![]() Fulfilling this demand often means treating everyone the same. What justice requiresĪccording to King, justice, in its most basic sense, means giving persons what they are due. Repairing it was an urgent issue of racial justice.Ĭertainly, in a market society, where competition determines most people's life prospects, “the pursuit of happiness” as an equal right of all citizens would not be guaranteed until blacks were no longer handicapped by the legacy of white domination. Even if the new civil rights laws were impartially and effectively enforced, the damage inflicted by the long reign of white supremacy would remain. He recognised that the many decades of slavery and Jim Crow had severely disadvantaged blacks (especially in education, employment, wealth, and housing) and had injured their self-respect and psychological well-being. ![]() Many, then and now, see this tremendous victory as the end of the struggle for racial equality. Previously, the subordination of blacks was the law of the land in the South, and discrimination against blacks was widespread throughout the country. The civil rights movement, through litigation and persistent pressure on Congress and several presidents, abolished a hideous and terrifying race-based regime. In the political sphere, achieving racial equality meant granting blacks the unfettered right to vote and hold political office. To end discrimination in housing, education, employment, and lending, non-discrimination laws needed to be enacted and scrupulously enforced. The primary goal of desegregation was to abolish the unfair exclusions and prohibitions of Jim Crow, a social system that gave whites privileges and advantages they did not merit, deprived blacks of rights and opportunities they deserved, and generally stigmatised black people as inferior. Moving toward racial equality required a concrete policy of desegregation. Private individuals and associations must be made to follow suit - at least when individuals’ basic liberties or vital socio-economic opportunities are at issue. It is not enough that the state refrain from treating some citizens as if they were civic inferiors unworthy of equal concern and respect. Second, government should ensure that no one’s basic rights are curtailed or general life prospects reduced because of the racial prejudice of others. Justice does not permit second-class citizenship on the basis of race. First, each citizen, regardless of his or her race, should enjoy equal civic standing and the equal protection of the law. He understood the former as a demand of social justice that could be described in terms of two principles. King was committed to the fundamental ideals of racial equality and integration. Quality education for all children, decent and well-paying jobs for adults, and the eradication of slums for the benefit of the poor require great resources. In response to this resistance, King reminded us that meaningful attempts to bring about a just society have unavoidable costs. are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it.” As King wrote, “The great majority of Americans. An equally if not more difficult obstacle was that most whites, even many who rejected racism, resisted racial justice measures that might have a personal cost. King argued that racist opposition was not the only reason these disparities had yet to be met with an adequate response. Nevertheless, troubling racial disparities - in income, education, wealth, employment, health, and poverty - caused by continuing discrimination and centuries of gross mistreatment and abuse, remained unaddressed. King thus proclaimed in his book Where Do We Go from Here? that many whites had come to accept racial equality, at least in principle, and to reject de jure segregation and discrimination. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act helped to break through the legal barriers to black inclusion in American social life, to curb discrimination and to empower blacks politically. Under constant assault by racist ideology, blacks struggled to maintain self-respect and self-esteem. They were victims of police brutality and vicious acts of domestic terrorism. Blacks did not have equal citizenship because they were denied the rights to vote and hold public office. A great many were socially marginalised and isolated in slums. Blacks were mostly poor despite living in a society with tremendous wealth. Life chances for blacks were severely diminished, “crippled” by racial segregation and widespread discrimination. ![]() described the racial realities of his day with characteristic force and eloquence.Īlthough slavery in the United States had ended one hundred years earlier, he declared, black Americans were still not free. In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr.
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