African American factors

Question 1

Supreme Court political progress

Answer 1

Yes
- Smith v. Allright 1944 beginning the dismantling of Jim Crow in the voting system

But
- This is one case, mostly inaction

Question 2

Supreme Court political regress /hinderance

Answer 2

Yes

• Throughout the 19th Century attacked and upheld the destruction of AA political rights
• US v. Reese 1975 attacked the 14th Amendment 1968 as not guaranteeing voting rights
• Williams v. Mississippi 1898 opened the floodgates to states putting in place voting tests and poll taxes to exclude AA
• This lead to the cementing of a system which prevented southern AA from voting until 1965

But
Can only be countered by other factors

Question 3

Supreme Court economic progress

Answer 3

Yes
- Giggs v. Duke Power Company 1971, lead to 300,000 businesses being bound by percentage quotas of AAs

But
- Lack of engagement with economic issues, over focus on desegregation in this period of progress

Question 4

Supreme Court social progress

Answer 4

Yes

• Played a huge part in desegregation
• Brown v. Board of Education 1954 leading to the desegregation of schooling
• Swan v. Board of Education 1971 upholding bussing to desegregate schooling

But
- Action only happened after the 1950s

Question 5

Supreme Court social regress/hinderance

Answer 5

Yes

• The Civil Rights Cases 1883 degrade the Civil Rights Act of 1875 taking away rights against discrimination in services
• Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 setting the separate but equal ruling which would effect AA for the next half a century
• Miliken v. Bradley 1975 undermined desegregation
• Freedman v. Pitts 1992 furthering this

No
- They did make a switch to being very progressional in the 1950s

Question 6

Congress and president political progress

Answer 6

Yes

• Firstly with the 14th and 15th amendments, 1868 and 1870, it made all AAs citizens and gave them the right to vote, some 700,000 were enrolled with 22 representatives
• Then, to end the discrimination of voting it passed the Voting Rights Act 1965, increasing nationwide AA voting from 25% to 50%, and in the most discriminated areas like Mississippi it increased from 7% to 67%

But
- Huge lack of continuity with general disinterest throughout the period

Question 7

Congress and president political regress/hinderance

Answer 7

Yes
- Complete lack of engagement on lead to the erosion of AA voting rights, Mississippi were allowed to rewrite their constitution disenfranchising AA with poll tests to decrease their voting statistics from 67% to 5.7%

But
- Counter with other factors

Question 8

Congress and the president economic progress

Answer 8

Yes

• The original emancipation proclamation 1865 allowed slaves to buy land, build businesses as free men
• The Affirmative Action of Nixon 1969 held 300,000 businesses to minority percentage quotas

But
- Lack of engagement of a defacto level, sharecropping being allowed to dominate with its unfair 90% profit contracts lasting 50 years

Question 9

Congress and the president economic regress/ hinderance

Answer 9

Yes

• Lack of engagement on a defacto level, after the Freedman’s Bureaus collapse in 1872 there was next to no policies which directly helped African Americans until affirmative action
• AA thus were disproportionately in the lower economic classes

But
- Counter with others

Question 10

Congress and the president social progress

Answer 10

Yes
- With the Civil Rights Acts of 1875 and 1964 discrimination due to race was outlawed

But

• The very fact that there needed to be two acts suggests the effectiveness of the first
• The inaction of congress and the president allowed Jim Crow laws to segregate american society

Question 11

Congress and the president social regress/hinderance

Answer 11

Yes

• The inaction of congress and the president allowed Jim Crow laws to segregate american society
• This inaction allowed the Supreme Court to pass the Civil Rights Cases and Plessy v. Fergusson, legally cementing Jim Crow and giving complete power over the lives of AA to an un democratically elected body

But
- counter with other factors

Question 12

Civil Rights movement of inclusivity political progress

Answer 12

Yes

• SCLC and King marching 600 people on Selma were they were violently attacked by police, pushing forward the Voting Rights Act 1965
• This lead to the number of AA in public office in 1992 to increase to 8,000 from only 100 in 1964
• Voting statistics nationwide increasing from 25% to 50%

But
Counter with other factors

Question 13

Civil Rights movement of inclusivity social progress

Answer 13

Yes

• A constant battle
• Ida B Well’s antilynching campaign in 1884
• The NAACP founded 1909 pushed cases to elevate discrimination through the supreme court, for example Thurgood Marshall’s role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education

Question 14

Civil Rights movement of inclusivity economic progress

Answer 14

Yes
- With the driving of acts like the Civil Rights Act 1964 economic benefits came as discrimination in employment did not occur on such a widespread level again

But
- Ultimately it was the ignore of these economic issues which caused the masses to fall out of love with Civil Rights movement for inclusivity causing the rise of Black Power

Question 15

Black nationalism economic progress

Answer 15

Yes

• Booker T Washington set up the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 , this was a move to develop the AA community in segregation from the white establishment
• Black Panthers established in 1966 helped economic development with community projects, just a example of a much wider movement

But
- How productive this was on a greater scale can be questioned

Question 16

Black nationalism social regress/hinderance

Answer 16

Yes

• The isolationist policies of many black nationalist groups served to widen divisions between black and white America
• The Black Panthers with their militancy created a sense of fear which drove greater segregation

But

• The extent to which this was an issue can be questioned
• The fear is not symptomatic of Black Nationalism but the reaction to it by white dominated media

Question 17

The economy economic regress/ hinderance

Answer 17

Yes

• Depressions hit AA the hardest as they disproportionately made up the lower classes
• In the great depression AA unemployment was at 50% as opposed to 25% of whites, this trend of AA unemployment being twice the average continued throughout the period
• In some ghettos unemployment could rise to 70%

But

• There was no general trend of hinderance of regression
• AA economic situation rose and fell with the economy they were just hit hardest by the falls

Question 18

White opposition groups economic regress/ hinderance

Answer 18

Yes

• Groups like the KKK targeted AA who were starting business and economically developing in order to assert and maintain white supremacy
• This was widespread with 155 unpunished lynchings in 1892 alone
• Widespread throughout the period as well the KKK being prevalent from their establishment in 1866 after varying degrees of prevalence until their collapse in 1944
• The White Citizen’s council keeping up the legacy established in 1954

But
- Certainly significant in popular opinion however as a direct obstacle little could be achieved after the anti lynching bill of 1937