They lived in a world where, even their religion told them that everything white was good whereas everything black was bad or evil. .
The constitution which promised that all men are created equal" was made only for Whites. Slaves were not looked upon as human beings but rather as objects. Indeed it was not common to call a slave other than by his first name or as boy". .
After the Civil War and the Emancipation Declaration which abolished slavery, everything at first seemed to change. But the so-called Reconstruction period failed, although Blacks were now called citizens", they still had no civil rights. .
Many Whites, who after the end of slavery had lost everything, found it hard to believe that their former slaves should now be equal to them. Blacks became their scapegoats and many racist organisations, like the Ku Klux Klan or the rifle clubs, were founded. They used threats, burning and lynching to keep the black man in his place". The Black Codes and the Jim Crow laws were set up to limit the movement and rights of the Blacks. To keep Blacks from registering to vote, poll taxes were raised, comprehension tests were held and the grandfather-clause was put into practice. The Separate but equal" decision of 1896 confirmed the segregation in the South and soon everything was being segregated, the churches, schools, restaurants, even the toilets. In the begin of the twentieth century only few Blacks had managed to enter the middle-class. .
Many tried to escape segregation in the South by moving into northern urban areas, only to find poverty and an insufficient number of jobs. Life in the ghettos of the big industrialised cities was characterised by social discrimination and de facto se-gregation. The law, jobs, political affairs and the mass media were still controlled by the white man. The only organisations where Blacks could gain power were religious institutions. .
A turning point in the Blacks' relation to America was the Second World War.
