2A. Black Civil Rights Flashcards
What Amendment abolished slavery and when was it passed?
The 13th Amendment, passed by Congress on the 31st January 1865, abolished slavery in the USA.
What was the 14th Amendment?
The 14th Amendment, passed on the 9th July 1868 made all people born or naturalised in the USA, including former slaves, US citizens.
What was the 15th Amendment?
The 15th Amendment, passed on the 3rd February 1870, declared that all (male) US citizens had the same voting rights.
What were the Jim Crow Laws?
The Jim Crow Laws were laws designed to make segregation legal and encourage discrimination - trams, schools, housing, workplaces and public facilities were all segregated.
How were black Americans prevented from voting?
- The literacy qualification / grandfather clause were used to discriminate black Americans from voting.
- In some states, black Americans were given harder passages to read, preventing voting due to the poor condition of segregated black schools.
- In many states, voters had to be homeowners - many black Americans were not.
How did the Jim Crow laws influence the number of black people registered to vote?
In Louisiana, the number of black people registered to vote fell from around 130,000 in 1896 to 1,300 in 1917.
130,334, 1,342
What was the KKK?
The Klu Klux Klan was a white supremacist organisation revived in 1915 which discriminated against any non-WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant).
In 1925, this group was estimated to have between 3-8 million members, some in political power.
What is ‘lynching’?
Lynching is where a mob murders an individual as payback for a supposed offence they have committed.
In the deep South, this was generally understood as the hanging of black people by white mobs, though some were burned alive.
How was segregation justified?
In 1896, the Supreme Court had ruled in ‘Plessy v Ferguson’ that despite the 14th Amendment (which made all US-born / naturalised people citizens) segregation was possible if the provisions were ‘separate but equal’.
What was the Great Migration?
Between 1914 and 1932, there was a wave of migration of black Americans from the South to the North and East, to meet the demand for labour in the cities (incl. munitions in WWI).
How were black Americans encouraged to leave the South to find work in the North?
- Factory owners advertised in Southern newspapers for workers, offering housing, free transport north and good wages.
- People were also encouraged to migrate north by friends and family who had already migrated North, who could offer them a place to stay or help finding work.
How large was the Great Migration?
By 1920, almost 40% of African Americans in the North were living in industrial towns and cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus (Ohio).
How did experiences of segregation in northern cities differ from expectations?
- Black Americans found themselves generally restricted to low-pay jobs, and forced to take up accommodation in the poorest and most overcrowded areas of the city, often with rents higher than those given to white Americans.
- However, though this was the general trend, this was sometimes not the case i.e. for black Americans in skilled professions such as doctors
What was the impact of the Great Migration?
- Increase in black political power as more black Americans voted in northern areas.
- Development of influence of business-oriented / richer black Americans with a vested interest in segregation
- Greater economic problems in the South as farmers deprived of labour force and struggled to get by.
- Tendency to assume black Americans ‘voted with their feet’ over Jim Crow Laws - those that did not move assumed to be content.
How did New York experience an increase in its black population between 1910 and 1930?
Population of New York:
1910: ~91,700
1930: ~327,700
How did Detroit experience an increase in its black population between 1910 and 1930?
Black population of Detroit
1910: 5,700
1930: 120,000
How did Chicago experience an increase in its black population between 1910 and 1930?
Black population of Chicago:
- 44,000
- 234,000
What was the significance of Roosevelt to the black vote?
Transition by black voters from voting Republican (the party that emancipated slaves, Lincoln’s Party) to Democrat (Roosevelt’s Party).
What negatives did the New Deal hold for black Americans?
The New Deal generally did not help black Americans, and was nicknamed the ‘Negro Removal Act’ or ‘Negroes Roasted Again’ for this injustice.
Since Roosevelt needed the vote of Southern Democrats (who were against civil rights) he was willing to restrict the number of black workers on a project if the donor requested.
Black Americans who often stayed on were removed to make way for poor white people.
Coincidentally, areas that employed a largely-black workforce such as agricultural workers or those who worked in others homes (servants) were exempt from social security provisions.
What (few) benefits did the New Deal bring to black Americans?
Roosevelt did appoint some black advisers, who were fundamental for setting the NRA minimun wage for black and white people at the same level.
Some NRA measures did help black people simply due to their economic position - 1/3 of the low-income housing built had black tenants because many of the poorest people eligible were black.
How did left-wing groups support black civil rights?
Sometimes black Americans had more support from communist and other left-wing groups than from black civil rights organisations.
In 1931, the NAACP turned down the case of nine young black men framed for raping two white girls on a train in Alabama. Communist lawyers took the case, uncovered a conspiracy and the men were found not guilty.
In the early 1930s, Birmingham, Alabama, had six black American members of the NAACP and over 3,000 black American communists.
Communists in Northern cities also championed the cause of all workers and demanded that relief funds should be allocated equally. These campaigns were applauded by the black press.
How did black church organisations improve black civil rights?
- Black church organisations set up support systems for black Americans during the Depression: there was more support in cities because there were more churches per area and a higher number of people
- In Harlem, Father Divine of the Peace Mission church group set up restaurants and shops that sold food and supplies to black people at a lower cost than white-run stores.
- Women’s organisations were set up such as the Housewives Leagues that began in Detroit and spread across the country
- The Housewives Leagues mounted ‘Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work’ boycotts of stores in black districts until they hired black workers.
How were black Americans affected by the 1937 Depression?
- Another depression hit the USA in 1937, triggering a decline in equality of provision.
- The Resettlement Administration was set up by Executive Order 7027 in May 1935 to resettle low-income families in new housing and to lend money where needed.
- It gave black farmers who had lost their homes a fair share of the money available in loans, however this only helped 3,400 out of 200,000 farmers.
- Conditions got so bad that in 1939, around 2 million people signed a petition asking for federal aid to move to Africa.
How did black Americans negotiate for better equality during WW2?
Black Americans mostly benefitted from WW2 after the threat in 1941 by Phillip Randolf (who organised a successful protest of railway workers (who were mostly black)) to summon a 100,000 strong all-black march on Washington unless Roosevelt banned discrimination in the army and defense factories.
How did black Americans benefit from WW2?
- The Executive Order 8802 from Roosevelt banned discrimination in the armed forces and defense industry. This was enforced by the Fair Employment Practices Commission.
- From 1942-1945 black employment in the defense industry had risen from 3-8%. The shortage of white workers gave an opportunity for black people to be trained in skills they might otherwise have not obtained.
