What role did race and ethnicity play in a person's social and economic standing in america during the 1950's?

If you were black in the 1950's your race and ethnicity played a huge part in your social and economic standing, for example you were second class citizens compared to white people at the time. As a black person you would of been disadvantage in the terms of public transportation, (you would of had to give up your seat to a white person and would not have been able to sit where you wanted to, usually at the back of the bus) also, black people had to attend the poorest schools with inadequate resources and equipment, and often had teachers that were unskilled whereas as the white people had highly skilled teachers, good books, manageable class sizes and plenty of resources and equipment.

Black people found it to impossible to elect other blacks to government positions as everyone would discriminate against the black person and vote for the white person instead. There was a couple of reasons for this, they were racist and also they feared what a black person would do with the power they had.

Of course back then, the fight for ***** rights was only getting underway, so blacks almost invariably had low socioeconomic status. Whites were on top especially anglo-saxons although other groups like the Irish were making gains; it was the eve of JFK's presidency.