As the United States developed and grew, upward mobility was central to the American Dream. It was the unspoken promise that no matter where you started, you had the ability to grow and proceed beyond your initial starting point. In the years following the Civil War, the promise began to fade. People of all races have struggled to gain representation, recognition, and place in this society. Much to their devastation, this hope quickly diminished. Social rules were established by whites and no one could rise above their social position unless they were deemed fit to be part of the white race. The social group most affected by this "social rule" were African Americans. Blacks and those sympathetic to the idea of ​​equal rights for blacks were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. (Burton, 1998) The turning point in North Carolina politics was the Wilmington race riot of 1898. It was a very bold and outrageous statement by white supremacists towards black people. Democratic white supremacists illegally seized power from the local government and destroyed the neighborhood by driving out African Americans and transforming it from a majority black city to a majority white city. (Class Discussion 10/3/2013) This event developed the idea that even if an African American could climb a ladder to become someone in his town, he will never become fully self-reliant in this nation. Charles W. Chesnutt discusses the issue of social mobility in his novel The Marrow of Tradition. Olivia Carteret, the wife of a white supremacist is also the half-sister of a Creole woman, Janet Miller. As the plot develops, we are able to see how each woman's social position affects her daily life, and how each woman is... middle of the paper... without any regression in the social ladder. However, there will always be those who determine who and what society truly is. Just as Chesnutt describes to us in The Marrow of Tradition, there will always be a social ladder, on which we will climb or descend. Works Cited Chesnutt, C. W. (1993). The marrow of tradition. New York: Penguin Books. Burton, O. V. (1998, April). African American status and identity in a postwar community: An analysis of manuscript census returns. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/2286/file_1.pdf?sequence=1 Williams, A. N. (2006). OUR KIND OF PEOPLE: SOCIAL STATUS AND CLASS AWARENESS IN THE POST-RECONSTRUCTION AFRICAN AMERICAN SIGNATURE. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/indexablecontent?id=uuid:c9d7fd9d-c5df-4dea-aa22-35820de5878e&ds=DATA_FILE