The Effects of Social Reaction on Legal Progression: Race Relations of Blacks and Whites, 1920-1950 .
The character of the relationship between blacks and whites is a long-running theme in American history. In the early days of slavery in the colonies, whites considered African-Americans as subordinate humans while believing in their own superiority, and continued to do so for much of contemporary history. But when law mandated that blacks be treated as beings of equal status, a majority of whites refused to comply, forcing African-Americans to constantly put up a fight for their rights as United States citizens. Blacks have solicited the federal government and various interest groups for help to improve their social, political, and economic conditions. When these resources could only provide minimal assistance, blacks turned inward and first began fighting with violent intent, but the movement gradually evolved into a nonviolent resistance to white oppression. Legal changes served only as symbolic steps toward change, as many whites refused to comply with and enforce such social transformations. Social reactions of blacks to the existing conditions of inequality had a greater impace on improving race relations than did the actual modifications in law made to alleviate racial tension. .
Although historically blacks have been at a political, social, and economic disadvantage, the government did not give much serious attention to their situation until the Great Depression. Blacks were among the hardest hit by the crash, and most were desperate for assistance. One of the first important reactions of the federal govenment to the plight of the blacks was creating recovery and relief programs, which benefited them greatly, despite the fact that some were racially discriminatory. In the aftermath, New Deal measures passed by Congress were all the more encouraging because the nation's highest authorities had found the compelling reason they needed to set into motion the actions necessary for national change: what they were seeing was "a community just like any other American community.