Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- Does racism still exist?

Do you believe that there is still racism in the US? Do you believe that the promise of equality has been fulfilled now, in the year 2001?

Definately. I note that hate crimes are up, that hate crimes against Blacks, Muslims, Jews are continuing and almost prevelant...in the United States and other parts of the world.

Do you believe that the promise of Equality has been fulfilled now?

No...not then, and not now. Blacks are still striving to become middle class citizens, if equality was fulfilled that would not be the case.

Bruce Hartford:

We still have a long way to go. But the Civil Rights Movement did eliminate most (though not all) forms of legal discrimination. Because of the Civil Rights Movement explicit, overt, discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, and physical ability is illegal. But social, psychological, and economic discrimination and persecution still remain. As does a vast resevoir of hidden, covert racism.

Gabe Kaimowitz:

That remains the number one problem. Do you believe that the promise of equality has been fulfilled now, in the year 2001? Not even close.

Joan Mandle:

The civil rights movement was about social justice generally and specifically of course applied to African-Americans. But it succeeded ONLY because it also changed majority white population. Martin Luther King was brilliant in showing that racism is a cancer in the heart of those who have prejudice and discriminate and that it violates the most basic human and American values of justice and equal opportunity. That affected everyone! Also the other movements that followed — the movement against the War in Vietnam, the women's movement, the student movement and others all learned from and modeled themselves on the Civil Rights Movement. It changed everything!

Wazir (Willie) Peacock:

There was racism then in the United States, and there is racism in the United States now. The Voting Rights Act didn't change that. It didn't change the hearts and minds of people. Like I said earlier, the Civil Rights Movement brought to surface the amount of racism that is in this country. We can see now, that to a large degree, this country, this United States is divided along racial lines. The racism in this country is scary. It's dangerous, because it is so divisive. It makes it where it doesn't look like a United States. The politicians are doing the same things that Bilbo, Governor Barnett were doing. They're using race for their politics. Strom Thurmond is still there. So we don't expect change to come from politicians. There has to be a change of heart with the people.

Dick Reavis:

Do I believe that we can watch the sun rise by facing east?

Jimmy Rogers:

Yes I do. One of the things that tells me that is the inordinate number of police shootings of Black men. The other thing that tells me that is the inordinate number of Black and Hispanic men in prison. The largest inmate population in the state is not Black, it's Hispanic, with Blacks coming a close second.

I feel that there's still discrimination in employment. I think that there's still problems with the schools.

One thing that I notice is that there seems to be more resources available for white schools than Black schools. This isn't anything new. This is something that's gone on forever. There's more resources allocated to white, middle-class schools.

There's ample evidence that racism and discrimination still exist. One thing that struck my mind was a personal experience that I had in the late-'80s when I went to a bank to get a loan. The same bank that lent me money to buy my house, the same bank that lent me money any number of times, that I never had any problems with, and I go into the bank on another occasion and deal with this new guy because I wanted to get a home equity loan. All of a sudden, I started having all kinds of problems. I've always paid off my loans, never late, I have A-1 credit. I noticed I started having all kinds of difficulty. I remember becoming very angry.