What was racism in America like in the 1950s?
It was better than it had been before, but much worse than it is now. Especially in the South, blacks lived in their own neighborhoods, they had their own shops and parks and restaurants and movie theaters, even their own films. Blacks weren’t allowed to mix with whites almost anywhere. They weren’t allowed into white colleges, or to move into white neighborhoods Public restrooms and drinking fountains were labeled ‘Black’ and ‘Whites Only’. The Pentagon in Washington is one of the biggest buildings in the world. When it was built, President Truman toured it, and he noticed that on every floor where the bathrooms are there were four bathrooms instead of two. He asked why this was. He was told that since the building was technically in the state of Virginia it had been necessary to build separate bathrooms for black and white! This really upset Truman and he decreed that all bathrooms would be open to everyone. Truman also integrated the military. Before that, up through WWII, blacks an
