Final answer:
The difference between whites and blacks during the historical context, taking into account figures like Bob Ewell, revolves around the legacy of segregation, racial discrimination, and the fight against white supremacy that has spanned over centuries in American history.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question revolves around the historical differences in treatment and living conditions between the whites and blacks including references to Bob Ewell, a character from Harper Lee's novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Bob Ewell represents the poorer white class that still exerts racial discrimination against the black community. After the Civil War, segregation policies and racial prejudices forced African Americans to live in designated black areas known as ghettos, often on 'the other side of the tracks', away from white neighborhoods. Despite the end of slavery, many African Americans in the South lived in persistent poverty, yet there are documented instances where former slaves have provided support to their impoverished former masters. During the Reconstruction period, violence was not exclusive to racial lines as white-on-white violence occurred too, such as feud cases between families like the Hatfields and McCoys.
It was a long-standing historical challenge to overcome social and institutional biases instilled over centuries. Activists like W. E. B. Du Bois and others have fought against such white supremacy. The Jim Crow laws further institutionalized racial segregation leading to separate and unequal lives for blacks and whites, with African Americans experiencing various social indignities and injustices. The struggle for racial equality even led some to flee from their identity as protection from discrimination. While the legal landscape changed with the ruling that segregation was unconstitutional in 1954, societal attitudes and practices have been slow to change, reflecting the deep-rooted nature of racial discrimination in American history.