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Civil Rights > African Americans > Flashcards

African Americans Flashcards

1
Q

Where the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments?

A

13th- banned slavery
14th, 1868- AAs given citizenship
15th, 1870- right to vote

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2
Q

What was the 1875 Civil Rights Act?

A

All citizens equal

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3
Q

What was the Freedman’s Bureau?

A

Set up in 1865 to help former slaves but was underfunded and only lasted 4 years

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4
Q

What was the reality for AAs after the emancipation proclamation?

A
  • Southern states let of lightly
  • Amendments are not fully ratified
  • Rise in lynchings eg 1000 AAs killed in Texas
  • ‘Black codes’
  • Lack of education (sharecropping) and lots of disease
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5
Q

What was the KKK act?

A

1870 made it illegal to restrict civil rights of anyone.

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6
Q

How was the right to vote withheld from AAs? What was the result?

A

Literacy tests exploited like of AA education.
Poll tax
Grandfather Clause
Understanding clause

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7
Q

How were AAs held back economically in the reconstruction?

A
  • No land redistribution
  • White people fear they are taking their jobs due to depression of 1870s
  • Dependence of sharecropping
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8
Q

What were the Jim Crow laws?

A

States began separating train stations, waiting rooms etc in early 1890s
Plessy vs Ferguson 1896 makes segregation legal

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9
Q

In what 4 ways did AAs react to Jim Crow Laws?

A

1) Co-operation: 1894, 1000 AAs elected to office due to pacts with Republicans
2) Migration: move Northward but hard doe to exclusion of black labour
3) Protest: boycotts, lawsuits, Afro American League
4) Accommodation: popular among middle classes but at odds with protesters

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10
Q

Who were the main early activists and what were their greatest achievements/failures?

A

Washington: Tuskegee institute, wanted to end sharecropping, met with Teddy Roosevelt, part of Atlanta Compromise
Dubois: educated and part of Niagara movement, co-founder of NAACP
Wells: radical, National Association of Women of Colour, set up Kindergarten, active in women’s rights, left NAACP for lack of action
Garvey: Black Star Line 1919, encouraged moving back to Africa, black consciousness

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11
Q

What was the ‘Great Migration’?

A

AAs migrating North after WWI due to mechanization and more opportunities such as less lynching and more of a black middle class.
But segregation moves North too, causes conflict between white soldiers and AAs and they face discrimination.

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12
Q

What AA leadership was there from 1915-1941?

A

Garvey appeals to AAs in time of racial tension eg 1916-25. Appeals to ghettoized AAs in North and views integration as pointless. Lacks any strategy.

Oscar de Priest elected to Congress in 1928. Fails to support important parts of New Deal but is anti-segregation.

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13
Q

What did the NAACP do between 1915-1941?

A 
Takes cases to court hoping to end segregation and supports anti-lynching.
Uplift in membership post 1915, seen as middle class and cautious.
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14
Q

What effect did the New Deal have on AA?

A
  • Provides 1 million jobs, 50, 000 housing units and aid. Lets sharecroppers become farmers.
  • Discrimination in TVA and FLSA doesn’t apply to cooks, waiters, janitors etc
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15
Q

To what extent did Roosevelt lay the ‘foundations for black rights’?

A

Politically- Eleanor Roosevelt promotes Human Rights, democrats support AAs which reduces disenfranchisement
Socially- some welfare state, still segregation at school, FLSA
Economically- end of sharecropping, minimum wage and more jobs

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16
Q

What was Gaines vs Canada?

A

Lack of SC support in early period.

Gaines vs Canada, 1938 reinforces ‘separate but equal’

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17
Q

What were the Chicago Race Riots?

A

Red Summer of 1919- whites return to see jobs taken by AAs due to migration. AA vetrans denied basic rights.
KK outbreak and riots in Chicago.
Wilson blamed whites for riots and launches Chicago Comission on Race Relations.

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18
Q

What were the key parts of the New Deal?

A

National Housing Act- discriminates against AAs
FHA- AAs not given mortgages in white areas
AAA- 2,000 AAs lose jobs
CCC- provides jobs tho segregated
TVA- ‘all white towns’ and ghettoisation

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19
Q

What affect does WWII have on race relations?

A
  • 2 million AAs go North= strength in numbers
  • 1943 riots in Detroit as whites see AAs as threat
  • Black homes demolished for Pentagon
  • Alabama Dry Rock Company- white workers injure 50 AAs
  • Tension in army eg arrest of black soldier in Louisiana creates 2 hour riot
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20
Q

What affect does WWII have on black consciousness?

A
  • NAACP increases by 400, 000 members and begins working with TUs.
  • Hitler exposes USA.
  • Demand for Labour gives power to AAs eg Roosevelt forced to create FECP.
  • 1941 CORE sit-ins and 1941 bus boycotts (seen as unpatriotic)
21
Q

What affect does WWII have on federal intervention?

A

FECP: dismisses 2/3 of cases and funding decreased when to powerful
Smith vs Allwright makes it illegal to exclude AAs from primaries

22
Q

What did Truman do to improve Civil Rights concerning the FECP?

A

FECP: tried unsuccessfully to get Congress to continue funding but apathetic when it tried to end discriminatory policies

23
Q

What did Truman do with regards the army?

A

Army: publically condemned post-war attacks on servicemen. Ended segregation in the army but continued in National Guard

24
Q

What was To Secure these Rights?

A

To Secure these Rights, 1947: Civil Rights committee exposes discrimination and proposes better voting rights laws, anti-lynching legislation and an end to discrimination in the army

25
Q

What was Brown vs Board?

A

1954 overturns Plessy vs Ferguson.

Desegregation of schools and a moral victory although creates a KKK backlash.

26
Q

What were the Montgomery Bus Boycotts?

A

Rosa Parks 1955. Lead to Browder vs Gayle which rules segregation in Alabama unconstitutional.

27
Q

What was Little Rock?

A

1957 50 troopers are sent to ensure students can get to school.

28
Q

What was the Birmingham protest?

A

Birmingham 1963- SCLC organised boy-cots and non-violent protests. MLK held in Birmingham jail.

Desegregation occurred in Birmingham and Kennedy drew up Civil Rights Bill. KKK attacks, black underclass still struggled and MLK criticized for being to vague.

29
Q

What important speeches/symbolic actions did Truman make?

A
  • 1st Speech to the NAACP
  • 1948 opens more public housing to AAs as urban renewal often left them homeless
  • Black judge and black governor appointed
  • Ineffectively tried to stop Federal Defense Contracts going to discriminatory companies
30
Q

What was the Washington Protest?

A
  • 1963 March for jobs and freedom
  • ‘I have a dream’ speech and ‘The Big 6’
  • Led to meeting with JFK and Civil Rights Act
  • Criticized by Malcolm X
31
Q

What were CORE, the SCLC and the SNCC?

A
  • CORE, 1942 non-violent org that organised sit-ins and boycotts. Initiate 1960s freedom rides.
  • SCLC, 1957. Group of black ministers including MLK. Non-violent direct action. Lack mass support and some divisions.
  • SNCC, 1960s. Focus on empowering and politicizing ordinary people. Organised ‘Freedom Summer on 1964’ to improve voter registration. Become involved with Black Power’
32
Q

What factors led to the Civil Rights Act?

A

Demonstrations and activism- MLK, SCLC, SNCC, protests at Birmigham and Washington
NAACP- litigation and legal help
WWII- Northern migration, integration of army, lack of change led to frustration, Hitler, fear of communism
Protest movement- Vietnam war, more tech and media
Supreme Court- Brown vs Board
Truman- To Secure these Rights, democrats
Intervention- Little Rock

33
Q

When were the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and the March in Selma?

A

Civil Rights Act- 1964
Voting Rights Act- 1965 abolishing clauses
Selma- 1965 march by King due to low voting turnout there. Johnson protected marchers and promised VRA.

34
Q

What were Kennedy’s main contributions to Civil Rights?

A
  • Selects 5 black federal judges
  • Equal Employment Oppurtunity COmmission (fails to imporve no of AAs in federal service)
  • Supports James Meridith in Missisipi Uni enrollment
  • Supports AAs after Birmingham protest turns violent and endorsed March on Washington
  • Proposes CRB
35
Q

What were Johnson’s main contributions to Civil Rights?

A
  • Passes Civil Rights and Voting Act
  • Great Society tries to end poverty and racial injustice
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act increases no of AAs getting high school diploma by 20%
  • Offers subsidies to desegregated schools
  • Affirmative Action
36
Q

What were Nixon’s failures and successes to improve Civil Rights?

A

Positive:

  • Affirmative Action
  • 1972 Equal Opportunities Act
  • More expenditure on poverty and decreases AAs below poverty line
  • Limits funding for segregated schools

Negative:

  • Won’t meet black leaders
  • Crushed Black Panthers
  • Tries to revise Voting Act
  • School busing undermines SC’s integrations
  • Undermines Great Society
37
Q

Ford

A

Positive:

  • Meet black leaders
  • Extends voting rights act
  • Nominates 1st black transport secretary

Negative:

  • Refuses to support anti-busing orgs
  • Lost to Carter who got 90% of AA vote as t ‘wishy-washy’
38
Q

Carter

A

Positive:

  • Opposes busing
  • Employs AAs to judiciary and AA women to cabinet
  • Renews Voting Act
  • Affirmative Action especially for medical uni applicants

Negative:
- Affirmative Action accused of favoring AAs

39
Q

Reagan

A

Negative:

  • Opposes Civil Rights and Voting Acts (but extends it)
  • Reagan’s measures affect poorest worse eg AAs make up 35% of those on food stamps
  • Opposes Fair Housing Legislation (signs it in 1988)
  • Opposes MLK day

Positive:
- 1984 Grove City vs Bell reverses decision that only courses with students on Federal Aid had to use Affirmative Action

40
Q

Bush

A

Negative:

  • Freeman vs Pitts gave school more freedom over segregation but then was fully ended by 1992
  • Rodney King Riots against police brutality
41
Q

How were JFK and Johnson held back from progressing Civil Rights?

A

JFK:

  • Slow to pass legislation
  • Did little to improve housing
  • Refused fed intervention unless there was violence

Johnson:

  • Didn’t improve race relations
  • Hard to get Congress to support his aid to AAs
  • Vietnam War cost lots
42
Q

What was the economic situation by the 1990s?

A
  • Unemployment 5% higher for AAs
  • Less high school and HE graduates
  • AA wage a more than a dollar less
43
Q

How did Malcolm X contribute to Civil Rights?

A

Member of NOI and believer in African Seperatism.

  • Influence Black Power and growth of NOI
  • Responsible for Black Pride
  • Less coherent and popular than King due to violence
44
Q

How did the KKK hold back Civil Rights?

A
  • Used lynching, stereotypes, attacks on Freedman Bureau members in the 1860s and attacks on desegregated schools in the 1950s.
  • Uniting of republicans and AAs led to its failure.
  • Reborn in 1915 with Birth of a Nation
  • More widespread so less affect on AAs
  • Membership fell to 300, 000 by 1930
45
Q

What resistance was there to Civil Rights in the 1950s?

A
  • The judiciary in the South (juries) and easy access to weapons for Klan members
  • Bull Connor allowed Klan members to attack Freedom Riders in Birmingham
  • Bombing of Black Churches
  • White Citizen’s Councils try to intimidate AAs from claiming their rights
46
Q

How did the NAACP contribute to Civil Rights?

A
  • 1944 judgment that AAs couldn’t be excluded from primaries
  • Prominence of black lawyer Thurgood Marshall
  • Attack on segregation lead to Brown vs Board
  • Put organised pressure and used publicity with the bus boycotts. Barred from Alabama and then limited to Courts whilst mass protest took over.
  • Little Rock and March on Washington
47
Q

What was the Separatist movement and the Nation of Islam?

A
  • Separatism celebrated AA values and focused on economic improvement
  • NOI had parallels with UNIA (charismatic leader and black superiority)
  • Links with Islam gave it a more emotional appeal than NAACP
  • Stronger separatist ideology
  • No focus on political rights and disliked Civil Rights movement
48
Q

Who were the Black Panthers?

A
  • Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
  • Openly carried weapons and focused on defense against police brutality
  • 1968 black power salute at Olympics and 1972 convention excluded whites
  • Focus on economic equality, end to capitalism, compensation and separate juries
  • Did not attract wide support but was able to promote black pride

Civil Rights (7 decks)

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