1.4: Opposition to the civil rights movement Flashcards
What were the activities of the Ku Klux Klan
Stop Black Americans gaining equality through:
Terrorising black Americans by intimidation and extreme violence (murder and often by lynching)
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant could only join and they had support from law the enforcement
Klan members attacked Jews,Catholics and liberals, but had an extreme hatred for black Americans
Events of the Murder of Emmet Till
14 year old boy from Chicago went to Mississippi in 1955 to visit family.
Carolyn Bryant a white women stated that Emmet Till made sexual advances when he went to her store. Till’s cousin stated he only wolf-whistled,
Bryant’s husband and his half-brother abudcted Till and beat him severely. They shot him and thew in a river with a weight around his neck. His body was found 3 days later
When was the Murder of Emmet Till
1955
Significance of the murder of Emmet Till
Till’s mother had an open casket funeral in Chicago. This lead to widespread outrage and shock in the North where many were ignorant to the treatment of black Americans in the South.
The murder trials was reported nationwide and the defendants were acquitted (not guilty). They later sold their story to a magazine admitting to the murder,
What happened as a result of the lack of justice after the muder of Emmet Till
After the trial of the Bryant’s husband and his half-brother they admitted to the murder on a magazine. However, they were not found guilty befire ir after the death of Emmet Till.
Media reporting of these i justices led to public outcry and spurred growty to the civil rights movement.
In 1955 the NACCP produced a booklet called M is for Mississippi and Murder highlighting the murder of black people that went unpunished in that year.
What were the Dixiecrafts
Splinter gorup from the Democratic Party made up of Southern politicians
What did the Dixiecrats do
Opposed effective Civil Right Acts through rejoing the Democrats as they believed they would have more influence from within the Democratic Party.
They maintained segregation in order to protect the states by retaining laws that guaranteed white supremacy
Why were the Dixiecrats so powerful
They needed the Dixiecrats support in Congress, so had to take their virws on board when creating new laws. This hindred the civil rigbts laws
Types of resistance against integration
Shut down schools so they could not be integrated.
School admission tests were deliberately biased against black students.
Some states refused to end literacy tests for black Americans to vote and disrupted opportunities for black people to vote during elections
What did the White Citizen council do
A council of white citizens aimed to stop desegregation. They had around 60,000 members in the mid-1950s
When was the White Citizen council created
Set up from 1954 onwards
What was the White Citizen council
Organisation often opposed to school desegregation in their local area after the Brown ruling. However, they opposed to any desegregation anywhere and used violent and economi means to enforce this.
They feared that desegregation could lead to more calls or political and economical equality for black Americans
