Before and After Segregation and Apartheid: a Comparative Analysis
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NEW CITIES NEW ECONOMIES Before and After Segregation and Apartheid: A Comparative Analysis By Leland Ware | Peer Review Introduction This article compares conditions in South Africa elimination of apartheid in South Africa, significant before and after apartheid to the circumstances in improvements have been made, but most poor Black America during and after segregation. During the eras people still reside in impoverished communities in of segregation and apartheid, conditions for Black townships and the countryside. people in America and South Africa were oppressive in the extreme. The two systems had some differences, The broad-based, grass roots, Civil Rights movement but the overall impact was the same. Black people started in America in the 1950s. Over the next decade, were physically separated and treated differently, marches, boycotts, and other forms of nonviolent and less favourably, than their white counterparts. protests were organised and executed. These activities The progress made by African Americans during culminated with the enactment of the Civil Rights the 50 years since the end of segregation has been Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair substantial, but significant disparities between Black Housing Act of 1968. In the years that followed, African and white people still linger. In the 25 years since the Americans made significant advances in educational Volume 85 / 2020 63 NEW CITIES NEW ECONOMIES attainment levels, employment opportunities, family income, home ownership, and wealth. The South African government In South Africa, Black people and other non-white is in danger of becoming the groups stepped up their opposition to apartheid in political stereotype of what is the 1950s. The South African government responded wrong with post-colonial Africa: with a campaign of strenuous, and often violent, reactions to those activities. In the 1990s, under corrupt African leaders who international pressure, the apartheid laws were exercise power through cronyism, repealed, and Nelson Mandela was elected by a multi- bribery, and patronage. racial electorate. In the 25 years since, substantial changes have been made but more work must be done to reduce the enormous disparities between affluent and impoverished Black African families. enactment of a New Orleans ordinance that required railroad carriers to provide ‘equal but separate Economic inequality is high and has increased since accommodations for the white and colored races.’ A 1994. The top 1% of South Africans own 70.9% of the group of New Orleans citizens organized a test case to country’s wealth, while the bottom 60% hold just challenge the law. 7%. South Africa is the world’s most unequal society and the split is largely along racial lines. Although When the case was tried, Plessy’s lawyers argued that a new, Black middle class is slowly emerging, and a the ordinance violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth small Black elite has accrued tremendous wealth, Amendments of the United States Constitution. many Black South Africans have not seen substantial The case eventually made its way to the Supreme improvements in their lives. This must be addressed. Court. Plessy lost. Writing for the majority, Justice The South African government is in danger of Henry Brown dismissed the Thirteenth Amendment becoming the political stereotype of what is wrong claim almost summarily. The Amendment, he wrote, with post-colonial Africa: corrupt African leaders was enacted to abolish slavery. An ordinance that who exercise power through cronyism, bribery, and established a distinction between the races did not, patronage. ‘State capture’ refers to practices in which in his view, destroy legal equality or re-establish private entities redirect public resources for their own involuntary servitude. Turning to the Equal Protection benefit (Gevisser, 2019). This must be ended. Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Justice Brown cited a series of earlier decisions as authority for The final section of this article examines the proposals states to enact statutes that made distinctions based contained in New Cities New Economies: South Africa on race. Segregation’s vision was that Black people and Africa’s Grand Plan. The proposed solution to would serve white people as domestic servants or many of South Africa’s problems involves a total spatial as inexpensive laborers. After the Supreme Court’s reconstruction consisting of the creation of new endorsement, racial separation was imposed in mega-city regions that will produce new economics virtually all aspects of everyday life. Whites and Blacks for South Africa. The author, Dr. Tshilidzi Ratshitanga, were born in separate hospitals, educated in different presents a bold, new vision for development and schools, and buried in segregated graveyards. Schools, provides a roadmap for achieving prosperity and restaurants, hotels, theatres, public transportation, equality for all South Africans. and waiting rooms were segregated, as were elevators, parks, public restrooms, hospitals, drinking Segregation in the U.S. fountains, prisons, and places of worship. Segregated waiting rooms were required in professional offices, Plessy v. Ferguson was the historic decision by the as well as building entrances, cemeteries, and even U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality amusement-park cashier windows. of racial segregation laws as long as the separate facilities were equal to those reserved for white African Americans could not live in white people. The events leading to Plessy began with the neighbourhoods. Black people could own property, 64 THE THINKER NEW CITIES NEW ECONOMIES but practices in the real estate industry and federal juries. The races were indexed separately on tax rolls. government regulations limited them to shabby and Atlanta’s banks maintained separate teller windows deteriorating ghettos. Segregation was enforced for for white and Black customers. public pools, phone booths, asylums, jails, and homes for the elderly and disabled. The labour market was In some Southern communities, Black people segmented. There were white jobs and black jobs; could attend public performances using separate men’s work and women’s work. African Americans entrances and sitting in the ‘colored’ section. In were domestics, janitors, laborers and the like. public halls, theatres, and movie houses, Black people These were the lowest paying and least desirable were required to sit on a balcony. State fairs had a occupations. ‘colored day’ when Black people could attend. Laws separated the races in public transportation. There In Atlanta, Georgia, African Americans testifying in were segregated waiting rooms in train and bus court cases were sworn in using a different Bible to stations. Black people were required to sit in the rear that used by white people. Marriage and cohabitation of streetcars and buses. between white people and Black people was strictly forbidden in most Southern states. In the Midwest, Black people could not try on clothes in department ‘Sundown towns’ were not uncommon; signs were stores. In stores, they were expected to wait until posted at city limits warning African Americans that white customers were served before they were they were not welcome after dark (Loewen, 2006). helped. There was a Jim Crow etiquette that was scrupulously observed in interactions. Black people All branches of the U.S. military were segregated. were expected to address a white person by the title In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson segregated the of ‘Mr.’ ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Miss.’ White people addressed Black federal Civil Service (Yellin, 2013). In 1915, he screened people by their first names, even if they hardly knew D.W. Griffith’s ‘Birth of a Nation’ in the White House. each other, or by the epithets ‘boy’, ‘uncle’, ‘auntie’ or The movie glorified the Ku Klux Klan and portrayed the like. If a Black person entered a white person’s Black people as ignorant brutes. Wilson said: ‘It’s like home, they were obligated to use the back door. The writing history with lightning. And my only regret is purpose of these unwritten but well-known rules that it is all terribly true’ (Benbow, 2010). was to provide a continual demonstration that Black people were inferior to white people and recognised Segregation was codified in state and local laws and their subordinate status (Myrdal, 1944). enforced by intimidation and violence. There were, in effect, two criminal justice systems: one for white The American Civil Rights Movement people and another for Black people. When the colour line was breached, violence was unleashed against On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested after offenders by the Ku Klux Klan and local white people; refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger (Branch, often in concert with local law enforcement officials. 1988; 1999; 2006). A few days later, the Montgomery In Atlanta, Georgia, Black people could not serve on Improvement Association was organised by local Black leaders. Martin Luther King, who was just 26 years old at the time, was elected President. After a tense year, in which carpools were organised and There were, in effect, two criminal weekly prayer meetings held, in November of 1956 the justice systems: one for white people U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public and another for Black people. When transportation was unconstitutional. the colour line was breached, violence was unleashed against offenders by In 1963, Martin Luther King launched the Birmingham the Ku Klux Klan and local white campaign. The effort started with a boycott and people; often in concert with local law switched to marches and sit-ins. Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor, Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety, ordered enforcement officials. police officers to use high-pressure water hoses, police dogs and tear gas to control protesters, many of Volume 85 / 2020 65 NEW CITIES NEW ECONOMIES whom were children. The extreme brutality inflicted while standing on a balcony on the Lorraine Motel on protestors was featured on nightly newscasts. in Memphis. In the following days, riots erupted in After weeks of tense negotiations, an agreement 130 American cities.