History

Elsewhere in the West Indies, the Arawak were exterminated just as they were on Hispaniola. So were the Caribes, the Native American people who gave their name to the Caribbean Sea. It is estimated that the Native Americans of the West Indies numbered 6 million in 1492. After two centuries of Spanish and, later, English … Read more

We talk about Christopher Columbus discovering the Americas, as though no one had ever seen them before. But of course, millions of people had, the Native Americans who already lived here. By at least 12,000 years ago, the ancestors of modern Native Americans had already migrated from Asia to America. By the time of Columbus, … Read more

On his first voyage in 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered both Cuba and Hispaniola, two of the four large West Indian islands known as the Greater Antilles. The other two are Jamaica and Puerto Rico. His first colony was founded on Hispaniola, an island that today is divided into the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island’s … Read more

Columbus began his New World adventures in the Bahamas, but the Spanish never settled on the islands. It was the English who founded the first European colonies there in the mid-seventeenth century. The islands of the Bahamas remained a British colony until independence was granted in 1973.

People today flock to the Bahamas, an island group in the West Indies, for fun and relaxation on its sunny beaches. Columbus was happy just to find dry land there. His crew came ashore on a Bahamian island known to its natives as Guanahani. Columbus renamed it San Salvador and claimed it for Spain. The … Read more

From the Spanish word for “mixture,” a mestizo is a person who is a racial mix of European and Native American. A mulatto (from an Arabic word for “mixed race”) is a person of mixed European and African ancestry. There were mestizos and mulattoes in the English colonies, but many more in the Spanish colonies.

Discrimination existed in Spanish America, though it varied in degree from colony to colony. In general, the highest privileges and official positions went to pure Spanish people born in Spain. Next down on the ladder of status were criollos, or Creoles, people born in America of pure Spanish descent. Mestizos and mulattoes stood below them, … Read more

The first printing press in the New World was installed in Mexico City in 1535. It was one sign of how the colony was developing into a center of urban culture. Churches and palaces were built. A university was founded in Mexico City in 1551. Another university was founded the same year in another part … Read more

Conquistador Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475-1541) conquered Peru in 1532-1535. Like Cortes, he did so by destroying a civilization, that of the Incas. Since their civilization was founded about 1200, the Incas had built an empire that spread over two thousand miles, including present-day Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. The empire stretched like a long snake … Read more

Lima beans, which are also called butter beans, are named for the city, Lima, Peru. Cultivated in Peru since prehistoric times, they have been found in ancient graves there. They are only one of many foods that Native Americans cultivated and passed on to Europeans. Others include the tomato, potato, maize (which Americans call corn), … Read more

Bananas from Ecuador. Sugar from Cuba. Coffee from Colombia. These foods are so strongly associated with Latin America that many people think they must have originated there. They didn’t. Bananas and sugarcane are both native to tropical Asia. Because they only grow in a warm climate, they flourished when transplanted to the tropical colonies of … Read more

Unlike the English colonists, who usually arrived as families, most of the Spanish conquistadors came to the New World without women. Rather than send back to Spain for wives, they took Native American women to bear their children. The racially mixed children became a new group, called mestizos. In many Latin American countries today, mestizos … Read more

A few did object to the treatment of Native Americans. Spanish missionary and historian Bartoleme de Las Casas (1474-1566) publicized the atrocities of the conquistadors. He urged that Native Americans be treated humanely and that forced labor be abolished. In 1542, he succeeded in getting the New Laws passed, which aimed to end the encomienda … Read more

Hernán Cortés might have wanted to become an emperor, but Spain already had one. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was king of Spain from 1516 to 1556, wanted to keep tight control over any Spanish colonies. He carefully kept Cortes from acquiring any real power over the lands he had conquered. Instead, in 1535, … Read more

As wealth started pouring in from the Americas, the Spanish tried to grab as much of the Western Hemisphere as they could. Venezuela and Colombia, the northernmost countries of South America, were first colonized in the 1520s. The most powerful native American group in the region, the Chibcha of Colombia, was conquered in 1536-1541 by … Read more

The rocky tropical island where prisoners suffered untold miseries was located off the northeast coast of South America. But it did not belong to Spain. Founded in 1852, it was part of French Guiana. This French colony was part of a small strip of land settled by the Dutch, French, and English rather than the … Read more

Some of the Jews who were expelled from Spain went to the Middle East, some to the Netherlands. Many went to the Americas. Sephardic Jews, as Jews from Spain and Portugal were known, were an important part of many colonies, particularly Dutch colonies, which tolerated their religion. By the eighteenth century, half of the Europeans … Read more

From 711 until 1492, parts of Spain had been ruled by Moors from North Africa, who were Muslims, or believers in Islam. Many Jews lived in Spain as well. In 1492, the same year that Columbus discovered America, the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain. The … Read more

The Spanish were fervent Catholics who felt that any other religion was not only wrong but satanic. They had only to look at the Aztec practice of human sacrifice to be convinced that the Aztec religion was devilish indeed. They had little sympathy for the everyday peaceful devotion of the common people to gods such … Read more

“Don’t call me High-Spanic”, proclaims a web site run by a person of Latin American descent. For many who share that ethnicity, the only acceptable term is Latino (for men) or Latina (for women). Why should “Hispanic” be insulting? After all, it is used by no less prestigious an agency than the U.S. Census Bureau. … Read more

The island of Jamaica is nearly as close to the United States as Cuba, but it isn’t Hispanic. Its people speak English, not Spanish. Why do Cubans speak Spanish, but not Jamaicans? Why does the United States own Puerto Rico but not Mexico? Come to think of it, if Spain got to the Americas before … Read more

There certainly are similarities among Hispanic Americans. Most, though not all, are Roman Catholic. Many believe strongly in the importance of family and community. They share the kind of indebtedness to Spanish culture that Americans have to English culture. For example, they honor Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish author of Don Quixote, much as Americans … Read more

The word “Chicano” does not mean “Hispanic”. Chicano (or “Chicana,” for a female) refers only to a Mexican American, an American of Mexican descent. It is an abbreviation of the word Mexicano, Spanish for “Mexican.” It was originally an insult, a term of disdain used by non-Hispanics. But in the mid-twentieth century, Mexican Americans themselves … Read more

Technically, an Anglo American or Anglo is an American descended from the Anglo-Saxon peoples of England. But Hispanics use the term more broadly, for any white, English-speaking American not of Hispanic descent. As of 1990, 25.8 percent of California’s population and 25.5 percent of Texas’s were Hispanic Americans.

If your parents are Brazilian, you’re not a Hispanic American. Although it is the largest country in South America, Brazil was colonized by Portugal, not Spain. Most of its people speak Portuguese, not Spanish. The languages are similar enough that a Spanish-speaker can sometimes manage a conversation with a Portuguese-speaker, but they are not the … Read more

Mexico is just over the border from Texas and the American Southwest. Cross a river or step over a line in the desert, and you’ve switched countries. Immigration laws limit how many Mexicans can enter legally, but many enter illegally. Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth. … Read more

Christopher Columbus was not Spanish. The explorer who first visited the Americas on October 12, 1492, was Italian, but he was working for Spain. Born in Genoa, Italy, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) had convinced the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella that he could find a route to Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. His … Read more

Fly from California to New York, and you are still in the same country. Fly the same distance from Panama to Argentina, and you are in a different world. The two countries are a case study in how different Hispanic cultures can be. Panama is a tiny tropical nation heavily covered with rain forest. Most … Read more

An immigrant from South America would not necessarily be able to tell the difference between a taco and an enchilada. Someone born and raised in the United States will be more likely to know the answer. Mexican dishes like tacos and enchiladas are better known in the United States than they are to people in … Read more

Latin America and South America are not the same thing. South America is a continent connected by the narrow Isthmus of Panama to the separate continent of North America. South America extends from Colombia to Chile. To say “South America” is to talk about a geographical entity. Latin America is a cultural entity. South America … Read more

Many Hispanics informally call themselves “Spanish,” but the term can lead to confusion. Strictly speaking, a Spanish American person is an American whose family comes from Spain. While some Hispanic Americans can claim a direct link to that European nation, most descend from one of the lands in the Americas settled by Spain. Today, most … Read more

Hispanic Americans are not the country’s largest minority group, African Americans are. But the Census Bureau projects that by the year 2005, Hispanic Americans will surpass African Americans as the country’s largest minority group. By the year 2050, Hispanic Americans are expected to account for one-fourth of the U.S. population. Between 1980 and 1990, the … Read more

More than 10 million Hispanic Americans are under the age of twenty, about 14 percent of all Americans under twenty. Hispanic Americans are younger on average than American whites, blacks, or Asians. More than 16 percent of kids under five are Hispanic. If you are a young person reading this, there is a good chance … Read more

As of 1995, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 26.9 million people of Hispanic origin. This is about 10 percent of the country’s total population. In other words, one out of every ten Americans is a Hispanic American. In 2011, there were 52,045,277 Hispanic Americans in the United States, or about 16.7% of the U.S. population. … Read more

Latin America consists of twenty different nations, not to mention several territories of still more nations, including Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth that someday may become the fifty-first state. The English colonies of North America developed into just two countries, the United States and Canada. But Spain’s American colonies never united in the same way. … Read more

Not all Hispanic Americans are immigrants, but many of them are. According to 1995 Census Bureau figures, about 39 percent of Hispanic Americans were born in a foreign country. They account for 46 percent, nearly half, of the 23 million foreign-born people in the United States. Not surprisingly, Spanish is the language other than English … Read more

Spanish for “race,” the term la raza was first popularized by Chicano political activists in the 1960s. Used originally to refer to people of Mexican descent, it is now accepted by many other Hispanic Americans. To be part of la raza suggests not so much skin color as unity of origin and purpose, along with … Read more

In the 1950s, when Jose Ferrer and Mel Ferrer were popular movie stars, people often assumed they were related. In fact, their parents didn’t even come from the same country. Jose Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintron (1912-1992) was born in Puerto Rico. He became famous for his stage and film portrayal of the title … Read more

If you held a party for twenty representative Hispanic Americans, twelve of them would have their roots in Mexico. Two would hail from Puerto Rico, and one would tell you about his or her family in Cuba. The other five would represent a mix of about seventeen other countries, mostly in Central and South America. … Read more

Maybe not. The face of the Hispanic American community is changing. Many immigrants still come from Mexico but few from Cuba. Puerto Ricans migrate to the United States in smaller numbers than they did in the 1950s and 1960s. However, immigration from the Dominican Republic has ballooned in the past few decades. So has immigration … Read more

Singer Carmen Miranda and dancer Jose Greco were well known for performing “Latin acts”, but neither of them were Hispanic. Carmen Miranda (1913-1955) was born in Portugal as Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha. She grew up in Brazil before becoming a musical star of Broadway and Hollywood. Known as the “Brazilian Bombshell,” she played … Read more

Not really, but it is hard to tell because race is such a fuzzy word. When someone talks about race, the speaker is distinguishing groups of people based on some standard he or she thinks is important and physically inherited. In the United States, people usually talk about the races as white, black (or African … Read more

Not all Hispanic Americans speak Spanish as their first language, but it is a common myth that they do. Studies show that Mexican Americans whose families have been in the United States for three generations speak little if any Spanish. As with other ethnic groups, Hispanic immigrants learn as much English as they need to, … Read more

A Hispanic is a person who descends from Spanish forebears or from one of the many cultures in the world that owe their origins to Spain. The term comes from Hispania, the Latin word for Spain used by the ancient Romans, who conquered that region in the second century B.C. It is commonly used to … Read more

The first South American president to be born in the United States was Gab Plaza Lasso, president of Ecuador from 1948 to 1952. The son of Ecuador’s minister to the United States, he was born in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1906. Ecuador seems to like American-born presidents: Sixto Duran Ballen, born in Boston … Read more

African Americans began to express great pride in their heritage, in their ancestry, and in their future. They actively struggled to call attention to the lack of blacks in an industry or organization and the depiction of blacks in books, on television, and in the movies. As a result, there was more participation and exposure … Read more

Ray Charles (1932- ). Singer and pianist. One of the most popular performers. Classics include “Georgia on My Mind,” “Hit the Road, Jack,” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” Inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, he was awarded a National Medal of the Arts in 1993. Aretha Franklin (1942- ). … Read more

Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) is a widely acclaimed literary figure. His only published novel, Invisible Man, has been praised as one of the twentieth century’s most moving and extraordinary works. The book shows how difficult life could be for an African American in the United States, the title refers to the lead character, a black man, … Read more

There was a lot happening in the 1960s and 1970s. But first, it is important to understand what happened in the 1950s. Evolving from blues, big-band swing, jazz, gospel, and other styles, rhythm and blues had a jumping, modern sound that appealed particularly to young audiences. This music began to take on many different shapes … Read more

In the early 1960s, a major movement in American arts occurred. The Black Arts Movement, or Black Aesthetic Movement, was the largest African American cultural movement since the Harlem Renaissance. All of the civil rights marches and the black pride and black power movements were closely linked to the exciting literature, poetry, and other writing … Read more

In 1972, Congress passed two laws: the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. These two laws helped to force open job opportunities for all Americans. Referred to as the affirmative action bills, they required most federal agencies, state governments, public institutions, and local governments to hire more blacks, women, and other … Read more

While it resulted in enormous professional progress for African Americans, affirmative action has come under attack in recent years. Some critics believe it is no longer needed, and that job discrimination does not exist anymore. They also believe that the quota system, one of the methods used under affirmative action to help open the doors … Read more

Not all of the civil rights movement took place in the streets and at lunch counters. Many changes and advances came about after years of working quietly behind the scenes. By the mid-1960s, minorities were becoming more aware of themselves and of their potential. However, there were few black history materials that portrayed the black … Read more

A leading black scholar, Carter G. Woodson, (1875-1950) was concerned that books written about African Americans were inaccurate and racist. Many of the history books that were written during his lifetime did not mention the cultural contributions of African Americans. As a result, in 1915 Woodson organized the Association for the Study of Negro Life … Read more

Jesse Jackson (1941- ) is one of the most active civil rights leaders and a spokesman for all minorities in the United States. Jackson was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968, when he had already become actively involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1971, he left the SCLC to start his own … Read more

Mae C. Jemison. The first black woman to become a U.S. astronaut, she flew into space as a member of the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor in 1992. Toni Morrison. In 1983, she became the first black woman novelist to win a Pulitzer Prize, which was awarded to her for her novel Beloved; in … Read more

Both presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush openly campaigned against quotas and civil rights legislation, and filled the federal courts with white conservatives opposed to the civil rights gains of the 1960s and 1970s. Reagan’s administration slowed down enforcement of certain civil rights laws and opposed government-enforced quotas and “goals and timetables.” In 1986, however, … Read more

Racism persisted in communities, companies, law enforcement, and sports. Lawsuits and civil disturbances showed just how prevalent racism remained. Racial disturbances occurred in 1991 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, after a car transporting a Hasidic rabbi was involved in an accident in which a black child was killed. Angry residents reacted in three nights of rioting, … Read more

In the 1980s, an exciting and /dynamic filmmaker named Spike Lee (1957- ) began to gain attention for his innovative work. Lee, an African American, creates films that portray black lives and perspectives that much of America has rarely seen before. Many of his movies have been daring, frequently generating controversy. But his characters are … Read more

Maya Angelou (1928- ). Poet and novelist. Works include her autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) and The Heart of a Woman (1981), the novels All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986) and Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now. Read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” during President Bill Clinton’s … Read more

Americans did not forget about the laws passed during the civil rights movement; there were some new gains made in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1982, both houses of Congress voted to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for twenty-five years. In 1983, some 250,000 marchers came together in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the … Read more

As historic as it was, the March on Washington did not immediately result in improvements. As the civil rights movement grew, white segregationists in the South were more determined than ever to keep things as they were, and so they became more violent. Bombs were left on the doorsteps of African American homes, and many … Read more

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was the most important civil rights leader of the 1960s. Using his belief in nonviolence, he helped to organize many peaceful marches, demonstrations, and boycotts. Through these actions, he helped African Americans win many rights that they had been denied for hundreds of years. His moving speeches … Read more

Civil rights leaders had no intention of letting President Kennedy’s bill die in Congress. To show how much the public wanted this law, they decided to have a demonstration in Washington, called the March on Washington. The goals of the march would be to demand passage of the Civil Rights Act, force integration of public … Read more

Many companies, communities, schools, and other institutions made special efforts to hire staffs of all racial backgrounds and to teach subjects on many cultures in the schools. The words used to define these became a part of everyday vocabulary: tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism. Minority consumers demanded to see people who looked like them in advertising, … Read more

Colin Powell, born in New York City in 1937, is one of the most admired African Americans in the country today. His long career in the military began when he was in college. While at City College of New York, Powell was part of the Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) Program. Upon graduation from college … Read more

Wally Amos (1937- ) started working for The William Morris Agency, a very successful and profitable talent agency, as a mail clerk. Eventually, he became the first African American talent agent for the agency. Amos discovered many successful acts, including Simon & Garfunkel, a folk-rock singing duo. He also represented such stars as The Temptations, … Read more

Many programs were created to help as well as to call attention to the problems of impoverished African Americans. Some organizations, such as the Urban League, started programs to help the black family remain intact. Others began programs to help youngsters stay in school; the NAACP’s Back in School/Stay in School program is one example. … Read more

There was an increased coverage of the black perspectives in mainstream culture. Black actors were seen more frequently on television and in movies. The young black film directors Spike Lee, Robert Townsend, and John Singleton made films that showed the black experience. They also hired blacks and gave them opportunities in the industry. Rap music, … Read more

In the 1980s, black mayors were elected in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, and other cities throughout the country. By 1990, there were 318 black mayors. In 1983 and 1988, Jesse Jackson declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination and promised to create a “rainbow coalition” of support among poor and dispossessed Americans. Although … Read more

African Americans held professional and managerial positions that would have been denied them in the past. Among the many blacks who held executive positions in corporate America in the 1990s were Richard Parsons, president of Time Warner; Ken Chenault, vice chairman of American Express; and Dennis Hightower, head of Disney’s television and telecommunications department. The … Read more

American Legacy (Rodney J. Reynolds, publisher) Black Enterprise (Earl G. Graves, publisher) Ebony (John H. Johnson, publisher) Emerge (Debra L. Lee, publisher) Essence (Edward Lewis, publisher) Jet (John H. Johnson, publisher)

In sports, 1960s black athletes brought a more individualistic style into college and professional sports, often making white coaches and sportswriters uncomfortable. For example, heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the army (in 1966) cost him his world championship, but also made him a hero to many blacks. By 1968, blacks made … Read more

Shirley Chisholm (New York), 1969-1982 Barbara Jordan (Texas), 1973-1979 Yvonne Braithwaite Burke (California), 1973-1979 Cardiss Collins (Illinois), 1973- Katie Hall (Indiana), 1983-1985 Eleanor Holmes Norton (District of Columbia), 1991- Maxine Waters (California), 1991- Barbara-Rose Collins (Michigan), 1991- Carol Moseley-Braun (Illinois), 1993 Corinne Brown (Florida), 1993 Carrie Meek (Florida), 1993 Cynthia McKinney (Georgia), 1993 Eva Clayton … Read more

Wilma Rudolph, born in Tennessee in 1940, had scarlet fever and double pneumonia as a young child. She also contracted polio and couldn’t walk without braces until she was eleven years of age. Every day one of young Wilma’s many brothers and sisters carefully massaged her crippled leg for her, until she was able to … Read more

President Kennedy felt that the country could no longer function with legal prejudice at its core. He appeared on national television to beg all Americans to eliminate segregation from the country. He stated that he would ask Congress to pass laws that would give all Americans the right to be served in public places such … Read more

During the 1930s and 1940s, many local black newspapers had begun to publish national editions. By 1955 there were more than 200 black magazines and newspapers being published in the United States. Newspapers such as the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, and the Baltimore Afro-American and magazines such as Jet and Ebony reached black readers … Read more

As a result of the actions of the 1960s, blacks made their biggest gains since slavery. Through the Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity programs, qualified blacks were recruited by colleges and the job market. Reverend Jesse Jackson, a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., founded People United to Save Humanity (PUSH), a black self-help group … Read more

When John H. Johnson (1918-2005) was in college in Chicago, he realized that there was no one publication with articles and information of interest to African Americans. He wondered if blacks would subscribe to such a magazine if he published it. Unable to get a bank loan, he borrowed $500 by using his mother’s furniture … Read more

During the 1960s, many black children in the South worked in the fields instead of attending school, because school attendance was not required by law. In 1964, as part of a civil rights project called Freedom Summer, Freedom Schools were established to teach reading and math to black children in southern states. During Freedom Summer, … Read more

After the murder of three voting rights organizers in 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, led by Fannie Lou Hamer, tried to unseat the all-white Mississippi delegation at the National Democratic convention later that year. Although unsuccessful, this demonstration brought public attention to the problem on national television, and eventually led to the passage of … Read more

By the beginning of the 1970s, blacks had suffered through forty years of disastrously high levels of unemployment, and large sectors of black America were locked into a state of almost permanent depression. Because of the closing of many factories and businesses, the employment situation of urban blacks in 1971 was worse than at any … Read more

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was born a sharecropper and had just a few years of schooling, but she became a pivotal player in the civil rights movement. In August 1964, when Democrats refused to allow African Americans to represent their party as delegates at the presidential convention, Fannie Lou Hamer led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic … Read more

Between 1961 and 1963, over a million demonstrators protesting segregation, discrimination, and violence against blacks kept the pressure on in many southern cities. This wave of protests reached a peak during the spring of 1963, when federal troops were sent into Birmingham, Alabama, to stop racial violence. President John Kennedy reacted to the widespread demonstrations … Read more

Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) received her law degree in 1959 from Boston University. In 1966, she was elected to the Texas Senate, where she was the first black president pro tempore. She soon became known as an ardent promoter of civil rights for minorities and the poor. In 1972, she was elected to the U.S. Congress, … Read more

Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) was elected to the New York State legislature in 1964. With a degree in education, she had set up day care centers for working mothers in Brooklyn. The centers were so successful that Brooklyn residents elected her to the New York State legislature. In 1968, they elected her to Congress, where she … Read more

In 1958, black leaders met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower to request that he submit new civil rights legislation to Congress and openly pledge to support the Brown v. Board of Education decision. But like many Americans, President Eisenhower hadn’t given much thought to black concerns and didn’t consider them important. He did not address … Read more

Malcolm X (1925-1965), was born in Omaha, Nebraska, as Malcolm Little. When Malcolm was six years old, his father, a Baptist minister, was murdered after receiving threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm’s mother suffered a nervous breakdown and Malcolm was sent to a foster home, then to a reform school. After high school, Malcolm … Read more

In the summer of 1964, black frustration in the ghettos began erupting in a series of riots that continued for four years. Almost every large city in the United States experienced similar rebellions. Primarily touched off by acts (or rumors) of police brutality, the most serious riots took place in New York’s Harlem (1964), the … Read more

By the early 1960s, African Americans were frustrated by daily life in the cities. Black and other minority communities were called “inner cities.” In these thickly populated slum areas, or ghettos, there were high crime rates, high unemployment, a lack of health services, poor garbage collection, overcrowding, discriminatory consumer practices, and police brutality.