African-Americans found themselves in a time of turmoil and discrimination even in the 1900's after the Reconstruction Era, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments made post-Union win of the Civil War. They were underprivileged compared to the white Americans in many areas such as political, economical, and social situations. Subject to violence, segregation, lack of opportunity, and political disadvantages, blacks in the USA during this time had no option but to either fight back for their rights or accept their inequality.
Socially, African-American's faced countless examples of discrimination. De jure segregation, also known as legal segregation, in the south made their inequality physically visible in a day-to-day setting. Jim Crow laws, passed in ~1887-1915, made sure of legal segregation in areas of public transport (i.e. busses), churches, theaters, parks, beaches, and schools were enforced by governments and the Supreme Court enabled this by ruling them as not breeching the 14th Amendment as the facilities were ˜separate but equal.' The humiliation of having separate facilities due to the blacks being ˜unworthy' of using white areas was encroaching upon civil rights enough for them though. In the North, law didn't enforce this segregation, however De Facto segregation was still present, as white people still saw themselves as essentially better and superior to black men. Those in the North also experienced high poverty and those in the ghettos, which were at least 90% entirely populated by blacks, still had higher rent prices than areas of white living. .
The economic status of African-Americans was also highly discriminatory. In the work force, a white person had a much higher chance of successfully getting a job they've applied for even if a more qualified black man also applied. In the South, black men didn't have much opportunity to work other than the option of sharecropping, which was basically just slavery under another name to keep them dependent on white society.
