African Americans

Question 1

How many African American slaves were there at the outbreak of civil war in 1861?

Answer 1

4 million

Question 2

What did Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 achieve?

Answer 2

Ended slavery, but only in areas under Union control.

Question 3

What is the significance of February 1865 and April 1865 in terms of African American civil rights?

Answer 3

The Thirteenth Amendment was signed in February 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States. In April 1865, the Confederate states surrendered and came under the control of the Union, making all 4 million African American slaves freedmen.

Question 4

What issues arose out of the abolition of slavery?

Answer 4

• What would their new position be? Some argues that they should all leave the USA, whilst most abolitionists campaigned for them to have equal rights and status as whites.
• Society remained racially divided and freedmen were resented by whites, often facing extreme violence.
• Many had no resources or education in order to make a living.

Question 5

What was sharecropping? What was the issue with this practice?

Answer 5

Landlords allowed their former slaves to work on the land for a share of the produce.

Though free to move and free from punishment, former slaves had little choice but to work long hours with limited reward and were still reliant on their old slavemasters.

Question 6

Which 3 forms of uncertainty prevailed in post-abolition America?

Answer 6

• The U.S. government were uncertain about how to support the freed slaves and how to deal with the Southern rebels that they had defeated.
• The white population remained conflicted about the prospect of racial equality.
• African Americans were uncertain of their tole and how to press for equality.

Question 7

What gave Congress an unusual opportunity to take the lead in passing measures to promote civil rights in 1865? What is this period known as?

Answer 7

The Southern states had not yet been readmitted to the Union and were under military rule (Marshall law).

This period is known as Congressional Reconstruction and is believed to have led to more radiacal changes than during any other period before the 1960s.

Question 8

Why did Vice President Andrew Johnson become President in April 1865? What was his position on the status of African Americans and how did he override Congress when he first came to power?

Answer 8

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

He aimed for a return to order and normality, his main concern was the Union and not the status of African Americans but he did aim to help them integrate in order to aid a return to peace. Johnson announced his plans to admit the Confederate states back into the Union without the involvement of Congress, despite many states refusal to ratify the 13th amendment and refusal to give the vote to freed slaves.

Question 9

How many people were killed in Texas between 1865 -1868? How many white men were indited but not convicted?

Answer 9

1000 killed

500 indited but not convicted

Question 10

With Andrew Johnson’s sympathy, what did Southern state assemblies introduce (despite the 13th amendment)? Give examples of what these did

Answer 10

Black codes (although many were nullified by military commanders)

• restricted the rights of African Americans to compete for work with white people
• gave states the right to punish vagrants and unemployed former slaves/return them to forced labour
• allowed those who attacked African Americans to go unpunished, with state officials often participating in the attacks

Question 11

How was Andrew Johnson’s presidency essentially unsuccessful in advancing African American civil rights? (8)

Answer 11

• He appointed advisors who were unsympathetic
• Allowed Black codes
• 13,000 Southern rebels were pardoned, Abandoned punishment of leaders and politicians.
• Allowed rebels to return to office.
• Failed to enforce ratification of the 13th amendment.
• Land given under the special order #15 revoked, share cropping develops which ensures that African Americans remain in the South and are still subservient to white landowners.
• The Freedmen’s Bureau employed only 1 agent per 10,000 - 20,000 freedmen.
• Disease spread (small pox, cholera etc)

Question 12

How did Radical Republicans in Congress advance African American civil rights during the period of Reconstruction (1865 -1877)?

Answer 12

• Established the Freedmen’s Bureau in March 1865 to care for former slaves (closed in 1872 due to fear of violence)
• A Joint Congressional Committee of Fifteen was established in December 1865, which pushed through the 14th and 15th amendments and sanctioned military support for reconstruction (federal force similarly used in 1950s).
• Civil Rights Act (1866): Established equal rights for all persons born in the USA.
• Reconstruction Act (1867): 11 Confederate states divided into 5 military districts.
• 14th amendment (passed in 1866 but ratified in 1868): Declared no state could deny any person full rights as an American citizen.
• 15th amendment (1870): Ensured rights could ‘not be denied or abridged by any State on account of race’
• First Enforcement Act: Banned discrimination baded on race, color, or previous condition of servitude’
• Second Enforcement Act: Overturned state laws preventing African Americans from voting and provided federal supervision of elections.
• Third Enforcement/Ku Klux Klan Act: Made it an offence for two or more persons to conspire to deprive citizens of their right to equal protection of the laws.
• Civil Rights Act (1875): All citizens entitled to ‘the full and equal enjoyment’ of American life.

Question 13

What was the impact of white violence and discrimination by organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan? (5)

Answer 13

• Intimidation of African Americans, which prevented them from exercising their rights. In 1868, there were 2,000 deaths and injurties in Louisiana alone.
• Federal troops had to be deployed.
• African Americans were not accepted as equal citizens.
• Racial violence became a normal part of Southern life.
• Society remained racially segregated and unequal.

Question 14

What was the difference between Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant’s approach to African American civil rights?

Answer 14

Johnson opposed progressive Congressional legislation, leading to them attempting to impeach him. Grant worked more closely with Congress and used federal troops to support the legislation (leading to the changes in the perios 1868 - 1877).

Question 15

Where were the race riots in May 1866? How many African Americans died?

Answer 15

Memphis: 46 African Americans died

New Orleans: 35 African Americans died

Question 16

True or false: The level of voter registration and political participation of African Americans in the Reconstruction era was not seen again until the 1940s.

Answer 16

False. It was not seen again until the 1970s.

Question 17

Between 1865 and 1875, how many black men held office in the South?

Answer 17

1,465 (930 were literate)

Blanche K. Bruce represented Mississippi in the senate.

Question 18

Why was the progress of Reconstruction reversed from 1877?

Answer 18

• Northern voters were tired of civil rights issues and the House of Representatives had a Democratic majority.
• The violence of white opposition had created disorder and was affecting American life.
• In the presidential election of 1876, the results were disputed in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida. The Hayes-Tilden Compromise ended Congressional Reconstruction.

Question 19

What do the terms de jure and de facto mean in relation to the Reconstruction era?

Answer 19

De jure (in theory/law) rights were different to the de facto (in reality/factual) position of African Americans.

Question 20

What was the Hayes-Tilden Compromise?

Answer 20

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that he would remove federal troops from the South, which essentially reverted the situation back to that of the pre-Civil War period/time of the Black Codes as the South could govern itself and African American rights were eroded. Congressional Reconstruction ended.

Question 21

What view of African American political participation was expressed by a Northern magazine in 1895?

Answer 21

‘the Negro will withdraw from the field of national politics’

Question 22

Provide 4 examples of state legislature undermining the 15th amendment

Answer 22

• Understanding clause (Southern states): Voters had to explain a part of the constitution to the registrar (difficulty of passage would vary by skin colour)
• Poll tax (Georgia, 1877)
• Literacy tests (Mississippi, 1890)
• Grandfather clause (Louisiana, 1898): If your grandfather had been able to vote before 1867 you did not have to take the literacy test.

Question 23

Who was George Henry?

Answer 23

The last black congressman elected from the South in the 19th Century, in South Carolina (1896 - 1901). No African Americans served in Congress for the next 28 years, and none represented any Southern State for another 72 years.

Question 24

What was the difference between black voter turnout in the 1880 presidential election compared with that of 1896?

Answer 24

1880: 70% of eligible African Americans voted
1896: 11% of eligible African Americans voted

Question 25

What happened to the Civil Rights Act of 1875 in 1883?

Answer 25

It was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the 14th amendment was also deemed to not apply to private organisations or individuals.

Question 26

The Jim Crow Laws in Southern States legally enforced segregation, provide 5 examples of this kind of state legislature.

Answer 26

• Mississippi, Missouri and Florida segregated schools.
• Intermarriage was deemed unlawful in Arizona, Florida and Georgia.
• ‘Colored persons’ were not allowed to be buried on land set apart for white persons in Georgia.
• It was unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any lot within two blocks of a playground devoted to the ‘Negro race’ in Georgia.
• Housing was segregated in Louisiana.

Question 27

True or false: By the 1890s, on average, an African American was killed every two days.

Answer 27

True

Question 28

What did the Slaughterhouse Case of 1873 rule?

Answer 28

Ruled that citizen’s rights should stay under state, rather than federal, control.

Question 29

‘Separate but equal’. Which case made this landmark ruling?

Answer 29

Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 30

What was declared by Wilkins v. Mississippi in 1898?

Answer 30

Discriminatory voting laws were not unconstitutional as there was no specific mention of race.

Question 31

In 1900, only 911,000 African Americans lived in the North. What happened to this figure by 1920?

What was the percentage increase of African Americans living in Cleveland between the 1890s and 1960s?

Answer 31

It doubled.

307.8%

Question 32

Give 4 arguments to support the notion that the Great Migration aided African American civil rights/living conditions

Answer 32

• North was less dominated by white supremacy and there was less racial violence
• Blacks with voting rights were eligible to be jurors (trials fairer)
• Development of black culture/businesses: jazz, blues
• Significant black middle class developed

Question 33

Which two Supreme Court rulings, key to the advancement of African American Civil Rights, occurred in 1971?

Answer 33

Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenberg Board of Education: approved plans for enforced segregation by busing.

Griggs v. Duke Power Company: protected African Americans from implicit discrimination by firms who insisted on high-school diplomas but did not really require them

Question 34

What were the push and pull factors for African Americans leaving the South to move to Northern states?

Answer 34

Push:

• Low and inconsistent wages (dependent on harvest/demand, unable to pay loans/save)
• Confined to agricultural jobs
• Mechanisation reduced the need for labour.

Pull:

• Cheap travel/easy route
• Better wages
• More jobs and more variety eg. service industry
• Development of black consciousness
• North was traditionall absolitionist

Question 35

True or false: Woodrow Wilson believed in white supremacy and Harry Truman is alleged to have been a member of the Ku Klux Klan

Answer 35

True

Question 36

How did the Great Depression impact upon African Americans? (5)

Answer 36

• 2 million black farmers left their land as crop prices plummeted
• Black unemployment was between 30 - 60%
• Desperate white people moved into jobs usually dominated by African Americans
• Whites organised vigilante groups such as the Black Shirts of Atlanta to stop blacks getting jobs
• Last to be hired and first to be fired

Question 37

How did Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First New Deal(1933 - 1934) impact African Americans? (NIRA, AAA, TVA, CCC, FHA)

Answer 37

1st New Deal:

National Industrial Recovery Act (1933): Minimum wage regulations made it illegal for employers to hire people who weren’t worth the minimum and as a result, around 500,000 African Americans lost their jobs.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933): caused mechanisation and cut production. Around 200,000 African Americans were forced to travel to find new jobs and had to pay higher prices for food.

Tennessee Valley Authority: regional planning, entrenched racial segregation, sharecroppers suffered as farms went out of production and African Americans were forced out of their homes.

Civilian Conservation Corps: provided work for men, but was segregated and African Americans did not receive the same wage as whites

Federal Housing Administration: enabled more Americans to buy homes, refused to give mortgages to black families in white neighbourhoods

Question 38

Why did the Civilian Conservation Corps have a statement that ‘no discrimination should be made by account of race, color or creed’?

Answer 38

It was due to a demand by the only blackcongressman, Oscar De Priest.

Question 39

What was the impact of the 2nd New Deal legislation (1935 - 1938) on African Americans? (WA, WPA, SSA, FLSA, NHA

Answer 39

Wagner Act (1935): Harmed blacks by making discriminatory labour union monopolies legal. The American Federation of Labor had lobbied against provision prohibiting racial discrimination.

Works Progress Administration: Work relief programmes, increased power of unions to solve labour disputes. WPA known for being ‘colour blind’, employed 1 million African Americans by 1939.

Social Security Act: Retirement payments for over-65s, insurance for unemployed. Excluded domestic workers and didn’t serve the needs of black workers.

Fair Labor Standards Act : Set minimum wage of 40 cents and gave the benefits of a shorter working week.

National Housing Act: Set up housing projects for low income families. Was discriminatory against African Americans and inadvertently promoted suburban over inner-city housing.

Question 40

Overall, which two pieces of evidence indicate that the New Deal assisted African Americans?

Answer 40

• Provided 1 million jobs, nearly 50,000 houses and financial assistance.
• Some government assistance allowed sharecroppers to become independent farmers.

Question 41

Which 4 pieces of evidence indicate that the New Deal did not assist African Americans?

Answer 41

• Aid did not always reach black community due to institutionalised racist practices.
• Federal government would not guarantee mortgages on houses purchased in white areas.
• TVA built all-white towns.
• Fair Labor Standards Act did not apply to waiter, cooks, janitors, domestic and farm workers.

Question 42

True or false: Under President Roosevelt, the President of the National Youth Organisation was a white supremacist.

Answer 42

False. He was African American.

Question 43

How did Eleanor Roosevelt promote African American rights?

Answer 43

She promoted the causes of black women and had a huge involvement in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, leading to an increase in Democratic support for African Americans.

Question 44

What were the negative impacts of WW2 on African American civil rights? (6)

Answer 44

• Urban housing shortages were severe, communities were crowded and this caused race riots/tension across the country. In 1943, a New Orleans bus driver ordered a black soldier to sit at the back of the bus and all 24 resentful black passengers ended up in jail.
  
  • Several hundrd black homes were demolished to make way for the Pentagon building and the extension of a National Cemetery.
• Tensions arose within workplaces as they became more integrated (eg. Alabama Dry Dock)
  
  • A disproportionate number of blacks were fired from wartime jobs.
• On the advice of his generals, Roosevelt refused to integrate the armed forces during the war (soldiers were only treated equally on the front line).
• Most black communities rejected activism as they did not want to appear unpatriotic. The riots in 1943 were blamed on ‘radicals’ like Philip Randolph.
• Randolph had convinced Roosevelt to set up the FEPC but 2/3rds of the 8000 cases referred to them were dismissed and only 1/5 of Southern cases were black victories. Congress decreased it’s funding after 1943.
• The Red Cross was forced to separate black and white blood due to the view that mixing would ‘mongrelise’ the nation.

Question 45

In what year was there dozen of race riots? Where were they the worst and how many casualties were there?

Answer 45

1943.

Detroit.

9 whites, 25 blacks died and 800 people were injured.

Question 46

Which landmark Supreme Court rulings were made in 1944 and 1954?

Answer 46

1944: Smith v. Allwright - deemed it unconstitutional for black voters to be excluded from party primary voting.
1954: Brown v. Board - ruled segregation was illegal.

Question 47

Positive impacts of WW2 on African American civil rights?

Answer 47

• Large scale migration and a mobilised industrial workforce gave African Americans greater economic and political security.
  
  • They were less vulnerable in Northern cities (where they migrated for work).
• The intensity of inequity during wartime, when African Americans were contributing to the war effort, mobilised many. NAACP numbers increased from 50,000 to 450,000 during WW2 (1/3 were Southern). Cooperation with trade unions radicalised the NAACP into effective work on equa educational opportunities and voter registration.
• White Americans became increasingly uncomfortable about their own ‘Little Hitlers’ in the South.
• Roosevelt established the Fair Employment Practices Committee to promote equality in the defence industry, where 2 million blacks were employed. - Pressured by Philip Randolph’s ‘March on Washington’
• FDR issued Executive Order 8587 in November 1940 to prohibit discimination.
• Some African Americans were inspired by non-violent protest (eg. bus boycott in Harlem) and James Farmer established the Congress of Racial Equality in 1942, which organised the earliest sit ins and demanded desegregation on interstate transport. This provided the foundations for the successful period of activism in the 1950s/1960s.
• Increasingly sympathetic U.S. Justice dept established a Civil Rights section that aimed to decrease lynching and police brutality.
• D.C. Hine has described Smith V. Allwright (1944) as ‘the watershed in the struggle for black rights’.
  
  • The number of black registered voters increased in the South from 3-12% (1940 - 1947)

Question 48

Outline President Truman’s (1945 - 1953) positive impact on African American civil rights (9)

Answer 48

As a senator:

• Supported legislation to abolish poll tax and stop lynching
• 1940 election campaign speech: told his predominantly white audience that blacks should have equality

As president:

• Spoke out on post-war attacks against black servicemen
• To Secure These Rights (1947). Established a liberal civil rights committee. Called for change in state of union address, despite Walter White advising that a strong stance on civil rights would be ‘political suicide’.
• First president to address the NAACP on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in 1947.
• Made ending discrimination amongst federal employees a priority. (FEPC, CGCC)
• Supported the NAACP in Shelley V. Kraemer (1948), which ruled against restrictive covenants.
• Position showed courage: resisted the Dixiecrats, led by Strom Thurmond, at the 1948 Democratic Convention.
• Appointed a black judge to the federal courts and a black governor of the Virgin Isles.

Question 49

What evidence could be used to support the view that President Truman was not supportive of African American civil rights? (6)

Answer 49

• He used the word ‘nigger’ and told racist jokes
• The Trumans v. Adam Clayton Powell incident
• Arguably his motivation was only to set a good example and maintain political respectability in the midst of the cold war.
• He did not force desegregation on the military and top commanders only relented when there was a shortage of manpower (Korean war sped up desegregation).
• Tried to open up public housing but his administration’s renewal often made them homeless.
• The CGCC could only recommend and not enforce.

Question 50

Why was there such limited progress for African American civil rights in the early 20th century?

Answer 50

• Issue viewed as peripheral in comparison with other issues facing the U.S.: Depression, WW2 and Cold WAR.
• The influence of racist Southern Democratic senators: bills failed in 1938, 1946, 1948 and 1950.
• Limited electoral support given that so many African Americans could not vote.
• Civil Rights Action required a huge amount of intervention (e.g. Little Rock)
• The liberalisation necessary for civil rights legislation opened administrations to the charge of being ‘Communist’.

Question 51

Which 7 key events for African American civil rights occurred under between 1954 and 1963 (under President Eisenhower and President Kennedy)?

Answer 51

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
• The murder of Emmett Till (1955)
• Montgomery Bus Boycotts (1955)
• Little Rock (1957)
• Sit ins and Freedom rides (from 1961)
• Birmingham protest (April 1963)
• March on Washington (June 1963)

Question 52

What changed by the 1960s in order to make way for JFK’s liberal/progressive campaign?

Answer 52

• Continuing violence and discrimination had given ammunition to the Communist bloc who argued that the USA merely defended a rotten capitalist system.
• Advancements in technology and the media ensured that much of America were exposed to the realities of racial violence.
  
  • Emmett Till in 1955
  • Pictures of Southern mobs abusing a black schoolgirl at Little Rock
• By 1960, Civil Rights organisations were uniting under common causes and were better organised, with strong leadership.

Question 53

Who was Thurgood Marshall?

Answer 53

An African American lawyer who was successful in Brown v. Board, was appointed as solicitor general in 1965 and became a Supreme Court justice in 1967.

Question 54

What was the impact of the Boyton v. Virginia (1960) ruling, which deemed segregation on interstate bus transport unconstitutional?

Answer 54

It gave rise to freedom rides.

Question 55

What four arguments would suggest that the Great Migration did not improve African American civil rights?

Answer 55

• Development of ghettos (impact on quality of education)
• Unofficially, segregation moved North
• 1919/1945: White soldiers returned to find AA in their jobs, causing racial tension and riots
• Severe workplace discrimination
• Lynchings still not openly condemned

Question 56

What did Alexander v. Holmes (1969) do?

Answer 56

Insisted on a more rapid desegregation of schools

Question 57

5 key events for African American civil rights under Truman?

Answer 57

1946 - Returning black servicemen attacked in the sOuth

1947 - Truman administration report ‘To Secure These Rights’, first president to address NAACP

1948 - Truman ordered an end to discrimination in the armed forces and won another election

1950 - Supreme Court virtually overturned Plessy v. Ferguson

1951 - Committee on Government Contract Compliance (CGCC) formed.

Question 58

What did the Civil Rights Acts of

• 1866
• 1875
• 1964

attempt to achieve for African American civil rights?

Answer 58

• 1866 Attempted to combat the Black Codes of some Southern States which had been put in place to restrict the new freedoms of African Americans.
• 1875: Guaranteed African Americans equal accommodation in public places but lacked powers of enforcement.
• 1964: Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Question 59

What were the 1867 - 1868 Reconstruction Acts?

Answer 59

States were required to ratify the 14th amendment and grant voting rights to black men. However, many of the new state constitutions adopted were soon replaced in the 1890s by Democrats as they sought to institute segregation and disenfranchise African Americans. President Andrew Johnson’s vetoes of these measures were overridden by Congress. Congress feared that the Supreme Court might strike the Reconstruction Acts down as unconstitutional so they repealed the Habeas Corpus Act 1867, revoking the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction over the case.

Question 60

What were the Scottsboro Trials (Powell v. Alabama) and when did they take place?

Answer 60

A group of African American boys were three times found guilty of raping two young white women in rushed trials and without proper legal representation but the Supreme Court dropped charges for four of nine of them. Those whose charges had not been dropped were issued posthumous pardons in 2013.

1931 - 1937

Question 61

What did the Gaines v. Canada (1938) and Smith v. Allwright (1944) judgements rule?

Answer 61

• 1938 Gaines v. Canada: Held that states that provided a school to white students had to provide in-state education to blacks as well.
• 1944 Smith v. Allwright: Overturned the Texas state law that authorized the Democratic Party to set its internal rules, including the use of white primaries. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to delegate its authority over elections to the Democratic Party in order to allow discrimination to be practiced.

Question 62

How did Franklin D. Roosevelt establish the Fair Employment Practice Committee?

Answer 62

• 1942 Executive Order 8802 (Roosevelt): Banned racial discrimination in government departments and defense industries. Established Fair Employment Practice Committee directed to oversee compliance with the order.

Question 63

Which two Executive Orders did Truman issue in 1948 and 1951 that aided African Americans?

Answer 63

1948 Executive Order 9981 (Truman): Desegregated the armed forces.

1951 Executive Order 10308 (Truman): Federal contracts not given to companies with discriminatory practices.

Question 64

Which landmark Supreme Court ruling declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson?

Answer 64

Brown v. Board in 1954

Question 65

What did the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling do?

Answer 65

Invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage.

Question 66

Which Supreme Court rulings in 1974 and 1978 were regressive to the development of African American civil rights?

Answer 66

• 1974 Milliken v. Bradley: Ruling clarified the distinction between de jure and de facto segregation, confirming that segregation was allowed if it was not considered an explicit policy of each school district.
• 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke: Upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action, but imposed limitations on it to ensure that providing greater opportunities for minorities did not come at the expense of the rights of the majority

Question 67

When did Reagan sign Martin Luther King Jr. Day into law?

Answer 67

1983

Question 68

1992: Freeman v. Pitts?

Answer 68

supported attacks on school desegregation