Racism and Racial Intolerance

In 1966, Alice Childress addressed the lack of freedom that defined the lives of black Americans. In an essay published in Freedomways, Childress noted that immigrants arriving in the United States have more freedoms than African Americans: "We know that most alien visitors are guaranteed rights and courtesies not extended to at least one-fifth of American citizens." Childress argued that the story of the black woman has not been told by Hollywood or the popular press. It was the need to tell this story that motivated Childress's writing. In the 1960s blacks were still denied equality in education and in the right to vote. Neighborhoods, towns, and cities were segregated, and black Americans who wished to marry white Americans had to be able to pass as whites or face the punishment of laws that regulated marriage between the two races. Childress noted that children born...