Intentions Versus Outcomes: how much did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 negatively affect the Black peoples of the United States.

by [deleted]

To my knowledge, Whites replaced Blacks in many areas due to this act (especially in the of education). As nice as it sounds on paper, it seems as though "integration" slowed the progress of Black people in the fields of economics, education, and labor.

What were the general pros and cons of the act?

Spoonfeedme

This is mostly an answer of qualitative analysis than quantitative, and heavily depends on whose viewpoint you are asking of.

There are some arguments made, even by blacks in leadership positions, that the integration of blacks weakened African American social structures. Black schools taught by black teachers had been in existence for a long time, and the pushing of blacks into particular areas helped contribute to a sense of community and contributed to social order; at least, that's the narrative that you'll find.

However, this is, on the face, a sort of misplaced argument in my opinion. Even before the Civil Rights Act and the end of segregation, black communities were fragmenting as internal movements North continued, a trend that had been going on for decades. Other metrics of success for African Americans, such as educational attainment, have been trending up pretty consistently since the beginning of the 1970s.

Ultimately, the narrative that blacks were better off with segregation largely depends on a social argument that the weakening of that segregation helped disperse strong black communities. This is sometimes argued to be the cause of crime increases, poor community standards, and a host of other problems whereby African Americans no longer have strong communities for support. Often, the strong communities of other minorities, such as Asian immigrants, are used as a foil to suggest that life is worsening for African Americans because they lack strong community based supports.

In that regard, historians and social scientists need to be able to suss out the wheat from the chaff. Is there really a crisis facing African American communities? Are they worse off than they were 50 years ago? Is it a social problem, or an economic one?

Ultimately, I think the biggest issue here is attainment. The Civil Rights Act, desegregation, and the host of empowerment programs that arose in the 1960s and 1970s gave blacks access to the 'white' world in the sense that they were no longer limited to leadership positions within their own communities. If fewer blacks are in leadership positions locally but more are in leadership positions outside the community, is that better or worse? It depends on what one's priorities are.