4.4 The changing status of minorities

Question 1

Desegregation of the armed forces

Answer 1

-Executive Order 9981 which brought segregation to an end in the Armed Forces
-black Americans had always faced lower pay and conditions than whites in the forces.
HOWEVER
this was seen by many as a cynical attempt to get black American votes. In the 1948 election, Truman received two-thirds of the black American vote

Question 2

Integration in professional sports and popular entertainment

Answer 2

-black Americans had been prominent in professional sports before 1945 but this was due to superior talent and not race equality such as Joe Louis, boxer, and Jesse Owens
-1947- racial breakthrough took place in the MLB. The Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson as the first ever black professional at the top level
-he faced a lot of prejudice but fought through it to become one of all time greats of baseball
HOWEVER
the majority of black Americans still faced racial segregation in most sports such as getting sporting jobs, especially in coaching and getting the same pay and conditions as whites.
-many black sportsmen faced verbal abuse from white spectators

entertainment
-many black actors tended to get supporting roles in menial positions in Hollywood films
-first black American to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel who played a domestic servant in the film ‘Gone With The Wind’, 1939.
-In music, Nat King Cole became a popular ballad singer but found it difficult to perform in the Old South
-Rock n’Roll gave black American singers a real chance to get national recognition. Chuck Barry and Little Richard eventually became national stars

Question 3

The growth of the NAACP

Answer 3

-The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People founded in 1909 by black Americans and white liberals.
-aim was to gain full civil rights for black Americans through legal means, mainly through the US court system.
-leading black American in its leadership was W.E.B Dubois who edited the NAACP magazine.
-During WW2, membership increased from 50,000 to 450,000
-many of the new members were black Americans who had migrated from the Old South
-Southern branches of the NAACP were formed and many black Americans in trade unions joined
-After 1945, they worked very closely with other civil rights groups

Question 4

The Brown Case 1954

Answer 4

ISSUE
Schools in Kansas and throughout the South were all white or all black and spending on the black schools was far lower than for the white ones

DECISION
Unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment

SIGNIFICANCE
Brown was vitally important because it directly challenged the ruling in Plessy v Ferguson (separate but equal) and marked a strengthening support for civil rights in the Supreme Court which had reached a unanimous decision and stated clear opposition to ANY form of segregation

Question 5

Smith v Allwright 1944

Answer 5

ISSUE
Blacks were unable to vote in ‘primary’ elections in Texas. Primaries decided which person would be the Democrat and Republican candidates in the main election

DECISION
This was unconstitutional according the the Fifteenth Amendment (voting rights)

SIGNIFCIANCE
The decision applied in all states in the USA

Question 6

Morgan v Virginia 1946

Answer 6

ISSUE
Segregated seating on interstate buses and fines for people who didn’t comply

DECISION
Unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment (equal citizenship rights)

SIGNIFICANCE
Applied nationwide to all interstate bus routes

Question 7

Sweatt v Painter 1950

Answer 7

ISSUE
Unis in Texas and other places in the South were all white or all black. When Heman Sweatt challenged for the right to apply to the all white UT Law School, state courts ordered the creation of a law school for blacks instead of desegregating

DECISION
Unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment because the new school was inferior to the existing one

SIGNIFICANCE
Applied nationwide, but only to graduate education