Poor White Members example essay topic

Long-term Effects of Slavery in Texas The indelible mark of slavery has carried down through the years and colored the actions of the descendants of both master and slave. The Ku Klux Klan, the vigilante posses, and the racial hatreds that fueled the rest of the Confederacy were alive in Houston as well, and even in this decade, racial barriers established under Reconstruction and slavery days fester. The progression from slave and master to coworkers to friends to family has taken more than a century and remains incomplete. There is hope in this new millennium, but to make use of it, Houstonians must recognize their past. (Dulaney) For decades, slavery was an ordinary part of daily Texan life. Beginning in the eighteen-twenties, more and more black men and women came to Texas to work on the cotton plantations and help on the cattle ranches.

By the eighteen-sixties, black slaves made up about a third of the population. Although by nineteen hundred many considered Texas part of the West, Texans had considered their state to be a Southern state and were involved with the Confederacy in spirit if not so much in deed. These slaves worked alongside their masters in many cases, and they retained their dignity. The Texan slaveholder characteristically allowed their slaves more freedom and personal liberty than slaveholders in other parts what became the Confederate States of America. (Baker) The invasion of the Civil War in Texas was minimal and the outcome affected few slaves, as they continued to work in an identical fashion after their emancipation. For the most part, slaves saw no practical life changes resulting from their freedom beyond having more competition for the work that was available.

It was an unwelcome wake-up call for most slaves to discover that away from the organization of their former masters' establishments, life was chaotic and uncertain. (Campbell) Slavery was not only a dampener on the economic fate of the black Texan, but also on the "poor whites" and Mexican 'emir " es. Sharecropping became increasingly common during the Reconstructive era, further locking those minority groups into their roles as subordinates of the mainstream white culture. These groups continued to work long hours for low wages and to be looked down upon by the white male, middle-class majority. The poverty they lived in ensured that their children would be no better educated than the previous generation, and this dangerous ignorance further separated them from mainstream society. (Foley) Rather than banding together in this time of social imbalance, the subcultures competed with one another for the smallest victories.

Today, this war between minority groupings remains strong, with poor whites being the most vocal anti-Black, anti-Mexican group. As for the Hispanic culture of today, it often finds itself at war with the Black culture in urban settings, with competing radio stations, clubs, and neighborhoods. Things may have changed in many ways, but those in the subcultures subjugated before the Civil War remain at a disadvantage. It is difficult for those who are not in the middle class white majority to rise above the class definitions established in the Reconstruction Era. (Prather) Perhaps in overreaction to this racial frustration, those belonging to the poor white class have continued to commit racially motivated atrocities. The documented lynchings, mob scenes, beatings, and knifing's from the Reconstruction era to the modern day bear witness to this disturbing truth.

Slavery, and its abolition, affected other subgroups dramatically. Forced to compete with a new wave of employee prospects, the poor white sharecroppers and menial laborers often lost their livelihoods. The Mexican immigrants found their niche threatened as well. The resultant resentments spurred many members of these three groups to forge ever-stronger racial barriers.

By the nineteen-fifties, when Brown began the desegregation of all United States public schools, Houston had reached frenzy. McCarthyism's strength intimidated liberal activists, forcing the black and Hispanic cultures onto the back burner once again. Struggles among school board members turned vicious as the prevailing anti-Black / anti -Mexican sentiment sparked a fresh wave of demonstrations both public and private. Race relations were the keystone of the moderate political front that sought to overthrow the "good old boys" holding the reins of power over Texas. (Kellar) Well to do Houstonians kept Blacks and Mexicans as gardeners, as chauffeurs, as repairmen; they did not want them being educated alongside their children, nor did they want them socializing with their children freely. A deep-seated fear stemming from the first days of the Reconstruction era continued plaguing the white majority.

It seemed the rumored violence and crimes of that time of upheaval frightened the "Red Scare" politicians as much as the communist threat, for demonstrations of segregationist sympathizers became more common and those holding an alternate view were categorized as "pinkos" or "commie lovers". When the moderates finally gained power, they taught Houston a new way of relating to other races. Houston's desegregation was done smoothly and without the violence and military presence required in other Southern cities. That victory shone as a beacon of hope for those fighting the racial barriers of that period. The pleased racial unification activists relaxed their hold on the system, allowing their carefully placed safeguards do their dirty work.

The liberal contingent believed that everyone was becoming one big happy family. However, when the black presence entered the school system, the largely reabsorbed poor white caste was furious. The poor white members of the newly unified white culture retained the particular vehemence of opinion that marked them during the earliest days post-Civil War. As class distinctions faded, these proponents of hatred continued to spew forth their division ist doctrines, perhaps fearing that even having gained absorption into the majority group, they were too weak to compete with the multiracial threat desegregation presented. Throughout the nineteen-sixties and seventies, it remained taboo to date or fraternize with a member of another race. Strangely enough, the white unification resulting from desegregation fell by the wayside as middle class white parents once again took up their mantle of superiority.

The majority once more considered it filthy and immoral to date or fraternize with a lower class white person. As blacks formed a stronger racial identity and Hispanics regained their roots, the white race fragmented, allowing the minority groups to gain more prominence than ever before. This fueled the anti-minority activists once more, dividing Texans into starkly different camps. Blacks, some Hispanics, and a few forward-thinking whites formed a liberal political demographic that vied for dominance against a primarily white conservative demographic.

The moral freedom exhibited by the liberal group attracted young people, and many college students left behind their parents' teachings to enter a more "enlightened" era. These youth were more educated and had greater potential than any group the United States had seen before. Their political power would be absolute when they came into their own, and it was not long until that happened. As the nineteen-seventies wore into the nineteen-eighties, more and more people began to get behind the ideology of racial unity being a concept of the unity of all races as opposed to the term applying to all members of a single race.

The progressive youth of the sixties and seventies began to swing back toward a more moderate stance, and members of all races benefited from the new economic regime. Financial liberty spurred the education of more and more minority members, and as the eighties ended, true representation of minority groups became a reality as the subcultures came into their own. In the nineteen-nineties, a new wave of hatred and anti-minority sentiment cropped up. Across Texas and the South, racial hate crimes filled the news.

Society identified poor whites with the "redneck" subculture, and a few extremist rednecks incited resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and of racially motivated violence. During the mid-nineties, more than thirty black churches across the South burned to the ground. In Jasper, Texas, just a couple of hours north of Houston, a few white men dragged a black man named James Byrd to death. A few years later, a racist used barbed wire to tie H.W. Walker, a black man, to a tree, and then burned him alive. Houston has had a black mayor, and the city today is proud of its rich ethnic history.

Over the more than one hundred years since the practice of slavery ended, racial trends have come and gone, with subcultures rising to dominance and then losing ground once more. Houstonians have struggled with the societal mores of their times and have moved on, keeping pace with the rest of the world.

Bibliography

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