1 gen 1945 anni - First fair employment laws

Descrizione:

Southern Democrats stonewalled any congressional action on civil rights throughout the 1950s, so activists turned to northern state legislatures and to the federal courts in search of a breakthrough. Outside the South, the foremost obstacle to black progress was persistent job and housing discrimination. The states with the largest African American populations, and hence the largest share of black Democratic Party voters, became testing grounds for legislation aimed at ending such discriminatory practices.

Success depended on coalition politics. African American activists forged alliances with trade unions and liberal organizations such as the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker group), among many others. Progress was slow and often only came after long, unglamorous struggles to win votes in state capitals such as Albany, New York; Springfield, Illinois; and Lansing, Michigan. The first fair employment laws had come in New York and New Jersey in 1945, but a decade passed before other states with significant black populations passed similar legislation. Antidiscrimination laws in housing proved even more difficult to pass, with most progress not coming until the 1960s. These legislative campaigns in northern states received little national attention, but they were instrumental in laying the groundwork for legal equality outside the South.

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