America: Civil Rights Background

Question 1

Slavery in the USA

Answer 1

From the founding of the USA IN 1776, till 1865, slavery was legal-several parts of the constitution made it so
Southern plantation owners had considerable political power and defended their legal right to won slaves

Question 2

How many slaves were owned by southern cotton farmers by 1860?

Answer 2

4 million

Question 3

What did the issue of slavery cause in the USA?

Answer 3

Civil war 1861-65
750’000 died
The north eventually won, and reunited the country, they banned slavery under the 13th amendment in1865

Question 4

14th amendment and 15th Amendment

Answer 4

14th: gave slaves American citizenship
15th: gave them the right to vote
The south followed the 13th but ignored the 14th/15th for the next 100 years

Question 5

African American rights in the 1890s

Answer 5

There were a growing number of white people who wanted to keep black people ‘in place’
This lead to southern states introducing legal segregation known as Jim Crow laws- which created seperate spaces for races and resulted in a surge in racial violence between 1890-1920

Question 6

How did southern states block African Americans from voting despite the 15th amendment?

Answer 6

Disenfranchisement

Question 7

What state lead disenfranchisement?

Answer 7

Mississippi

Question 8

Requirements for voting in Mississippi

Answer 8

Residence requirement : had to have lived in state for 2 years- targets AA farmers who moved
Voters disqualifies if convicted of certain crimes
All taxes had to be paid
Had to be literate

Question 9

Some white people were disqualified from voting because of the requirements under disenfranchisement. What was the way round this?

Answer 9

An ‘understanding clause’
The voter could qualify if they could understand the constitution even if they couldn’t read it
This had to be to the satisfaction of officials,so few blacks were declared eligible as a result

Question 10

Which states followed Mississippi voting requirements?

Answer 10

South Carolina
Louisiana
Oklahoma
Georgia
North Carolina
Virginia
Alabama

Question 11

Voting requirements in South Carolina in 1895

Answer 11

Owning property valued $3oo dollars would qualify an illiterate voter
E.g. whites who owned small amounts of land

Question 12

Voting requirements in Louisiana in 1898

Answer 12

The ‘grandfather clause’ allowed illiterates to vote if fathers/grandfathers had been eligible to vote on the 1st Jan 1867
This excluded black people

Question 13

Which states adopted the grandfather clause by 1910?

Answer 13

Oklahoma,Georgia,North Carolina,Virginia and Alabama

Question 14

Show the effectiveness of disenfranchisement in Louisiana

Answer 14

1896: 130’000 black voters registered
1900: 5’320

Question 15

Show the effectiveness of disenfranchisement in Alabama

Answer 15

In 1900, there were 121’159 literate black men over 21
Only 3’742 were registered to vote

Question 16

Explain the spread of segregation

Answer 16

Despite the end of slavery at the end of the civil war,southern states gradually enacted more and more jimcrow laws, that extended into education,transport,healthcare
Blacks always had inferior condiments
There were a lot of unspoken rules of Jim Crow segregation- it was a state of mind

Question 17

What law did Louisiana have that is relevant to the arrest of Homer please?

Answer 17

Black and white Americans had to be separated when riding a train - carriages for African Americans not as clean

Question 18

What did Homer Plessy do?

Answer 18

He decided to fight racial segregation with the support of the citizens committee of New Orleans
He was arrested in 1892 for sitting in a white carriage and refusing to move (he was only 1/8th black)

Question 19

What did Homer Plessy argue in court?

Answer 19

He argued that the Louisiana law violated the constitution
He took the case to the Supreme Court because he believed he was arrested illegally

Question 20

Ruling of Plessy vs Ferguson

Answer 20

Segregation was legal as long as black and white citizens had access to facilites that were equally good

Question 21

Consequences of the ruling of Plessy vs Ferguson

Answer 21

People believed it was right to require seperate facilities-supreme court had basically ruled segregation legal
Jim Crow began to spread rapidly across the south
Principal of racial segregation extended because whiles believed segregation was beneficial to both races

Question 22

How any lynchings were averaged each year between 1890 and 1899?

Answer 22

188 per year
82% of them were in the south

Question 23

Average lynchings per year 1900-1909

Answer 23

93 per year
92% occurred in the south

Question 24

Give 2 examples, other than lynching, of increasing black violence in the early 20th century?

Answer 24

1892, Benjamin Tillman (South Carolina senator) declared blacks ‘must remain subordinate or be exterminated”
The KKK was revived in 1915