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I always knew that racism still existed, but I never knew that things would be the way they are now. Now, there are a lot of mixed individuals/couples. I hate racism! I wish that all races could get along.

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Racism still remain in the United States.

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Segregation was at it's worst!

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After the abolition of slavery in the United States, three Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth provided citizenship, and the Fifteenth guaranteed the right to vote. In spite of these amendments and civil rights acts to enforce the amendments, between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction. Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states. In 1896 the Supreme Court sanctioned legal separation of the races by its ruling in H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson, which held that separate but equal facilities did not violate the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment.

Beginning in 1909, a small group of activists organized and founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They waged a long struggle to eliminate racial discrimination and segregation from American life. By the middle of the twentieth century their focus was on legal challenges to public-school segregation. Two major victories before the Supreme Court in 1950 led the NAACP toward a direct assault on Plessy and the so-called "separate-but-equal" doctrine.

Upholding School Segregation: The Roberts Case

Five-year-old Sara Roberts was forced to walk past several white schools to reach the "colored" primary school. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, a black printer, filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston to integrate public schools. In 1849 reformer and future U.S. Senator Charles Sumner represented Roberts and challenged school segregation in the Boston court. Separate schools for African Americans, he argued, in effect branded "a whole race with the stigma of inferiority and degradation." The Massachusetts Supreme Court, however, upheld segregation in a widely cited ruling. Influential Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw noted that Boston's separate schools possessed substantially equal facilities and declared that school integration would only increase racial prejudice.

The Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed the Federal Government to protect the civil rights of individuals, including African Americans, against state encroachment, was ratified in 1868. The amendment also defined national citizenship and extended it to former slaves freed by the Civil War. This 1866 letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase is from Associate Justice Stephen J. Field, whose judicial opinions would significantly influence subsequent interpretations of the amendment. Field termed the amendment, which had recently been passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification, "just what we need" and said it showed that "the American people do not intend to give up all that they have gained by the war."

Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

By the time Homer A. Plessy, an octoroon (one-eighth Negro blood), who lived in New Orleans, challenged that city's right to segregate public transportation by riding in a Whites Only rail car, the constitutional amendments, passed after the Civil War and written to provide protections and rights for Negro citizens, had been eroded. The Louisiana state courts ruled against Plessy, and his subsequent appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court was denied in 1896. The impact of Plessy was to relegate blacks to second-class citizenship. They were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, churches, cemeteries and school in both Northern and Southern states.

Buchanan v. Warley

The NAACP sought out cases that infringed on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in order to set legal precedents and ultimately secure the constitutional rights of African Americans. An early victory was Buchanan v. Warley, a case involving residential segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Moorfield Storey, the NAACP's first president and a constitutional attorney, argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in April 1917. The Court reversed the decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, ruling that the Louisville ordinance violated the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result of the ruling, whites resorted to private restrictive covenants, in which property owners agreed to sell or rent to whites only. The Supreme Court declared this practice unconstitutional in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948). Buchanan v. Warley was cited in the Brown decision to challenge the legality of segregated public schools.

Separate and Unequal

The 1896 court ruling in Plessy v Ferguson ushered in an era of "separate but equal" facilities and treatment for blacks and whites. In the area of education, it was felt that the children of former slaves would be better served if they attended their own schools and in their own communities. These images of schools for black students show that facilities were separate but never equal.

Chief Strategist Charles H. Houston

Charles Hamilton Houston was the chief strategist of the NAACP's legal campaign that culminated in the Brown decision. Born in Washington, D.C., he graduated from Amherst College, in 1915. In 1923 he became the first African American to earn a Doctor of Juridical Science degree at Harvard, where he studied under Felix Frankfurter. Houston intermittently practiced law as a partner in Houston & Houston, the prestigious firm his father founded in 1892. In 1924 he joined the faculty of Howard University Law School, and was appointed Vice Dean in 1929. By 1932 he had transformed the law school from a part-time evening school to a fully accredited institution that trained a cadre of civil rights attorneys. In 1935 the NAACP hired Houston as its first full-time salaried Special Counsel and created the Legal Department under his supervision. Although he returned to private practice in 1938, Houston continued to advise the NAACP until his death on April 22,1950.

Murray v. Maryland, 1936

While practicing law in Baltimore, Thurgood Marshall worked diligently to amass black teachers' salary cases for the NAACP. He also urged Houston to take on Murray v. Maryland, a stronger prospect than the Hocutt case. The plaintiff, Donald G. Murray was a highly qualified Amherst graduate who had been denied entry to the University of Maryland Law School. In 1935 Houston consented and argued the case with Marshall in Baltimore City Court before Judge Eugene O'Dunne. The Judge ruled that Murray had been rejected solely on the basis of race and ordered the University to admit him. Murray became the first black graduate of the University's law school in 1938.

Progress of the Hocutt v. Wilson case, 1933

In 1933 the NAACP undertook Hocutt v. Wilson, the first test case involving segregation in higher education. The plaintiff was Thomas R. Hocutt, a student at the North Carolina College for Negroes, who had been denied admission to the University of North Carolina's School of Pharmacy. Attorneys Conrad O. Pearson and Cecil McCoy appealed to the NAACP for assistance after filing a law suit. Charles Houston recommended William Hastie to direct the litigation. According to Pearson, "the white Bar [in attendance] was unanimous in its praise," of Hastie's and his colleagues' trial performance, but the case was undermined by the North Carolina College President's refusal to release Hocutt's transcript.

Integrating University of Missouri Law School

Charles Houston, NAACP Special Counsel, targeted law schools. He was optimistic that based on their own experience, white judges would reject the unequal training for black attorneys. After winning the Murray case, Houston worked with Marshall and Sidney Redmond on Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada. In 1935 the University of Missouri Law School denied entry to Lloyd Gaines, an honor graduate of Lincoln University (Mo.), offering to build a law school at Lincoln or pay Gaines's tuition at an out-of-state school. Houston and Redmond argued the case before the U.S. Supreme court in 1938. The Court ruled that Missouri must offer Gaines an equal facility within its borders or admit him to the University's law school. In response, the State legislature tried to erect a makeshift law school inciting Houston to renew litigation. Meanwhile, Gaines disappeared, abruptly ending the case. His fate remains a mystery.

NAACP Leaders Joel and Arthur Spingarn

The favorable publicity generated by the Pink Franklin case attracted new supporters to the NAACP. Among them were Joel E. Spingarn, chairman of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and his brother, Arthur, a lawyer, shown in this photograph. In January 1911, the NAACP organized its first branch in Harlem, New York with Joel's help. The branch established a vigilance committee, which became the National Legal Committee, to deal "with injustice in the courts as it affects the Negro." Arthur worked pro bono because the NAACP could not afford to hire attorneys on a regular basis and was often able to convince other prominent attorneys to volunteer their services. Arthur served as the chairman of the National Legal Committee until 1939. The members of the Committee also included Felix Frankfurter and Charles Houston.

George W. McLaurin Segregated to the Anteroom

George W. McLaurin, a veteran school teacher living in Oklahoma applied to the all-white University of Oklahoma to pursue an advance degree in education in 1948. His application was rejected because Oklahoma statutes made it illegal for blacks and whites to attend the same school. McLaurin filed a complaint against the University on the state court level and won. He was allowed to attend classes but not with his fellow students. This photograph shows how he was segregated to the anteroom of a classroom in 1948 after his admission. In 1950, McLaurin filed suit with the and U.S. Supreme Court and won. The case paved the way for the Brown v. Board of Education cases.

Press Conference for the Sweatt Case

Thurgood Marshall hired Robert L. Carter as a legal assistant at the Legal Defense Fund in 1944 and promoted him to assistant counsel in 1945. Carter graduated from Lincoln University (Pa.), Howard Law School, and earned a Master of Laws from Columbia University. He helped to prepare briefs in the McLaurin and Sweatt cases, and argued McLaurin in Oklahoma and before the Supreme Court. Carter later became Marshall's key aide on the Brown litigation. He recommended the social science strategy that became a crucial factor in the Brown decision. He also wrote the brief for the Brown case and delivered the argument before the Supreme Court. He served as the NAACP's General Counsel from 1956 to 1968. In 1972 President Nixon appointed Carter to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he still presides as a judge.

The Henderson, McLaurin and Sweatt Cases

The Legal Defense Fund waited twelve years to pursue two precedent-setting cases before the Supreme Court. In 1946 the University of Texas Law School denied entry to Heman Sweatt and proposed a makeshift law school for him in the basement of a building near all-black Prairie View University. In 1948 George McLaurin, a teacher, applied to the University of Oklahoma to pursue his doctorate. The University admitted McLaurin but segregated him from white students. The Court also considered another case, Henderson v. United States, which involved segregated dining cars on interstate trains. On June 5, the Court ruled in favor of all three plaintiffs. In Sweatt and McLaurin, the Court held that intangible factors could create educational inequality. These factors included the Texas Law School's superior reputation, faculty, and alumni network. The Court's decisions in these cases weakened the structure of legalized segregation.

Twentieth Annual Session of the NAACP

In 1929, the annual conference of the NAACP convened in Cleveland to mark the Association's twentieth anniversary. The NAACP had much to celebrate. It had launched a successful anti-lynching crusade; won important legal battles; and organized 325 branches. The Crisis, the Association's official organ, was the leading black periodical with a circulation of more than 100,000. Among the NAACP officials seated in the front row ( left to right) are W.E.B. Du Bois, editor of The Crisis; James Weldon Johnson, NAACP Executive Secretary, 1920-1930; Robert Bagnall, Director of Branches; Daisy Lampkin, Regional Field Secretary; Walter White, Assistant Secretary, 1918-1929; William Pickens, Field Secretary; and Arthur Spingarn, Chairman of the Legal Committee.

An African American School House

This photograph shows the condition of many African American schools in the first decades of the twentieth century. Many states simply did not allocate enough funds to provide "equal" schools in the separate black schools. In South Carolina, the resulting inadequate condition for black children led to the Briggs v. Elliot case in 1954. The Briggs case would become one of the five included in the Brown decision.

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A Century of Racial Segregation 1849-1950 - Brown v. Board at Fifty: "With an Even Hand" | Exhibitions - Library of Congress

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Between 1849 and 1950, blacks were segregated from whites by law and private action in transportation, public accommodations, armed forces, recreational facilities, prisons, and schools in both northern and southern states.

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On June 22, 2015, I posted "White People, If You're Not Part of the Solution, You're Part of the Problem" on LinkedIn, a plea for white folks to examine how our everyday actions contribute to institutionalized racism and suggesting ways to change our behavior to improve race relations. The post quickly went viral, garnering over 20,000 views and nearly 500 comments. The Huffington Post published a revised version on July 1, 2015.

While I knew white people could be ultra-sensitive about the topic of race, I honestly thought that many white people were saddened by the state of race relations in our country and striving to improve. It was in this spirit that I wrote the post.

I did not expect the comments my posts received, approximately 85% of which are not merely negative, but dismissive and cruel. Here is a smattering: "the most vile bit of hate-filled bile I have read on this site," "bereft of any connection to reality," appalling, asinine, delusional, divisive, garbage, hateful, inflammatory, insane, preposterous, puerile, rubbish, stupid and other terms that I will not repeat. Although in the LinkedIn post I did not mention guilt or shame once, and in the HuffPost revision I explicitly stated I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty, many commentators took me to task for trying to make them feel guilty and ashamed. They found it preposterous that I stated that white people had originated American racism and that we hold the power to stop it. More than a few argued that racism in inevitable. They questioned my intentions and integrity. They informed me that white people had gotten over racism a long time ago, and insinuated that people of color brought racism on to themselves. They questioned why I focused on white people, since many people practice racism in America.

And while I cannot be certain, it appeared based on their photos and commentary that almost all of these commentators are white.

My friends of color had a totally different reaction. They laughed when I expressed surprise about the comments' tone. They said, "What you told white people was the straight up truth, and white people don't want to hear that."

This is the impasse we are in. Americans are not at all on the same page when it comes to race, and from what I can observe, at a time when it is crucial we come together, we are drifting even further apart.

Many People of Color are reeling from a series of events that they interpret as evidence that American society finds them of no value. Hence the slogan: "Black Lives Matter." They are exhausted from pointing out the abundant evidence of institutionalized racism that is all around us, tired of calling for a national dialogue on race that has gone unanswered, and exasperated at white people's inability to empathize and recognize that change is needed.

Meanwhile, some or perhaps many white people refuse to acknowledge that we have a problem with race in this country. They view evidence of institutionalized racism as the fault of people of color. They perceive no pattern in recent events. The idea that they might have something to do with racism is utterly ridiculous to them, and they wholeheartedly and vehemently dismiss the thought that anyone else might have another viewpoint.

This is how I came to understand that we do have a problem with race in our country:

I grew up in a largely white community and had very few interactions with people of xolor. In 1987, I got lost in the public transportation system in Washington DC and wound up in a black neighborhood. I had never seen anything like it and could not believe that such a neighborhood existed in the nation's capitol. I found it shocking that public officials did not care enough about the people living in this neighborhood.

At college, I developed friendships with people of color for the first time. I learned from them what it is like to grow up in a neighborhood like the one I saw in DC, how few chances of getting out there are, how difficult it is for those who do get out to feel embraced and welcomed and how stressful that is.

After college, I became a community organizer and spent a lot of time in neighborhoods like the one I saw in DC, getting to know the people there, listening to their life experiences. I moved to New York City to help immigrants become citizens, pounding the pavement in all parts of the five boroughs, speaking with people and learning.

In 2003, the Community Service Society published reports that 50% of the black men in New York City didn't have a job, and in 2005, another report demonstrating that there are 170,000 young adults ages 16-24 who are not in school and not working, largely black and Latino. Having worked with immigrants for so long, who face innumerable hardships and still work, I found it shocking that black American men and young adults of color weren't working, and again, that it was not considered worthy of attention. This was how I became aware of institutionalized racism. I shifted my focus to workforce development and broadened my social network to include people of many races.

In 2012 I moved to San Francisco, and noticed the same patterns here as in NYC, high rates of poverty and unemployment among people of color in a region with one of the highest employment rates in the country. I also started learning more about American history and how past policies continue to shape our society. I decided to shift focus again, to help more people understand how detrimental racism is.

These experiences and friends I have made have taught me that racism is a problem in our society; in fact, it is the underlying problem to many other problems. The bad news is racism is entrenched in our systems, institutions, and culture and will take tremendous effort to undo. The good news is that it is a learned behavior that can be unlearned, but in order for us to unlearn it, we have to acknowledge it first.

My next post will offer evidence of racism, and subsequent ones will focus on what we can do about it. I welcome you to share your thoughts here.

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Yes, Racism Is Still A Problem in America

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On June 22, 2015, I posted "White People, If You're Not Part of the Solution, You're Part of the Problem" on LinkedIn, a plea for white folks to examine how our everyday actions contribute to institutionalized racism and suggesting ways to change our behavior to improve race relations.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr fought for the American Civil Rights.

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martin luther king civil rights - Google Search

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black speech selma activists steve schapiro african american civil rosa parks civil war rev al freedom