Major Changes For Blacks example essay topic

630 words
With the end of the war on September 2, 1945 when Japan surrender to the United States, after the dropping of the atomic bombs, "postwar American society" saw many changes in labor and social status. These changes in America society were not a direct result of the war but rather these changes during the war were a catalyst for coming changes in American society. The advent of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) helped blacks along the way to equality but true equality would not start to come until Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights movement. Other catalysts started during and after World War II were women's branches in armed services and bringing Mexicans to America to assume roles in agriculture. Mexicans after the end of WWII were forced to move to major urban centers like Los Angeles and San Antonio because the men returning from overseas wanted to return to their previous jobs. The Mexicans stereotyped by their zoot suits were subject to violent riots in Los Angeles, which resulted in many deaths of Mexicans.

The returning men forced the Mexicans out and the Mexicans stayed and wasn't until Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers Organization Committee that many Mexicans and Mexican Americans started to gain equal rights in American life. The war brought the Mexicans to America but after the war changes didn't start to come around until later nearly 30 to 40 years later. Women played the biggest part during the war; women took many jobs that men left vacant when the men went to war. Women aided by the Fair Employment Practices Commission of 1941 made great advances in industry. Women known as "Rosie the Riveter" proved to be more hard working and productive than men were when they were producing products. Women though entrenched in the workplace were uprooted when the men came back and wanted their jobs back.

Women though with this new admiration in the workplace had to wait for more changes in society. After the war women were treated the same and was not until Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX in 1972 that changes started to occur for women in American society. Blacks during the war migrated from the south to the north to become part of the industries in the north to help war production. Blacks were still gaining rights slowly after the Civil War and even after World War II and the CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) blacks were still subject to segregation and were subject to a major riot in Chicago were 20 plus blacks were killed. For blacks changes didn't come quickly after WWII and changes didn't come until the 60's when Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement started to make major changes for blacks. Blacks changes were slow to come but they finally came taking a hundred years to get major changes in equality.

American society was not very different after the war but certain events like the CORE and women in industry were definite catalyst for events to come that would change "postwar American society". For Mexican Americans there catalyst was coming to America and getting jobs in agriculture but not tile Cesar Chavez that they got true equality. For women the story the same; accepted and then told to get out and not till the Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX women accepted equally in society. For blacks the CORE continued equality for blacks and finally finished by Martin Luther King Jr.

The war had an indirect effect on "postwar American society" considering results took almost 20 years after the war to happen and many changes are still occurring..