African American Civil Rights

Question 1

What was the position of African Americans like in 1865?

Answer 1

1865 North won Civil War with the abolitionists making 4 million African American slaves into freedmen with the 13th Amendment.
They could move away from plantations and farms, were free from punishments and free from the breakup of their families.
They were not equal as faced hostility from white people, forced into sharecropping so had to work long hours for limited rewards to earn a small living.

Question 2

What was Reconstruction?

Answer 2

Congress was dominated by Republicans who wanted to carry out reforms in the South to help African Americans. They were angry at the discriminatory black codes passed by the southern states, restricting the rights of freedmen. Congress led the way in reforms and set a precedent for later reforms. They set up a Freedmen’s Bureau, which promoted wealth and education. The 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution outlawed discrimination. A Civil Rights Act in 1866 giving legal equality and the First Reconstruction Act of 1867 guaranteeing the right to vote and creating new Southern constitutions.

Question 3

How did African Americans gain from congressional reconstruction?

Answer 3

Gained more political rights and representation, entering state legislatures. African American members of Congress. Federal authority was used to enforce the new laws. Freedmen’s Bureau provided for education and welfare of African Americans and gradually developed business and smallholdings.

Question 4

What was the white reaction to congressional reconstruction?

Answer 4

Increasingly hostile and extreme, some joined secret organisations and the most notorious opposition group was the KKK. Local groups terrorised African Americans, lynching and murdering them to prevent their rights. In 1868 there were 2000 deaths and injuries in Louisiana alone. The US government had to deploy troops to suppress disorders, nevertheless a precedent had been set. By the 1890s, an African American was brutally killed every two days.

Question 5

What was the white’s view on African Americans?

Answer 5

White violence became an acceptable part of Southern life and there was no acceptance of African Americans as equal citizens. There was little economic equality between white and African Americans. There was considerable violence employed to discourage or punish sexual contacts or liaisons between white and African Americans. Enforcement of civil rights depended on a strong military presence and a determination by federal authorities to enforce the laws passed.

Question 6

What ended the congressional reconstruction period?

Answer 6

The 1877 Hayes-Tilden compromise meant that votes would be casted for the republican Hayes if it meant the Southern people would have the right to control their own affairs, meaning Southern states would ignore the Reconstruction legislation.

Question 7

What happened as the result of the Hayes-Tilden compromise?

Answer 7

The Southern states introduced the ‘Jim Crow’ laws which meant segregation gradually became legal. Tennessee segregated rail travel in 1881 and this spread through the South. After 1899, there were laws segregating waiting rooms. In the first decade, there were laws segregating streetcars. Segregation impacted all aspects of life, including education. North also had distinct segregated areas. The South removed political representation of African Americans by intimidation, thus making it difficult for African Americans to vote.

Question 8

What measures were introduced against voting?

Answer 8

Southern states introduced restrictions such as literacy tests which deliberately intended to exclude African Americans. The ‘Grandfather’ clauses meant if a man’s family had voted before 1866, the man could vote, directly excluding African Americans. Mississippi began the process of setting stringent voter registration tests in 1890 and other states followed. 13,000 African American voters in Louisiana in 1896 had fallen to 5000 in 1900. Lynchings and violence, without action taken against this, ended civil rights of African Americans.

Question 9

How did the Supreme Court act as a barrier to civil rights?

Answer 9

1883, US vs Harris, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the federal government to penalise crimes such as assault and murder and it was only the state government with the power to penalise those crimes.
1898, Williams vs Mississippi, court declared that the state’s requirements for voters to pass a literacy test were not discriminatory because they applied to all voters.
1896, Plessy vs Ferguson, idea of ‘separate but equal’ enshrined in a legal ruling, yet African American facilities are always of lower quality.

Question 10

How did the Supreme Court act as a promoter of civil rights?

Answer 10

1944, Smith vs Allwrtight, led to the ruling that it was unconstitutional for black voters to be excluded from party primary voting.
1954, Brown vs Board of Education, ruled that segregation was illegal.
1960 Boynton vs Virginia, segregation on interstate bus transportation was unconstitutional, giving rise to Freedom Rides.
1960, Supreme Court declared bans on parades, processions and public demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama to be unconstitutional. Restrictions on voting ended and discrimination in public areas and housing was no longer permissible.
1969 Alexander vs Holmes County, more rapid desegregation of schools.
1971, Swann vs Charlotte Mecklenberg Board of Education, approved plans for enforced desegregation by busing children from white suburbs into inner-city areas with more black children.
1971, Griggs vs Duke Power Company, court protected African Americans from implicit discrimination by firms who insisted on high-school diploma qualifications for jobs which did not really need them.

Question 11

What elements of the situation of the post 1877 remained in 1960?

Answer 11

African Americans faced barriers when registering to vote in many areas of the South. There was still segregation and considerable violence and racial prejudice against African Americans. Southern congressmen stood against change as did Southern state governments and legislatures. Considerable gap between black and white people in terms of income, housing and opportunities. Facilities for African Americans were inferior to those for white Americans. There were distinct ‘black’ or ‘white’ areas for the North and South.

Question 12

What did Andrew Johnson do for civil rights? 1865-69

Answer 12

Opposed to greater African American civil rights
Return to normality
Issue was the Union, not African American rights

Question 13

What did Grant do for civil rights? 1869-77

Answer 13

Used federal troops and authority to support Reconstruction.

Question 14

What did Wilson do for civil rights? 1913-21

Answer 14

Did little for civil rights and he praised the KKK for defending Southern rights after the Civil War. He introduced a policy of segregating federal employment.

Question 15

What did Roosevelt do for civil rights? 1933-45

Answer 15

He did not pass a specific civil rights act but some of his reforms passed in his 1930s New Deal helped African Americans who were badly hit by the Great Depression.
These included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). These provided work for unemployed people and the CCC prohibited discrimination. However, segregation was a feature of work camps and many reforms excluded key areas of African American employment, such as agriculture and domestic services. When war broke out, the US armed forces remained segregated, though Roosevelt did end discrimination in war industries.

Question 16

What did Truman do for civil rights? 1945-53

Answer 16

Issued an executive order against segregation in the armed forces- 26 July 1948 Executive Order 9981 ended segregation in the armed forces, appointed a committee on civil rights and urged Congress to pass civil rights legislation but again no comprehensive measures were passed.

Question 17

What did Eisenhower do for civil rights? 1953-61

Answer 17

Created the Civil Rights Act which reaffirmed African Americans right to vote. In 1955, an executive order stated the principle of equal opportunity in federal employment. Sent troops to enforce a Supreme Court ruling on desegregating schools in Little Rock in 1957 when Arkansas authorities tried to prevent the desegregation of Little Rock High School. In 1957, a Civil Rights Act became law.

Question 18

What did Kennedy do for civil rights? 1961-63

Answer 18

Spoke against the racial discrimination and prepared a general civil rights bill in 1963 but was prevented from passing it due to Southern white opposition. Authorised desegregation of interstate transport.

Question 19

What did Lyndon Johnson do for civil rights? 1963-69

Answer 19

Passed the 24th Amendment in 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1965. These acts meant restrictions on voting rights for African Americans were no longer permitted and discrimination in public accommodations and employment was now illegal. Increased African American’s political rights. Johnson also appointed the first African American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, a noted campaigner for civil rights.

Question 20

What did Nixon do for civil rights? 1969-74

Answer 20

Extended ‘affirmative action’ to promote wider equality. All employers with federal contracts were required to draft policies showing they were actively promoting the employment of African Americans. 1972 Equal Employment Act passed. Promote greater prosperity and stability by making working practices more equal.

Question 21

What was the impact of the second world war?

Answer 21

The war involved intense mobilisation of US manpower and economic resources. This raised issues of equal treatment for African American workers and soldiers. Roosevelt’s legislation prohibiting discrimination was used in June 1941 in the defence industry, yet none of this legislation had the primary objective of increasing racial equality and extending civil rights. Roosevelt came under pressure to ensure a supply of labour for defence and was also influenced by the threat of a 100,000 strong ‘March on Washington’ organised by Philip Randolph. There were 1,154,720 African Americans in the US armed forces from 1941 to 1945 but they fought in segregated units. In the war for freedom and democracy, racial segregation remained in the armed forces and it was not until after the war, in late 1945, that the armed forces began to be desegregated.

Question 22

Why was there such limited progress?

Answer 22

The issue of civil rights was peripheral in comparison with other issues facing the USA such as the depression of the 1930s, WW2 and the Cold War. The influence of the Southern Democratic senators and representatives presented a barrier to passing effective civil rights legislation e.g. bills failed in 1938 and 1946. There was limited electoral support for civil rights given that so many African Americans could not vote. Civil rights action would have meant a great deal of federal government intervention in the South, where racism had become firmly established and supported by state and local government. In the North, the influx of large numbers of African Americans from 1915 had made racial hatred common. Liberalisation involved in civil rights legislation opened administration to the charge of being communist or subverting tradition. Even a conservative Southerner such as Truman, who shared many of the Southern prejudices, was criticised by conservative Democrats for expressing concerns about civil rights and condemning violence and lynchings.

Question 23

What had changed by the 1960s?

Answer 23

Continuing violence and discrimination of the South had given great opportunities to the Communist bloc in the Cold War to criticise the USA. Propaganda of the USSR portrayed the USA as merely defending a rotten capitalist system. Better communications such as TV brought racial violence home to Americans nationally. The murder of 14 year old Emmett Till by two white men who were acquitted by an all white jury shocked the USA. Also the assassination of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1962 with authorities seeming to do little to find the murderers. Pictures of Southern mobs abusing a black schoolgirl in 1957 Little Rock were dangerously bad for the image of the USA. By 1960, African Americans were better organised and more skilful in making demands.

Question 24

Why had civil rights been forced to the forefront of national politics by 1963?

Answer 24

Ongoing violence- Medgar Evers on 12 June 1962. Increasingly effective campaigning by various civil rights organisations. The March on Washington on 28 August 1963 by 250,000 people demanding civil rights was the largest public demonstration seen in the capital and led one of the most effective speeches by a civil rights leader, with Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream..’

Question 25

What made change possible in 1963?

Answer 25

The assassination of President Kennedy on 22 November 1963 led to the new vigorous leadership of a Southern Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson. Thus, with the emotional rallying cry that Kennedy's vision had to be fulfilled, civil rights legislation became more extensive and effective than at any time since Reconstruction.

Question 26

What was done to solve economic inequality?

Answer 26

Nixon's Executive Order 11578 required all employers with federal contracts to draft affirmative action policies to actively promote African Americans. An Act of 1972 extended equal employment legislation to all federal, state and local governments. The 1991 Civil Rights Act put the burden on businesses to show that any discrimination in employment did not spring from racial discrimination but was based on genuine requirements of the company.

Question 27

What was the situation by the early 1990s?

Answer 27

High unemployment, poverty,poor schools and housing, and unfair treatment by police led to race riots in the 1965 summer. The worst riots were in LA where 34 people died. The failure of the federal government to address the underlying causes of racial tension was seen in the re-emergence of serious riots in 1992 again LA triggered by the events of Rodney King.

Question 28

What did Johnson's administration's measures, reinforcing what had been enacted after the Civil War but not been implemented after 1877, result in by the end of this period in 1992?

Answer 28

Economic inequality remained. By 1989=, 77% of whites graduated from high school compared to 63% of African Americans. With college graduation, 21% of whites graduated as opposed to 11% of African Americans. In 1988, unemployment among African Americans was 5% higher than for whites (higher than in the 1950s). African Americans occupied only half of the managerial and professional occupations of whites. Although African American family income doubled from 1950 to 1989, the gap between African American and white incomes increased far more, from $7000 in 1950 to $12,000 in 1987. The average hourly wage for African American men was $6.26 as compared to $7.69 for whites.

Question 29

What did Booker T Washington do for Civil Rights?

Answer 29

Gained the confidence of white Americans and his moral authority was strong among African Americans. He stressed the importance of African Americans relying on their own efforts to make progress, stating the key was to demonstrate responsibility, become educated and to become prosperous. He did not campaign openly against discrimination in the South, but received support from wealthy businessmen and advised presidents on racial issues. In 1881 he founded the famous Tuskegee Institute to train teachers, and in 1901 he founded the National Business League to encourage African American economic enterprise.

Question 30

What did W.E.B Du Bois do for Civil Rights?

Answer 30

Du Bois' idea was that there should be an African American elite- the 'talented tenth' who would lead African Americans to equality and integration. He cooperated with white reformers in the NAACP and led marches and campaigns for equal civil and political rights. He founded the Niagara Movement in 1905 which laid the foundations for the NAACP in 1909 and pressed for more radical change.

Question 31

What did Marcus Garvey do for Civil Rights?

Answer 31

Accepted the need for economic enterprise and improvement backed by greater education. In 1912 he set up the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Jamaica which was the first civil rights organisation in the USA and had 4 million members by 1920. He established the Black Star Line to trade with Africans worldwide in 1916.

Question 32

What did Philip Randolph do for Civil Rights?

Answer 32

Followed Du Bois' integrationist ideas. He pressured Roosevelt to end discrimination in war industries in 1941 by threatening a march on Washington. Du Bois had organised a march in New York in 1917 and it led to the highly effective tactic of the mass march on Washington in 1963 which Randolph organised. This was the first time an African American leader had managed to influence policy substantially.

Question 33

What did Martin Luther King do for civil rights?

Answer 33

Co-operated with white liberals and used non-violent tactics within marches and mass protests. He formed the SCLC in 1957. In 1963 he dominated the march on Washington with his famous 'I have a dream' speech. This was the greatest civil rights demonstration to date and brought a direct emotional appeal to a large crowd. In Birmingham in 1963 during a march he was imprisoned and wrote the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'.

Question 34

What did Malcom X do for civil rights?

Answer 34

A separatist who worked with the Nation of Islam to promote African heritage as a powerful and influential leader. This led to the development of the Black Panther movement from Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 with a radical social programme, calling for equality and armed resistance to authority and white hostility. He softened his approach in later years with his split from the NOI. He influenced the emergence of the Black Power movement.

Question 35

What was the Ku Klux Klan?

Answer 35

The most famous anti-civil rights group with a membership of 40,000 in Tennessee alone by 1871. The national organisation was established at a meeting in Nashville in 1867, presided over by a former Confederate general, Nathan Forest, who became its first leader or 'Grand Wizard'. Its activities were characterised by intimidation and lynchings of African Americans. As well as physical attacks on former slaves, the Klan attacked workers of the Freedmen's Bureau just as their counterparts in the 1960s attacked civil rights workers. They intimidated African Americans who attempted to vote, and tried to stop black children attending segregated schools. These activities were repeated well into the twentieth century. There were 2000 deaths in Louisiana alone in the run-up to the 1868 presidential election. President Grant, elected in 1868 was prepared to suspend habeas corpus and use federal troops to suppress violence, for example 1871 in South Carolina. The Klan's methods led to Republicans and African Americans uniting against it, the opposite effect of its supporters.

Question 36

How strong was opposition to civil rights from state governments?

Answer 36

They legislated in favour of the KKK- 1882 declared legislation against the KKK as unconstitutional. Official restrictions on African Americans political rights- Jim Crow laws and Grandfather clause . The local and state authorities did not attempt to end lynchings or violence. They permitted segregation, the practice of sharecropping and inequality so from 1877 the KKK became inactive as there was little need for its existence.

Question 37

How was the KKK revived?

Answer 37

It was reborn in 1915 under the leadership of William Joseph Simmons, encouraged by the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, which portrayed the Klan as heroic in its fight against Northern 'tyranny' after the Civil War. The revived Klan extended its hostility to Jews, Catholics and foreigners. It was also strong in areas of the North, and its membership peaked with 6 million members in 1924. However, it soon declined, partly as a result of a sexual scandal involving the Grand Wizard D.C. Stephenson in Indiana, and was mostly defunct by 1944. Klan membership fell from 4 million in 1920 to 30,000 in 1930. Various groups from 1959 used the name and some of its methods, but it ceased to be a mass organisation. The Klan tradition remained and there was still a membership. In 1961, some members attacked the Freedom Riders with a tacit approval of the Southern police authorities. There was something of a revival in the 1970s, but the execution of a Klan member in 1981 for a lynching 16 years earlier sent a clear message.

Question 38

What were the White Citizens' Councils?

Answer 38

Formed after Brown vs Board of Education in 1954 in order to protest about school desegregation. They encouraged intimidation of African Americans trying to register to vote and hostile actions against civil rights initiatives. These councils declined in the 1960s.

Question 39

What other resistance was there to civil rights in the 1950s?

Answer 39

The state governments, legislatures, senators and representatives. The Republicans did not penetrate the 'Solid South' and the Democrats political dominance was built on their defence of segregation and supremacy, presenting a formidable barrier even to strong presidents like Truman and Kennedy. The entrenched opposition of the judicial system in many areas of the South, with police forces, local councillors, courts and jurors being determined to hold back change. The vestiges of the Klan and similar organisations and the traditions of violence and lynchings among the white population. Access to weapons was easy and white juries were unwilling to convict in the matter of racial crime. Civil rights was often seen as just Northern interference. The sympathies of police chief 'Bull' Connor allowed attacks to go ahead without investigation. When freedom riders appeared in Birmingham, Connor allowed Klan members to attack them and the assassination of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963 in Mississippi was not an isolated instance of political violence. Creation of White Citizens' Councils to further intimidate African Americans. Greater television coverage exposed violence and mistreatment of African Americans. Effective opposition depended on the support from Supreme Court rulings and the political indifference of the federal government

Question 40

Why were African American organisations formed?

Answer 40

The experience of the loss of rights after the Reconstruction period showed the dangers of African Americans relying on individual leaders or the protective power of the federal state. There had been instances of African Americans banding together to protect their lives and property, but no overarching organisation had formed to safeguard rights.

Question 41

What was the NAACP?

Answer 41

This was the first major organisation for African American civil rights. This developed from an organisation formed largely by white liberal activists, who were against lynchings (expressed in the Niagara Movement) and discrimination, to become a vehicle for African American protest. The NAACP included African American campaigners W.E.B Du Bois (only senior black committee member) and liberal white social reformers and campaigners. Its aims concerned suffrage rights, equal justice, better education, equality before law and employment opportunities according to ability. This was more an organisation for African Americans than by them and it was initially dominated by Jewish white liberals. The main focus of their campaigns was legal. The target was to challenge the Jim Crow laws in the South and campaigned against Wilson's policy of segregating armed forces and in favour of allowing African Americans to serve in the armed forces. It established 50 local branches and set up marches in opposition to the Birth of a Nation film and race riots in 1917. It had only 6000 members by 1915. It used its middle class membership for legal challenges against voting restrictions in the South and in 1917 it effectively blocked laws to make segregation of African Americans into distinct districts illegal. It publicised opposition to lynchings.

Question 42

What were the NAACP's achievements?

Answer 42

Achieved a Supreme Court ruling in 1944 that it was illegal to deny African Americans the right to vote in primary elections. It's long and steady legal campaigns increased the role and reputation of black lawyer Thurgood Marshall. The steady attack on segregation, culminated in the Brown vs Board of Education ruling in 1954- not actual enforcement. Local activists spearheaded one of the most significant developments in post-war 1955 with Rosa Parks challenging segregated bus regulations in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest was quickly followed with the issuing of 52,000 leaflets calling for a bus boycott. This changed the nature of the NAACP's work to organisation and economic pressure with exploitation of the publicity of a celebrated case. The NAACP was barred from Alabama so all it could do was challenge the organisation using mass campaigning, encouraging dynamic local organisations using mass campaigning. It was instrumental in the 1957 campaign to integrate schools into Little Rock.

Question 43

What was CORE?

Answer 43

Founded in 1942 and united white liberal opinion and expertise. It was initially dominated by white members and challenged segregation directly, for example on interstate buses. CORE introduced freedom rides in 1947, whereby activists challenged segregation on interstate buses. This provoked violence in 1961 and led to Kennedy authorising the desegregation of interstate transport. Also followed focused action on campaigning to desegregate schools in Chicago.

Question 44

What non violent direction action was there from 1950?

Answer 44

NAACP Youth branch founded in 1958 organised sit-ins to protest for desegregated lunch counters. The SCLC emerged from local groups organising an effective boycott of buses in Montgomery and had a strong figurehead in Martin Luther King with guiding political philosophy. One of its founders was influential in forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in April 1962. These different elements came together in the Council of Federated Organisations in February 1962 with a strategy of increasing voter registration in the Deep South. It included CORE, the NAACP, SCLC and SNCC.

Question 45

How were King and SCLC's actions crucial?

Answer 45

Moved to mass demonstrations and a broader appeal for change. They used non violent methods, the campaigns looked for white liberal support and they won support from organised religion in the South. They wanted to demonstrate mass feeling and looked to involve the constitutional right of freedom of expression over local state laws which prevented demonstrations. The first demonstration in Albany, Georgia in 1961 was thwarted by careful preparation from local police chief, Pritchett who restrained his men and was sure to have King released after his arrest. In Birmingham, Police Chief Connor used force and King gained maximum publicity from his arrest and time spent in Birmingham Jail. The 1963 March on Washington was the greatest expression of a non-violent, multiracial protest with the support of many organisations. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 65 were major triumphs for effective mass organisation.

Question 46

What role did separatism play within African American organisations?

Answer 46

Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association achieved a large membership but depended on the inspiration of Garvey himself. Garvey's UNIA was short lived but spectacular. His newspaper had a large circulation The parades in New York in 1920 were among the largest ever seen in the city and membership had reached a million. This was a nationalist black-based organisation which stressed the worth of African Americans and used the economic power of modern capitalism to generate enterprises and a major shipping line instead of pursuing the aims of white Americans. It inspired Malcom X and the Black Power movement (Huey Newton and Bobby Seale) which emphasised African American strength and pride.

Question 47

What was the Nation of Islam?

Answer 47

The Nation of Islam was a radical and separatist organisation. It was dominated until 1975 by Elijah Muhammad and expanded in the 1950s with the help of Malcolm X. The NOI was similar to the UNIA in that they were separatist organisations dependent on charismatic leaders and had clear ideas on black superiority.

Question 48

What was the impact of the NOI?

Answer 48

Links with Islamic religion increased the emotional appeal and the belief that African Americans were the chosen people of Allah, giving the movement a religious strength akin to the power of Southern baptism behind the SCLC and distinct from the more rational and secular NAACP and CORE. The ideology was much stronger than other civil rights organisations, as was its separation from support from white America. The more spiritual atmosphere removed matters of voter registration and equal political rights as priorities. Focus on superiority and power of the black race being accepted. The more critical outlook of the NOI passed onto the Black Power movement and by 1964 the civil rights movement was losing its unity.

Question 49

What changed in the civil rights movement after the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act?

Answer 49

James Meredith, first ever African American to enter the Uni of Mississippi in 1962 was shot on a civil rights march in 1966. Increasing racial tension and slow implementation of reform and change led to the previously non-violent SNCC and CORE embarking on a new technique. SNCC member Stokely Carmicheal, in a rally following the murder, said 'What we need is black power', thus the mood changed from cooperation with white America to isolation and confrontation. SNCC and CORE groups began to exclude whites and to celebrate African culture, music, food and hair to make much more radical demands.

Question 50

What happened to Civil Rights organisations during the latter part of the period?

Answer 50

The high point of these groups was the success in achieving the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965. However, disappointment with the levels of change for African Americans, and divisions over how far to take further progress and how much to maintain links with white liberal American, meant that organised civil rights movements declined during the latter part of the period.