African Americans in the North and South Under Truman Flashcards
How was racism prominent in WW2?
- Army units were segregated and black units had white officers
- The Red Cross maintained separate blood banks for whites and blacks
How did the Second World War impact the NAACP?
Membership grew from 50,000 to 450,000 during the war
What organisation to defend civil rights was set up in WW2?
CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)
How was the North better than the South for civil rights?
- Jim Crow laws werent followed as much
- Adam Clayton Powell becomes the first black Congressman and represents Harlem for over 25 years
Who was Jackie Robinson?
The first black baseball player to ever play in the MLB (1947)
How did housing become a large area of discrimination?
- 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
How was the Church a unifying force?
Black preaches were respected more than ordinary African Americans whilst at Church, still treated as inferior outside of church
What was the NAACP?
-National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
- Set up im 1910, it massively grew in membership during ww2
How did the NAACP seek advancements in Civil Rights?
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
What was the Plessy v Ferguson case?
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
What was Executive Order 9981?
It was passed in 1948 and it desegregated the armed forces
What was To Secure These Rights?
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
What was the Double V campaign trying to promote?
“Victory Abroad and Victory at Home”
Tried to link the success of WW2 with an improvement of civil rights in America
What was the Great Migration and when did it take place?
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
What was the Journey of Reconciliation?
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