African Americans Flashcards

1
Q

What was the 13th amendment and when did it come into place?

A
  • Abolished slavery

- 1865

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2
Q

What was the Freedmen’s Bureau? Date?

A
  • Federal agency supplying food/medical services/schools to freedmen
  • 1865
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3
Q

What was the 14th amendment and when did it come into place?

A
  • Confirmed rights to citizenship

- 1866

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4
Q

What was the 15th amendment and when did it come into place?

A
  • Forbade stated from denying the right to vote

- 1870

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5
Q

What were the Jim Crow Laws? Date?

A
  • A series of state laws in Southern and border states that introduced formal segregation
  • 1887-1891
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6
Q

What was the date of Plessy vs Ferguson and what was it about?

A
  • 1896

- Deemed segregation constitutional and came up with the ‘separate but equal’ ruling

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7
Q

When was the New Deal introduced? What were the aims?

A
  • 1933

- To relieve human suffering and promote economic recovery (post Depression)

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8
Q

What was the date of Brown vs Board and what did it do?

A
  • 1954

- Desegregated schools and reversed Plessy vs Ferguson

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9
Q

What was the date of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and what did it do?

A
  • 1955

- Peaceful non violent protest could make a change

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10
Q

What was the date of Little Rock and what did it do?

A
  • 1957

- First sign of federal intervention to protect civil rights of AAs

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11
Q

What were sit ins and freedom rides? When did they start?

A
  • Non violent activism/protest aimed to desegregate public areas - lead to desegregation of public areas in 100 cities
  • 1961
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12
Q

When was the March on Washington? What did it do?

A
  • 1963
  • Around 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington DC
  • Helped bring into effect the Civil Rights Act
  • Increased public consciousness and improved view on AAs
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13
Q

When was the Civil Rights Act passed? What did it do?

A
  • 1964

- Ended segregation and discrimination altogether

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14
Q

What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 do?

A
  • Abolished literacy tests, understanding clauses and proof of moral character and prevented disruption to black people trying to register
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15
Q

What was Andrew Johnson’s aims for the reconstruction plan?

A
  • To re-admit and re-build the Confederate states
  • To help African Americans integrate
  • All Southerners to swear oath of Allegiance to amnesty
  • All slaves freed
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16
Q

What were the strengths of reconstruction?

A
  • Granted AAs citizenship
  • Protected them by the law
  • Men had right to vote
  • Accommodation
  • KKK Act
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17
Q

What were the weaknesses of reconstruction?

A
  • AA women couldn’t vote
  • Violence and murder
  • ‘Black Codes’
  • Disease
  • Southern States didn’t want to abolish slavery in law
  • Loop holes in 15th Amendment
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18
Q

What were the opportunities of reconstruction?

A
  • System of social welfare
  • Work/education
  • Able to buy property
  • Govt. recognised needs
  • Changing attitudes (to an extent)
  • Free to marry and travel
  • 700,000 enrolled to vote
  • 22 black people elected to Congress in 1870s
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19
Q

What were the threats of reconstruction?

A
  • Share cropping
  • Freedmen’s Bureau was limited
  • Newly elected assemblies refused to ratify 13th Amendment
  • 13,000 rebels pardoned
  • Educational segregation
  • Not seen as equal
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20
Q

What were the different ways in which AAs were prevented from voting in the Gilded Age?

A
  • Understanding clause: had to explain part of the constitution
  • Literacy tests
  • Poll tax: $2 in tax to vote
  • Grandfather clause: if your grandfather had been able to vote pre 1867 then you didn’t have to take literacy tests
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21
Q

What were the impacts of the state voting laws?

A
  • No black congress after 1901 for 28 years

- Decrease in amount of eligible black voters from 70% to 11% (1880-1896)

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22
Q

How did AAs respond to the Jim Crow Laws?

A
  • Cooperation
  • Emigration and migration: Northward migration popular, along with African migration and Western migration
  • Political protest: Equal rights leagues, uncoordinated protest, AA league in 1890 which aimed to promote black economical/educational progress
  • Accommodation: Accept status quo and make most of opportunities, black middle class supported
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23
Q

What was the NAACP?

A
  • National activist organisation with branches across the USA
  • Led by blacks and whites
  • Focus on civil rights not social conditions
  • Secretary in the 1920s targeted desegregation, voting rights and education
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24
Q

What were the NAACP Policies?

A
  • Believed races should live and work and be educated together
  • Take cases to federal courts to establish equal rights
  • Defended those accused of rioting but non-violent organisation
  • Lobbying rather than mass action was the central policy
  • Supports anti-lynching law
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25
What were the NAACP developments from 1915 to 1941?
- Growth in membership post 1915: impact of WW1 - 90,000 members in 1920 - greater interest in civil rights - Decline to 50,000 members in 1930 - Seen as cautious and bureaucratic - Run by middle class AAs and whites - limited relations with socially deprived majority - Peaceful opposition in the North - White population in the south still violently anti-NAACP
26
How did the Depression affect AAs?
- 2 million black farmers left the land as crop prices fell - Many went to cities but unemployment was high for black people (between 30 and 60%) - Desperate whites moved into jobs that were previously dominated by blacks - Whites organised vigilante group (Black Shirts of America) to stop whites getting jobs
27
What was the AAA (New Deal)?
Agricultural Adjustment Act | - Regulated farm production by machines - AA farmers displaced
28
What was the CCC (New Deal)?
Civilian Conservation Corps - Provided work for young men aged 18-25 - worked in environmental projects earning $30 a month - Racial segregation occurred and it was disbanded in 1942
29
What was the SSA (New Deal)?
Social Security Act - Created guaranteed retirement payments for over 65s, insurance for unemployed and assistance for disabled - Still continues today - Excluded domestic workers which was a major area of black female employment
30
What were the overall impacts of the New Deal?
- Provided 1 million jobs - 50,000 housing units - Govt. assistance allowed sharecroppers to become independent farmers - Eleanor Roosevelt had an impact on black women - working rights - Aid didn't always get to black people - Fed govt. wouldn't guarantee mortgages on houses in white areas
31
What was the impact of WW2 on migration?
- Blacks moved to cities as farms became mechanised - Large scale migration led them to have greater economic and political power - Large numbers in one town or cities meant they were less vulnerable/not intimidated by white supremacists - 2 million migrated North and west - Crowding in cities led to rivalry for homes and race riots in Detroit in 1943 - Increased tension with blacks and whites in close proximity
32
What was the impact of WW2 on blacks and whites working together?
- Tension in workplace - More employment but still lower wages and 'last hired first fired' - Whites lashed out over employment of blacks in Alabama Dry Dock Company in 1943 - Jealousy over jobs - White men disliked black men and women working together - Over 1 million blacks served in army
33
What was the impact of WW2 on black conciousness and activism?
- NAACP increased from 50,000 to 450,000 - Cooperation with trade unions brought in urban workers - Whites aware that American racism was not hugely different to Hitler - Refusal to integrate armed forces but Fair Employment Practises Committee (FEPC) set up to promote equality in defense industries so 2 million blacks employed - CORE established in 1942 which organised sit ins - Successful bus boycott in 1941 - Riots convinced blacks that radicals were irresponsible
34
What was the impact of WW2 on federal intervention?
- 2 thirds of job discrimination cases referred to FEPC were dismissed - FEPC accomplished too little to be a great success but enough to show importance of Fed. aid - Southern black political rights increased in 1944 - Supreme Court declared that exclusion of AAs from the primaries was unconstitutional under the 15th Amendment - Between 1940-1947 the number of black registered voters increased in the South from 3 to 12%
35
What did Harry Truman do to improve the Civil Rights situation?
- Senate in 1930s - supported legislation to abolish poll tax and lynching - Gave help to FEPC when President - but Congress refused to fund it - Supported NAACP in Supreme Court ruling over housing - 'To Secure These Rights' - called for anti-lynching, voting rights, end to discrimination in work, civil rights in the justice department - State of Union addresses said that first goal was to secure the essential human rights of citizens - Campaigned in racist areas (Texas and Harlem)
36
What was CORE? When was it established? What did it do?
Congress of Racial Equality - Established in 1942 - Organised sit ins, freedom rides and boycotts - Non-violent
37
What was SCLC? When was it established? What did it do?
Southern Christian Leadership Conference - Founded in 1957 by black ministers - Led by MLK - Aimed to improve situation of southern Blacks - Wanted to offer alternative, non-violent direct action - Difficult for southern racists to attack due to religion - Poor organisation and lack of mass support
38
What was SNCC? When was it established? What did it do?
Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee - Working in 1960s - Aimed to politicise local communities and empower ordinary people - Established freedom schools, organised grass roots struggles in Alabama and Georgia - Unprotected by the govt. - Became militant
39
What did JFK do to help Civil Rights?
- Publicly stated support - Planned legislation for better health care/wages - Black appointments and federal judges - Sent in federal guard to force integration in Alabama - Offered public support after Birmingham Protest - Proposed Civil Rights Bill
40
What did JFK do to hinder/stop progress of Civil Rights?
- Didn't have public on his side for forced integration - Backed down on voting rights in Mississippi - Claimed protesters in Freedom Rides 'unpatriotic' - Refused to offer fed help to enforce voting rights unless there was a breakdown of law and order - Did little to improve housing
41
What did LBJ do to help Civil Rights?
- Passed Civil Rights Act - Voting Rights Bill - Great Society - aimed to end poverty and racial injustice - Prohibited discrimination in public places, school desegregation and Equal Employment Commission - Helped children out of ghettos with Elementary and Secondary Education Acts - increase number of blacks getting high school diplomas - Offered subsidies to desegregated schools - Appointed first black SC judge
42
What did LBJ do to hinder/stop progress in Civil Rights?
- Limited success of Education Acts - Blacks felt Voting Rights Bill wasn't enough - Found it hard to get financial support from Congress to aid black people - Relied heavily on local and state authorities which were reluctant to enforce legislation - Great Society had unrealistic hopes - Riots after MLK's assassination stopped progress - Vietnam war prevented progress - Backlash from white people
43
What was the Black Power Movement and why did it develop?
- Term used in Meredith March 1966 - Focused on Black Supremacy - Developed as a result of racism, the need for political and economic power, working class revolution - Focused on black culture and pride
44
What did the Black Panther Party do?
- Formed in 1966 - Focused on self defense - Prepared for war and patrolled streets looking for violence against blacks - Alienated and threatened moderate whites in the North
45
When were the Watts Riots in LA? What happened?
- 1965 - Provoked by poverty, unemployment, lack of education and healthcare - 6 days - 50,000 blacks burned and looted neighbourhood, attacking whites
46
When was Malcolm X assassinated? When was MLK assassinated? What was the result?
- Malcolm X - 1965 - MLK - 1968 - BP movement collapsed, focus on Vietnam war, gave AAs effective backing and legislation from govt.
47
What were Malcolm X's beliefs?
- White people were devils - Revolutions should be violent - Interracial marriage was betrayal to your race - MLK was keeping black people defenseless
48
What were Malcolm X's methods?
- Violence against whites - Separatism - Followed Elijah Muhammad's teachings
49
What were MLK's beliefs?
- Evoke shame within oppressor - Personal Sacrifices must be made to progress in CR - Win friendship and understanding of opponents - Non-violent protest - Advocated for integration
50
What were MLK's methods?
- Non violent protest, speeches and boycotts | - Believed that non violent protest exposed injustices and changed public opinion
51
What were the positives of Nixon?
- Affirmative action - Increased AA workers from 1 to 12% - 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act - Increase fed expenditure on poverty programmes - Integration - Southern schools better integrated - Limited funding for segregated institutions
52
What were the negatives of Nixon?
- Privately racist - Didn't want to meet with black leaders - Nominated racists to SC - Crushed Black Panthers - Promoted bussing
53
What were the positives of Ford?
- Keen to cultivate good relations - First black Secretary of Transport - Extended Voting Rights Act
54
What were the negatives of Ford?
- Refused to support anti-bussing organisation - Doubts on Brown vs Board - No stance in Civil Rights
55
What were the positives of Carter?
- Opposed bussing and segregation - Employed many black people - Appointed more blacks to fed judiciary than any other president - Appointed black women to cabinet - Renewed Voting Rights Act
56
What were the negatives of Carter?
- University of California vs Bakke - discrimination against non-minority applicants as blacks and hispanics admitted with lower academic scores than whites
57
What were the positives of Reagan?
- Supported extending Voting Rights Act for 10 years - Expanded Fair Housing Act - Grove City College vs Bell SC - overturned by Civil Rights Restoration Act
58
What were the negatived of Reagan?
- Didn't support fed initiatives to provide blacks with CR - Opposed both Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act 1965 - Said the Voting Rights Act was humiliating to the South - Opposed Fair Housing Legislation in California - Under pressure to delay change
59
What were the positives of Bush?
- Found officers in LA riots guilty - violence
60
What were the negatives of Bush?
- 1992 SC supported attacks on desegregation | - Riots in LA over Rodney King Case - police brutality victim