The mid-20 th century marked a major radical transformation in the lives of African Americans. Even though they had just been freed from slavery and started to enjoy some freedom like the rest of the Americans, they still faced many challenges and there attained freedom from slavery marked an entry into new bondage. Racial inequality remained a major problem that the people of color faced during the 20 th century as they sought to regain their status in the white-dominated society. While they felt relieved of their newly found freedom from slavery, 20 th century marked a new challenge in their lives as they sought to regain their economic stability and break the barrier of racial inequality that was rampant in the United States. Ghana’s independence, on the other hand, had a special meaning to the Americans who were still struggling with racial inequalities ad discrimination that had dominated most parts of America in the mid-20 th century.
The people of color underwent a series of racial discrimination and segregation in many aspects of life, including education, employment, housing and violation of human rights. African Americans lived in poor neighborhoods and struggled to achieve economic stability as they would not secure jobs in the highly discriminative labor market. African Americans were forced to work in the low-income causal jobs that created a huge income gap between them and the whites. They remained economically insecure and with very few opportunities available for them to achieve economic mobility. More than three-quarters of the blacks still lived in the rural southern areas where most of them still worked as laborers in the farms even after independence. High paying jobs were mainly preserved for the whites, and the blacks dominated unskilled jobs.
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Racial segregation became evident even in the education and healthcare sectors. There were white schools, and the blacks could not be admitted to these schools due to their color. Many black children had limited opportunities to get education as the system discriminated them. As a result, the black children attained lower levels of education, and this led to the transmission of poverty from one generation to the other. Many factors contributed to this vicious cycle of wealth inequality between the blacks and the whites. The households for the people of color had less access to tax-advantaged forms of saving as a result of the prolonged history of unemployment and discrimination that had been persistent at the time.
The long history of the black discrimination in the United States had led to the rise of the activist groups who wanted to achieve equality for the people of color. The independence of both Ghana and India had played a major role in awakening the people of color who were still oppressed in the United States under extreme conditions of inequality. While many blacks lived in forced segregation and mistreatment in the hands of the government, the release of the African Americans from the bondage of the European colonialism came as an encouragement to the African Americans. Ghana’s independence was an attained liberation in blacks in Africa which then energized the blacks living in the United States who were still facing racial discrimination. Ghana independence leader Kwame Nkrumah had lived in the United States and understood the sufferings of the blacks living. This was the chance for the African Americans to boost their civil rights movement and deliberate themselves from the bondage of racism. The blacks living in America acquired new hopes that they could win the war against racism and white discrimination after seeing Ghana acquire independence from the British rule.
