Did Racial Segregation Improve the Status of African Americans?.
For a little while now, our society has condemned any kind of racial .
segregation. Did it actually help the status of blacks? Howard N. Rabinowitz, .
who is a professor of history, believes that segregation did help blacks. In his .
opinion, the segregation gave blacks access to public services and .
accommodations, which they would have otherwise been excluded from in the .
early South. On the other side of the issue, Leon F. Litwack, who is a professor .
of American History, believes that a very cruel environment was created for .
blacks, because whites had denied them privileges, protection, and rights.
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Rabinowitz started off his argument by stating that because of .
segregation, blacks were provided with their own facilities. He stated that from .
1865 to 1867 southern whites tried to limit admission to institution to whites only. .
Rabinowitz believed that because of these actions, separate schools for blacks .
were created, poorhouse facilities were provided, and the Nashville Street .
Railway even started running a separate car for them. Alabama conservatives .
even started admitting blacks into the state insane asylum.
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Rabinowitz concluded that most white southerners felt that excluding .
blacks was the best racial policy. These southerners were eventually forced by .
the military and other authorities to give blacks more privileges and services. .
"Nonetheless, the net effect of the Radical measures on race relations in the .
southern states was to institutionalize the shift from exclusion to segregation .
(Rabinowitz 150)." These Republicans wanted separate, yet equal treatment of .
blacks.
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Rabinowitz went on to say that segregation seemed to have been the .
main rule at any exposition or fair. He stated that blacks were allowed to attend .
certain events and activities at white fairgrounds, but were never given clear .
instructions to which ones and at what time to attend.