1.2 - Civil Rights Flashcards
When was slavery abolished in the USA?
31 January 1865
Was there segregation in the government?
1913 = President Wilson introduced segregation in gov offices and the White House
What is the ‘Red Summer’ riots?
In 1919 = 25 anti-black race riots started by police injustice left 100s dead.
Worst riots in Chicago (North) not south
Who is Booker T. Washington
Former slave and advocated accepting segregation
Supported by successful black people and white people.
Argued segregation = black schools + colleges = black doctors which proved they were as smart as white people
When was the Jim Crow laws introduced?
1917
What are the Jim Crow laws and give examples
These were laws that segregated white and black people on every aspect of life.
Led to separate facilities being made for black people
What did the Jim Crow laws say about voting?
States made it law = voters had to pass a literacy test + home owners
Black people = given harder tests/ lack of education/ not home owners
Even if they could vote = white people waiting to beat up black people at voting station
How did the Jim Crow laws affect voting?
By 1917 = no. of black people voting had dropped considerably
Louisiana = 130,334 in 1896 to 1,342 in 1904
What happened in the 1896 Plessy V Ferguson court case?
In Louisiana the railway was segregated in 1890
Homer Plessy = civil rights activist took it to court
Court ruled = segregation was possible despite 14th amendment if ‘separate but equal’
What is the 14th amendment?
Passed 9th July 1868 = made all people born or naturalised in the USA as citizens - including slaves
Define lynching
A mob taking the law into their own hands to punish someone
The victim is usually hanged although some was burned alive
Who was Emmet Till?
In 1955 = 14 year old Emmet Till was lynched for talking to a white woman and asking her for a date allegedly
Lynching = public + caused shock in the south
Between 1915-1930 how many lynchings were there?
579 black men
What was the impact of the KKK?
Revived in 1915, by 1925 = estimated membership was 3-8 million
South = real political powers (e.g Len Small a state governor in Illinois) + social powers (state police and army)
Women = children was white supremacists, in rural areas created anti-black environment that non-KKK was too intimidated to reject
Did the federal government intervene in the south?
Plessy v Ferguson = showed that the gov was ok with segregation
President Wilson = southerner
President Harding = spoke against lynching and broadly for civil rights at the Uni of Alabama but Harding and Coolidge did nothing = laissez-faire
Presidents = express opinion + influence bhvr but didn’t enforce by legis. Depression in 1929 became a priority
When was the Great Migration?
1917-1932
By 1920, how many black people were living in places like Chicago and Detroit?
40%
How many black people lived in New York in 1910? How did this change after the great migration?
91,709 in 1910
327,706 in 1930
Why did the Great Migration happen?
Eastern cities like NY = industrial towns and drew in black people for work
WW1 = rising need fo labourers in factories, promised housing, free transport to the north and good wages
What was life like when black migrants got to the city?
Crowded accommodation & took unskilled low paying jobs
Some got lucky and became domestic servants for white people
Others voted and got elected for government
What was the political impact of the Great Migration?
Population of the cities rose = changed political climate
Bc black people had power in numbers can be seen in elections for mayor of Chicago in 1919
How did the political impact of the Great Migration lead to a vested interest in segregation?
As black peoples were listened to more, powerful business-oriented black elite support segregation.
Bc segregation made it more likely for positions in politics
Black campaign in a black ward = whole black vote
What happened in areas where there was no change in political power after the Great Migration?
Places like NY = evenly distributed population
Smaller segregated groups across the city = own churches + schools
Churches = significant bases for civil rights protests, leaders = preachers
How did the Great Migration affect white people in these growing cities?
Black migrants = force white people from positions especially those in unions+ pushing for better pay.
This put pressure on white workers to leave unions or lose their jobs
How did the Great Migration affect the south?
Labour force shrank + farming areas already had economic struggles = struggled even more
Poorest farmers = black + suffered the most
Assumption black people who stayed in south accepted the Jim Crow laws
What were the positive impacts of the New Deal?
Congress of Industrial Organizations (established in the 1930s) = large no. of black people into unions for the first time = by 1940 there were more than 200,000 African Americans in the CIO
Executive order 8802 = banned racial discrimination in the army
Black cabinet = votes of BP went to the democrats
What were the negative impacts of the new deal?
Supposed to be colour blind but = civilian conservation corps pushed black men for white men
In 1939 = black people were so affected by the Great Depression 2 million applied for federal aid to move back to Africa
What was the overall impact of the new deal?
Roosevelt had a positive impact H/E implementation was not good
Roosevelt took the first steps with equal rights in his executive orders but social attitude ruined the success of this
What was the positive impacts of WW2?
In 1942, 3% of defence workers were black and in 1944 = 8%
Black workers = ruin stereotypes + emergence of interracial friendships
Roosevelts executive order 8802 = non discrimination in the workforce as a result of Philip Randolph who threatened a mass march on Washington for those jobs
No. of black people pre war = 4,000 and post-war = 1.2 million
What are the negative impacts of WW2?
Influx of black workers resented = in 1943 there was outbreaks of racist violence + strikes by white people
Survey at the end of the war = many white people were still racist + support housing segregation + whites before blacks
3% to 8% is not enough = WW2 initiated the civil rights movement
What was the overall impact of WW2?
Questioned what the Americans was fighting for bc = ww2 was fighting against segregation, fascism and the holocaust when in America they are doing similar things
Mostly impacted the defence/ army = still segregation within the army
What was the positive impacts of President Truman?
In 1946 = set up civil rights committee whose task was to examine violence absinthe African Americans within America = highly critical of USA + claimed it was undemocratic
Proposed anti-lynching, anti+segregation and fair employment laws in 1954
Executive order 9981 = ended segregation in the military + equal treatment and opportunity the Armed Service
What were the negative impacts of the President Truman?
Civil rights committee did not lead to any consequences or aftermath = civil rights measures were blocked by southern (+some northern) delegate members of Congress
Preoccupied with the Cold War and failed to push employment laws through Congress
What does the NAACP stand for?
National association for the advancement of coloured people
Established in 1910, organised many legal actions against segregation in the USA
Who is Thurgood Marshall?
First black American to serve in the Supreme Court
Trained as a lawyer, worked for the NAACP and became chief counsel in 1940
Did brown v board = took 32 cases and won 29
How much did the NAACP membership increase ?
9,000 in 1917
90,000 in 1919
600,000 in 1946
What is the separatist movement?
Believed they would never be equal to white people + advocated increasing conditions in segregation
Individuals like Marcus Garvey in early 1920s = go back to Africa
What was the NAACP’s aim?
To get black Americans theirs rights
How did the NAACP fight for civil rights?
Published pamphlets about lynching bc people didn’t know of the scale
Demonstrated, held marches and petitioned to Congress
Provided lawyers to black people
What happened in the 1926 Sweet Trial?
Doctor Sweet moves into white area in Detroit where white mob is outside house and breaks window.
Fearing attack, friend of Sweet shoots a white guy = all men put on trial for murder
Consequence = NAACP win case + set up defence fund to fight segregation
What happened in the 1936 Murray v Maryland trial?
University of Maryland’s law school is desegregated
What happened in 1938 Gains v Canada case?
Supreme Court orders the university of Missouri to take black students
What happened in the 1946 Morgan v Virginia case?
Supreme Court overturns a Virginia state law segregating buses and trains that moved from one state to another
What happened in the 1948 Shelley v Kramer case?
Bans regulations that bar black people from buying houses in an area in any state
What happened in the Sweatt v Painter and McLaurin v Oklahoma
Desegregation graduate and professional schools in Texas and Oklahoma
What happened in the 1954 Brown v Board if Education of Topeka case?
Desegregated schools + unequal provisions
Describe the success of legal challenges
In the 1930s + 40s the NAACP won some cases
1950s = won all cases
How is the success of legal challenge limited?
Supreme Court didn’t enforce its rulings + weakened force of its rulings by not setting up a time frame for desegregation = ten years after Brown v Board ruling (1954) 1 black child for every 100 white child was in an integrated school
Integrating schools = limited effects if housing was still segregated
What was the aftermath of Brown v Board?
White citizens council in 1954 to fight desegregation + black civil rights. By 1956 = 250,000 members
What did the NAACP help set up in 1950?
The national Committee Against Discrimination in Housing
What is CORE?
The congress of racial equality
Set up 1942 = campaign for civil rights through non-violent means = pioneers sit-ins / freedom rides
When did direct action become popular?
1940s and 50s = NAACP + other organisations saw the law was not enough
Give an example of an early march for civil rights
Over 10,000 people in NY
28th June 1917 = Silent Protest parade in response to lynching and anti black riots that year
Give examples of direct actions taken by African Americans
Chicago 1942 - CORE sit ins
1000s of black people move into all-white housing
1947 = Fellowship for Reconciliation rode inter state buses through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee + Kentucky to desegregate them
What were the rules of non-violent protest ?
Demonstrators had to be well dressed
They couldn’t fight back if they get attacked
Worked with the government = gave petitions
What/ who caused Montgomery bus boycott?
1st Dec 1955 = Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the front of the bus and refusing to give her seat to a white man
How was the Montgomery bus boycott organised ?
Montgomery improvement association = told to organise boycott MLK was the leader.
Boycott started 5th Dec = over 75% of bus users were black and 90% boycotted = lasted for 380 days
How did the gov react to the Montgomery bus boycott?
City gov = imprisoned King and several others for conspiracy but the boycott continued
Montgomery desegregated their buses (21st Dec 1956) + Supreme Court ruled segregation on buses were unconstitutional = 13th Nov 1956
How did the media react to the Montgomery bus boycott?
Protesters = positive bc non-violent + followed the rules set by NAACP e.g dressed well
What happened at Little Rock, Arkansas?
4th September 1957 = 9 black children are sent to all white Central high school. NAACP got 8 to carpool
Racist governor = hired national guard to stop them and turned away ninth student Elizabeth Eckford = surrounded by mob = photos in media
How did President Eisenhower get involved and was there government legislation passed as a result?
King met with Pres Eisenhower = showed how bad it looked for his administration = as a result federal troops was sent to guard children
No legislation was passed but the school was permanently integrated
What is a weakness of Little Rock?
There were many examples of this across southern school trying to integrate. People also died but there was a lack of media coverage
Was there media coverage of Little Rock?
There was 250 reporters who took photos
When was the Greensboro sit in and what happened?
1st Feb 1960 = 4 black students went to the segregated lunch counted and waited to be served until store shut. Next day 30 students came and increased until they filled the whole room.
Organised by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
