escort the African American children back, the principal allowed them to.