Originally Posted by mickeycrimm
Northern whites were just as bad as southerners when it came to racism.

Slavery was the lifeblood of the South; it was forbidden in the North.

All blacks in the North were free men; yes menial work was their typical fate but there were some blacks who reached middle class economic status and in fact some were quite wealthy.

All ethnic groups who moved / emigrated to the North in the nineteenth century started at the bottom of the economic barrel; Italian, Pole, black.

Racism has prevented blacks from being incorporated into the mainstream of American life, but that sword cuts both ways: many blacks don't seem to want to be assimilated.