2.14 The Position of African Americans before the First World War

Question 1

How many people were lynched between 1889 and 1929?

Answer 1

3724 people with 85% of the victims being African Americans and practically all of the lynchers being white

Question 2

How many of the lynching perpetrators were arrested and sentences?

Answer 2

50 were arrested and only 4 were sentenced

Question 3

What opposition was there to lynching and how did Congress respond to this?

Answer 3

• 1901- A former slave, Congressman George Henry White proposed an Anti-Lynching Bill to make lynching a federal crime
• This and later bills were defeated in Congress
• Attempts at reform were openly opposed by elected politicians

Question 4

Who was Ben Tillman and what did he do?

Answer 4

• Governor of South Carolina
• Openly encouraged lynch mobs
• Participated personally
• Got away with it because he had total dominance of local politics
• Clout in Democratic Party

Question 5

What violence was there in the North?

Answer 5

• 1900 violence between African-Americans and Irish-Americans in New York City
• 1908 lynch mob ran riot in Springfield Illinois and 2 black people and 4 white people were killed

Question 6

What progress was achieved for African Americans in this time?

Answer 6

Springfield riot shocked the nation and led to the formation of the NAACP in 1909

Question 7

What does NAACP stand for?

Answer 7

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

Question 8

What did the NAACP stand for?

Answer 8

Committed itself to abolish segregation and to enforce equal voting rights

Question 9

Who were the officials in the NAACP?

Answer 9

• In the beginning, most were white liberals
• Also several better off African Americans in the leadership, included WEB Du Bois

Question 10

What did WEB Du Bois believe?

Answer 10

• African Americans needed to make their own way in life
• Elitist approach

Question 11

What did Booker T Washington believe?

Answer 11

• African Americans should focus on education and economic progress rather than trying to fight discrimination
• Critics described his speech at the Atlanta Compromise 1895 accommodationist

Question 12

What was the Niagara Movement?

Answer 12

• 1905
• WEB Du Bois
• Emphasis on demanded civil rights and abolition of discrimination
• top 10% of black people make change

Question 13

How did trains discriminate against black people?

Answer 13

• 1887 - a railroad company in Florida was the first to introduce segregated railway carriages
• Over the next 4 years, 7 more Southern states brought in segregation on trains

Question 14

What was the Plessy vs. Ferguson case 1896?

Answer 14

• Plessy was 1/8 black and challenged Louisiana state law by refusing to leave a ‘white’ carriage
• Arrested and insisted his rights were violated by the 14th amendment
• Local judge, Ferguson, ruled against Plessy
• Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal due to ‘separate but equal’ facilities

Question 15

What were voting rights like for African Americans?

Answer 15

• Few could vote by 1910
• Georgia introduced a poll tax of up to $2 on citizens to vote
• ‘Grandfather clause’ in Louisiana in 1898
• Some states only allowed those who owned their homes to vote
• Mississippi introduced a literacy test in 1890

Question 16

Did Wilson support African Americans?

Answer 16

• Hope due to statements in his 1912 campaign
• Constrained by his dependence on the solid south

Question 17

When was the KKK revived?

Answer 17

1915