African Americans and APUSH Flashcards
1619
First African Americans brought to America as slaves
1787
Northwest Ordinance prohibits slavery in the Northwest territories
1793
Fugitive Slave Law created which had escaped slaves returned to their owners
1794
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church formed
1808
Congress bans importation of slaves
Missouri Compromise
Missouri admitted as slave state but it was prohibited above the 36 (little o) line in the rest of the territories.
Freedom’s Journal (1827)
First African American newspaper
Nat Turner’s Rebellion (August 22, 1831)
violent uprising which resulted in the deaths of white people, whites killed slaves at random retaliation.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by
Himself(1845)-
Portrays African American attitudes
Wilmot Proviso
Attempts to end slavery in the newly acquired territory from Mexico
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, exposed the evils of slavery
The Impending Crisis(1857)-
written by Hinton R. Helper; denounced slave system
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
John Brown tries to start a slave rebellion in Virginia
1863
First AA soldiers join Union Army, Massachusetts 54th
Dred Scott Case (1857)
people of African decent could not be citizens and the
government could not prohibit slavery in federal territories
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
declaration made by Abraham Lincoln which
“freed’ all slaves in states that were rebelling
1865
Thirteenth Amendment Ratified, abolishing slavery
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
aided former slaves through education, medical care , and employment
First Reconstruction Act (1867)-
guaranteed freedmen the right to vote in elections
for state constitutional elections and subsequent elections
1868
Fourteenth Amendment ratified, giving citizenship to African Americans
1870
Fifteenth Amendment Ratified (Approved in 1869) making voter discrimination
illegal
Civil Rights Act of 1875-
guaranteed African Americans equal accommodations in
public places
Black Codes
Southern Governments imposed restriction on freedmen, essentially
reestablishing slavery
Fredrick Douglas-
African American activist/abolitionist
Underground Railroad-
slave escape route
Ku Klux Klan
racist group that tortured and killed many African Americans
Harriet Tubman
helped hundreds of slaves reach freedom in North
Benjamin Banneker
African American surveyor, astronomer, and mathematical
genius who denounced the belief that African Americans were intellectual inferior to
white people
Sharecropping
landowner allows tenant to use land in return for a share in the crop many free African Americans went into debt because of this system of farming
Jim Crow Laws
Segregation laws that were mostly present in the South
Plessy v Ferguson
upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation “separate, but
equal”
Disfranchisement
-politicians attempted to impose restriction to deprive blacks of their
voting rights
Booker T. Washington
Established Tuskegee Institute which taught African
Americans how to do certain jobs. He believed blacks would rise up in society by
entering the labor force and earning money.
W.E.B. Du Bois
Believed all African Americans should get all their rights immediately
by allowing the “talented tenth” or the most intelligent blacks to advance the race by
using their skill to reach racial equality
Red Summer(1919)
Race riots spread across over 24 cities and towns
African American Migration-1.5
Migration-1.5 million blacks moved city ward in the 20’s lured by
industrial jobs, many whites wouldn’t allow blacks to rent or buy property in white
neighborhoods
1920’s Jazz
evolved from AA folk music
Harlem Renaissance
Black Cculture becoming popular: music, literature
Scottsboro Boys
Southern racism convicted 8 African American boys on rape even
though evidence showed otherwise
WPA
provided 1/3 of African Americans with jobs so they supported the New Deal
and FDR
1936 Olympic Games
18 African Americans won fourteen medals, Jess Owens had 4 himself embarrassing Hitler
WWII
Still discriminated against, assigned worse jobs then whites, once they fought on the front lines and did well they were respected and created equal to whites, still segregated units
Jackie Robinson
Broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball
Desegregation of army
1948 by Truman
Freedom Summer
Summer-Created a racially integrated grassroots political party (the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party) in an effort to get more blacks to vote in the electoral vote
Black Power
Power- WhatStokely Carmichael’s followers began chanting, after Carmichael said that in order to be free from white oppression, blacks had to elect black candidates, organize their own schools, and control their own institutions.
1968 Olympics
Tommie Smith and John Carlos demonstrated black power by
thrusting up clenched fists
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was established to end racial discrimination and obtain voting rights through the courts.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
civil rights group organized by MLK
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks arrested when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus in Alabama, led to black woman’s organizations and civil rights groups to organize against the city’s bus system
Brown v Board of Education
desegregated schools and debunked Plessy v Ferguson decision
Little Rock NIne
African American students trying to get into a Little Rock school essentially desegregating it. They were blocked from entering until the Nation Guard intervened.
Freedom Rides
Rides-members of a nonviolent civil rights organization purchased bus tickets in Washington D.C. through the South to show that Jim Crow still ruled the South despite Supreme Court rulings to desegregate buses
March on Washington
250,000 citizens to show support JFK’s civil rights bill in 1963, “I have a dream”
Assassination of MLK
1968 in Memphis Tennesse by James Earl Ray
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Ending legal discrimination on the basis of race; creates equal opportunity commission
Malcom X
believed that whites were sub-human devils, encouraged blacks to start their own institutions and use violence against their white oppressors
Black Panthers
black separatism/revolutionary communism dedicated to destroying capitalism and the police
Slavery
Slaverywas very oppressive and African Americans in slavery were treated horribly by their white owners. Unfortunately, this treatment was necessary to establish power for whites over the slaves thus having cheap labor to produce agricultural goods. Slave codes were established to help regulate the relationship between slaves and their owners denouncing a slave as property.
Reconstruction
Reconstructionwas very unsuccessful. While the states were forced to pass the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, discrimination stilloccurred which kept many African Americans low in society. Many blacks were unable to vote because of policy’s such as the grandfather clause. The most successful part was the creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau which greatly improved education for African Americans.
The Civil Rights Movement
Movementof the 1960’s was partly successful. JFK believed in the cause but didn’t do much because he didn’t want to lose support of the South. Johnson tried to do more. The most important legislation was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (see above). Other aspects of the movement included Black Power, Freedom Rides, and the Montgomery BusBoycott.
