African Americans in the North and South Under Truman Flashcards

1
Q

How was racism prominent in WW2?

A
  • Army units were segregated and black units had white officers
  • The Red Cross maintained separate blood banks for whites and blacks
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2
Q

How did the Second World War impact the NAACP?

A

Membership grew from 50,000 to 450,000 during the war

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3
Q

What organisation to defend civil rights was set up in WW2?

A

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)

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4
Q

How was the North better than the South for civil rights?

A
  • Jim Crow laws werent followed as much
  • Adam Clayton Powell becomes the first black Congressman and represents Harlem for over 25 years
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5
Q

Who was Jackie Robinson?

A

The first black baseball player to ever play in the MLB (1947)

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6
Q

How did housing become a large area of discrimination?

A
  • Some real estate agents wouldnt sell houses to black people in white areas
  • Many african Americans lived in low quality tenement housing which didnt have proper public services such as bin collections
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7
Q

How was the Church a unifying force?

A

Black preaches were respected more than ordinary African Americans whilst at Church, still treated as inferior outside of church

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8
Q

What was the NAACP?

A

-National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
- Set up im 1910, it massively grew in membership during ww2

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9
Q

How did the NAACP seek advancements in Civil Rights?

A

They focused on litigation (key word) where they would find legal routes to chip away at Jim Crow laws and the Plessy vs ferguson ruling

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10
Q

What was the Plessy v Ferguson case?

A

In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled that a black man had not been discriminated against when told to sit in a black carriage of a train. They created a “separate but equal” ruling that added to discrimination against African Americans

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11
Q

What was Executive Order 9981?

A

It was passed in 1948 and it desegregated the armed forces

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12
Q

What was To Secure These Rights?

A

It was a report published in 1947 from a committee set up by Truman to assess Civil Rights and it found aspects of discrimination everywhere in American life, most evidently in voting rights, public facilities and housing

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13
Q

What was the Double V campaign trying to promote?

A

“Victory Abroad and Victory at Home”
Tried to link the success of WW2 with an improvement of civil rights in America

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14
Q

What was the Great Migration and when did it take place?

A

A mass movement of African Americans from the South of America to the North. Happened in 1940s and 50s
1.4 million citizens moved in the 40s and another 1.1 in the 1950s

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15
Q

What was the Journey of Reconciliation?

A

CORE organised a group of 8 white men and 8 black men to go on a two week bus trip through several states to try and end segregation in travel. They got arrested and jailed multiple times but still got a lot of media attention on the issue

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16
Q

What did the NAACP establish in 1939?

A

Legal Defense Fund to hire the best black lawyers

17
Q

Who was Thurgood Marhsall?

A

A lawyer for the NAACP who won many key cases such as in 1954 where he won a case that desegregated public schools

18
Q

Who was Adam Clayton Powell?

A

A politician who represented Harlem from 1945-1971. He was a spokesperson for civil rights in the North

19
Q

What did Executive Order 9835 do?

A

It was known as the “loyalty order” and designed to root out communismt influence in the US federal government and Truman wanting to prove he wasn’t “soft on communism”

20
Q

What international issues were arising with American civil rights

A

Truman became aware how segregation and violence in the South looked overseas as more African states were independent and had seats at the UN

21
Q

What is ghettoisation?

A

The process by which certain areas of cities become dominated by one ethnic group as others move out. It often leads due a decline in facilities and prejudice against people of that area

22
Q

What does “De Jure” mean?

A

A latin term meaning “in law”, legally.
Racist actions that were legal were called this

23
Q

Who was A. Phillip Randolph

A

Leading figure in the civil rights movement
He used his influence to push Truman to desegregate the military
Co-organised the 1963 March on Washington

24
Q

What was the Nation of Islam?

A

It was led by Elijah Muhammed and believed that the first men were black and preached self respect and self reliance. After Malcolm X’s death the movement declined but still active today

25
Q

Who was Jackie Robinson?

A

First ever black baseball player in Major League Baseball in 1947

26
Q

What does “de facto” mean?

A

Latin term for “in reality”. It is used to describe any racist actions that were illegal but nothing was done about it

27
Q

How did the reception of black soldiers in Europe change perspectives?

A

Army units were largely segregated but Europeans saw the Americans as liberators regardless of colour. Their status improved from the supplies, music and culture brought with them

28
Q

What was the Ku Klux Klan?

A

The KKK was a secret society that flourished in the 1950s and believed in an ideology of racial purity. They were often violent towards black people and were responsible for several murders and countless acts of intimidation in the South

29
Q

How many black Americans were there in 1945?

A

14 million - 10% of population

30
Q

How many Hispanic Americans were there in 1945?

A

1.2 million

31
Q

When was CORE Set up?

A

1942

32
Q

What was the Great Migration?

A

Movement of African Americans in the 1940s and 50s from the South which was prone to de jure segregation from Jim Crow laws to the North eg Detroit and West Coast eg Oakland and Los Angeles. In the North, they had greater political power and community conciousness

33
Q

When was the GI Bill of Rights passes?

A

1944

34
Q

How did the GI Bill of Rights support African Americans?

A

Many black veterans gained increased opportunities such as thousands were able to attend college

35
Q

Which Supreme Court victories were the NAACP able to achieve under Truman?

A

1950 against segregation on railroad dining cars (Henderson v US)
1950 against segregated universities
(Sweatt vs Painter)

36
Q

What was the government response to the report of To Secure These Rights?

A

Truman responded by giving a radical civil rights speech to Congress in 1948 asking Congress to support measures including federal protection against lynching. But the presence of Dixiecrat senators like Strom Thurmond meant they were never fully implemented

37
Q

How had Truman faced some success in civil rights?

A

By 1952, only 5 states retained the poll tax, 11 states and 20 cities had fair emplyment laws and 19 states had legislation against some form of racial discrimination.
It was the Deep South that reamined adamantly opposed to civil rights improvements

38
Q
A