Read: the image then...QUESTION: Where and how do you see connections between the way race and space was connected under slavery and Jim Crow segregation and now? Elmore Bolling, whose brothers | wealth for white people is $171,000,called him Buddy, was a kind ofone-man economy in Lowndesboro,Ala. He leased a plantation, where hehad a general store with a gas stationout front and a catering business; hegrew cotton, corn and sugar cane.He also owned a small fleet of trucksthat ran livestock and made deliv-eries between Lowndesboro andMontgomery. At his peak, Bollingemployed as many as 40 people, allof them black like him.compared with just $17,600 for blackpeople. It is worse on the margins.According to the Economic PolicyInstitute, 19 percent of black households have zero or negative networth. Just 9 percent of white fami-lies are that poor.One December day in 1947, agroup of white men showed up alonga stretch of Highway 80 just yardsfrom Bolling's home and store, wherehe lived with his wife, Bertha Mae,and their seven young children. Themen confronted him on a section ofroad he had helped lay and shot himseven times - six times with a pistol and once with a shotgun blast tothe back. His family rushed from thestore to find him lying dead in a ditch.The shooters didn't even covertheir faces; they didn't need to.Everyone knew who had done it andwhy. "He was too successful to be aNegro," someone who knew Bollingtold a newspaper at the time. WhenBolling was killed, his family esti-mates he had as much as $40,000 inthe bank and more than $5,000 inassets, about $500,000 in today's dol-lars. But within months of his murdernearly all of it would be gone. Whitecreditors and people posing as cred-itors took the money the family gotfrom the sale of their trucks and cat-tle. They even staked claims on whatwas left of the family's savings. Thejobs that he provided were gone, too.Almost overnight the Bollings wentfrom prosperity to poverty. BerthaMae found work at a dry cleaner. Theolder children dropped out of schoolto help support the family. Withintwo years, the Bollings fled LowndesCounty, fearing for their lives.The period that followed the CivilWar was one of economic terror andwealth-stripping that has left blackpeople at lasting economic disadvan-tage. White Americans have seventimes the wealth of black Americanson average. Though black peoplemake up nearly 13 percent of theUnited States population, they holdless than 3 percent of the nation'stotal wealth. The median familyToday's racial wealth gap is per-haps the most glaring legacy ofAmerican slavery and the violenteconomic dispossession that fol-lowed. The fate suffered by ElmoreBolling and his family was not uniqueto them, or to Jim Crow Alabama. Itwas part of a much broader socialand political campaign. When legalslavery ended in 1865, there was greathope for formerly enslaved people.Between 1865 and 1870, the Recon-struction Amendments establishedbirthright citizenship - making allblack people citizens and grantingthem equal protection under the law- and gave black men the right tovote. There was also the promise ofcompensation. In January 1865, Gen.William Sherman issued an orderreallocating hundreds of thousandsof acres of white-owned land alongthe coasts of Florida, Georgia andSouth Carolina for settlement byblack families in 40-acre plots. Con-gress established the Freedmen'sBureau to oversee the transition fromslavery to freedom, and the Freed-man's Savings Bank was formed tohelp four million formerly enslavedpeople gain financial freedom.When Lincoln was assassinated,Vice President Andrew Johnsoneffectively rescinded Sherman'sorder by pardoning white planta-tion owners and returning to themthe land on which 40,000 or so blackfamilies had settled. "This is a coun-try for white men, and by God, aslong as I am President, it shall be agovernment for white men," Johnsondeclared in 1866. The Freedmen'sBureau, always meant to be tempo-rary, was dismantled in 1872. Morethan 60,000 black people depositedmore than $1 million into the Freed-man's Savings Bank, but its all-whitetrustees began issuing speculativeloans to white investors and corpo-rations, and when it failed in 1874,many black depositors lost much oftheir savings."The origins of the racial wealthgap start with the failure to providethe formerly enslaved with the landgrants of 40 acres," says William A.Darity Jr., a professor of public pol-icy and African-American studiesat Duke University. Any financialprogress that black people madewas regarded as an affront to whitesupremacy. After a decade of blackgains under Reconstruction, a muchlonger period of racial violencewould wipe nearly all of it away.middle class through sweepingsocial programs, including SocialSecurity and the minimum wage. Buta majority of black people at the timewere agricultural laborers or domes-tic workers, occupations that wereineligible for these benefits. Theestablishment of the Home OwnersLoan Corporation in 1933 helpedsave the collapsing housing market,but it largely excluded black neigh-borhoods from government-insuredloans. Those neighborhoods weredeemed "hazardous" and coloredin with red on maps, a practice thatcame to be known as "redlining."To assuage Southern white people,the federal government pulled outthe Union troops who were stationedin the South to keep order. Duringthis period of so-called Redemp-tion, lawmakers throughout theSouth enacted Black Codes and JimCrow laws that stripped black peo-ple of many of their freedoms andproperty. Other white people, oftenaided by law enforcement, waged acampaign of violence against blackpeople that would rob them of anincalculable amount of wealth.The G.I. Bill is often hailed as oneof Roosevelt's most enduring lega-cies. It helped usher millions of work-ing-class veterans through collegeand into new homes and the middleclass. But it discriminatorily benefit-ed white people. While the bill didn'texplicitly exclude black veterans, theway it was administered often did.Armed white people stormed The bill gave veterans access to mort-prosperous majority-black Wilming-gages with no down payments, button, N.C., in 1898 to murder dozensof black people, force 2,000 othersoff their property and overthrow thecity government. In the Red Summerof 1919, at least 240 black peoplewere murdered across the country.And in 1921, in one of the bloodiestracial attacks in United States histo-ry, Greenwood, a prosperous blackneighborhood in Tulsa, Okla., wasburned and looted. It is estimatedthat as many as 300 black peoplewere murdered and 10,000 were ren-dered homeless. Thirty-five squareblocks were destroyed. No one wasever convicted in any of these acts ofracist violence."You have limited opportunityto accumulate wealth, and then youhave a process where that wealth isdestroyed or taken away," Darity says."And all of that is prior to the effectsof restrictive covenants-redlining,the discriminatory application of theG.I. Bill and other federal programs."The post-Reconstruction plun-dering of black wealth was not justa product of spontaneous violence,but etched in law and public policy.Through the first half of the 20th cen-tury, the federal government activelyexcluded black people from govern-ment wealth-building programs. Inthe 1930s, President Franklin Roose-velt's New Deal helped build a solidthe Veterans Administration adoptedthe same racially restrictive policiesas the Federal Housing Administra-tion, which guaranteed bank loansonly to developers who wouldn't sellto black people. "The major way inwhich people have an opportunity toaccumulate wealth is contingent onthe wealth positions of their parentsand their grandparents," Darity says."To the extent that blacks have thecapacity to accumulate wealth, wehave not had the ability to transferthe same kinds of resources acrossgenerations."Seventy years later, the effects ofBolling's murder are still felt by hischildren and their children. "Therewas no inheritance, nothing formy father to pass down, because itwas all taken away," says JosephineBolling McCall, the only one ofBolling's children to get a collegedegree. Of the seven siblings, thosewith more education fared best;the men struggled most, primarilyworking as low-paid laborers. OfElmore and Bertha Mac's 25 grand-children, only six graduated fromcollege; of those, two are McCall'schildren. The rest are unemployedor underemployed. They have neverknown anything like the prosperityof their grandparents.

Answered: Where and how do you see connections…

Social Psychology (10th Edition)

10th Edition

ISBN:9780134641287

Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers

Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers

Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1RQ1

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Read: the image then...

QUESTION: Where and how do you see connections between the way race and space was connected under slavery and Jim Crow segregation and now?

Elmore Bolling, whose brothers | wealth for white people is $171,000,
called him Buddy, was a kind of
one-man economy in Lowndesboro,
Ala. He leased a plantation, where he
had a general store with a gas station
out front and a catering business; he
grew cotton, corn and sugar cane.
He also owned a small fleet of trucks
that ran livestock and made deliv-
eries between Lowndesboro and
Montgomery. At his peak, Bolling
employed as many as 40 people, all
of them black like him.
compared with just $17,600 for black
people. It is worse on the margins.
According to the Economic Policy
Institute, 19 percent of black house
holds have zero or negative net
worth. Just 9 percent of white fami-
lies are that poor.
One December day in 1947, a
group of white men showed up along
a stretch of Highway 80 just yards
from Bolling's home and store, where
he lived with his wife, Bertha Mae,
and their seven young children. The
men confronted him on a section of
road he had helped lay and shot him
seven times - six times with a pis
tol and once with a shotgun blast to
the back. His family rushed from the
store to find him lying dead in a ditch.
The shooters didn't even cover
their faces; they didn't need to.
Everyone knew who had done it and
why. "He was too successful to be a
Negro," someone who knew Bolling
told a newspaper at the time. When
Bolling was killed, his family esti-
mates he had as much as $40,000 in
the bank and more than $5,000 in
assets, about $500,000 in today's dol-
lars. But within months of his murder
nearly all of it would be gone. White
creditors and people posing as cred-
itors took the money the family got
from the sale of their trucks and cat-
tle. They even staked claims on what
was left of the family's savings. The
jobs that he provided were gone, too.
Almost overnight the Bollings went
from prosperity to poverty. Bertha
Mae found work at a dry cleaner. The
older children dropped out of school
to help support the family. Within
two years, the Bollings fled Lowndes
County, fearing for their lives.
The period that followed the Civil
War was one of economic terror and
wealth-stripping that has left black
people at lasting economic disadvan-
tage. White Americans have seven
times the wealth of black Americans
on average. Though black people
make up nearly 13 percent of the
United States population, they hold
less than 3 percent of the nation's
total wealth. The median family
Today's racial wealth gap is per-
haps the most glaring legacy of
American slavery and the violent
economic dispossession that fol-
lowed. The fate suffered by Elmore
Bolling and his family was not unique
to them, or to Jim Crow Alabama. It
was part of a much broader social
and political campaign. When legal
slavery ended in 1865, there was great
hope for formerly enslaved people.
Between 1865 and 1870, the Recon-
struction Amendments established
birthright citizenship - making all
black people citizens and granting
them equal protection under the law
- and gave black men the right to
vote. There was also the promise of
compensation. In January 1865, Gen.
William Sherman issued an order
reallocating hundreds of thousands
of acres of white-owned land along
the coasts of Florida, Georgia and
South Carolina for settlement by
black families in 40-acre plots. Con-
gress established the Freedmen's
Bureau to oversee the transition from
slavery to freedom, and the Freed-
man's Savings Bank was formed to
help four million formerly enslaved
people gain financial freedom.
When Lincoln was assassinated,
Vice President Andrew Johnson
effectively rescinded Sherman's
order by pardoning white planta-
tion owners and returning to them
the land on which 40,000 or so black
families had settled. "This is a coun-
try for white men, and by God, as
long as I am President, it shall be a
government for white men," Johnson
declared in 1866. The Freedmen's
Bureau, always meant to be tempo-
rary, was dismantled in 1872. More
than 60,000 black people deposited
more than $1 million into the Freed-
man's Savings Bank, but its all-white
trustees began issuing speculative
loans to white investors and corpo-
rations, and when it failed in 1874,
many black depositors lost much of
their savings.
"The origins of the racial wealth
gap start with the failure to provide
the formerly enslaved with the land
grants of 40 acres," says William A.
Darity Jr., a professor of public pol-
icy and African-American studies
at Duke University. Any financial
progress that black people made
was regarded as an affront to white
supremacy. After a decade of black
gains under Reconstruction, a much
longer period of racial violence
would wipe nearly all of it away.
middle class through sweeping
social programs, including Social
Security and the minimum wage. But
a majority of black people at the time
were agricultural laborers or domes-
tic workers, occupations that were
ineligible for these benefits. The
establishment of the Home Owners
Loan Corporation in 1933 helped
save the collapsing housing market,
but it largely excluded black neigh-
borhoods from government-insured
loans. Those neighborhoods were
deemed "hazardous" and colored
in with red on maps, a practice that
came to be known as "redlining."
To assuage Southern white people,
the federal government pulled out
the Union troops who were stationed
in the South to keep order. During
this period of so-called Redemp-
tion, lawmakers throughout the
South enacted Black Codes and Jim
Crow laws that stripped black peo-
ple of many of their freedoms and
property. Other white people, often
aided by law enforcement, waged a
campaign of violence against black
people that would rob them of an
incalculable amount of wealth.
The G.I. Bill is often hailed as one
of Roosevelt's most enduring lega-
cies. It helped usher millions of work-
ing-class veterans through college
and into new homes and the middle
class. But it discriminatorily benefit-
ed white people. While the bill didn't
explicitly exclude black veterans, the
way it was administered often did.
Armed white people stormed The bill gave veterans access to mort-
prosperous majority-black Wilming-gages with no down payments, but
ton, N.C., in 1898 to murder dozens
of black people, force 2,000 others
off their property and overthrow the
city government. In the Red Summer
of 1919, at least 240 black people
were murdered across the country.
And in 1921, in one of the bloodiest
racial attacks in United States histo-
ry, Greenwood, a prosperous black
neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla., was
burned and looted. It is estimated
that as many as 300 black people
were murdered and 10,000 were ren-
dered homeless. Thirty-five square
blocks were destroyed. No one was
ever convicted in any of these acts of
racist violence.
"You have limited opportunity
to accumulate wealth, and then you
have a process where that wealth is
destroyed or taken away," Darity says.
"And all of that is prior to the effects
of restrictive covenants-redlining,
the discriminatory application of the
G.I. Bill and other federal programs."
The post-Reconstruction plun-
dering of black wealth was not just
a product of spontaneous violence,
but etched in law and public policy.
Through the first half of the 20th cen-
tury, the federal government actively
excluded black people from govern-
ment wealth-building programs. In
the 1930s, President Franklin Roose-
velt's New Deal helped build a solid
the Veterans Administration adopted
the same racially restrictive policies
as the Federal Housing Administra-
tion, which guaranteed bank loans
only to developers who wouldn't sell
to black people. "The major way in
which people have an opportunity to
accumulate wealth is contingent on
the wealth positions of their parents
and their grandparents," Darity says.
"To the extent that blacks have the
capacity to accumulate wealth, we
have not had the ability to transfer
the same kinds of resources across
generations."
Seventy years later, the effects of
Bolling's murder are still felt by his
children and their children. "There
was no inheritance, nothing for
my father to pass down, because it
was all taken away," says Josephine
Bolling McCall, the only one of
Bolling's children to get a college
degree. Of the seven siblings, those
with more education fared best;
the men struggled most, primarily
working as low-paid laborers. Of
Elmore and Bertha Mac's 25 grand-
children, only six graduated from
college; of those, two are McCall's
children. The rest are unemployed
or underemployed. They have never
known anything like the prosperity
of their grandparents.

Expert Solution

What is Jim Crow laws?

In the Southern United States, racial segregation was enforced by state and local laws known as the Jim Crow laws. Beginning in the 1870s, Jim Crow laws effectively enforced racial segregation in all public facilities in the states that comprised the former Confederate States of America and in several other states. Although in theory "equal" segregation was also applied to public transport and facilities, facilities for African Americans were usually worse and neglected than those for White Americans, and in some cases, there were no amenities at all. Jim Crow as a body of law institutionalized financial, educational, political, social, and other disadvantages for most African Americans residing in the United States, making them feel like second-class citizens and far from being treated equally.