American civil rights 1850-2009

Question 1

change in geography

Question 2

1865-1917 Change

Answer 2

Migration tended towards northern cities. Cincinnati, north of Kentucky, had 3,700 black Americans by 1877, 70% had moved from the south. By 1917, cities like New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland had sizeable black American communities. Push factors include the lack of job opportunities, racial intimidation, introduction of segregation, the 1914 economic depression brought on by cotton crop failures. The North was seen as a promised land, a land of liberation. Northern black newspapers had been established, such as the Chicago Defender, which reinforced this view. Family members who had moved north and written home highlighted the advantages further.
Migration also moved westwards. In 1879, 6,000 black Americans from the old south migrated to Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.

Question 3

1865-1917 Continuity

Answer 3

By 1910, 89% of black Americans lived in former confederate states, 80% of these still in rural areas.
Black Americans were willing to work for lower wages and could be used as non-union labour for breaking strikes, such as the 1911 strike on the illinois Central Railroad, they were forbidden from joining unions
In 1900, male African American workers earned an average of 45% the pay of male white workers.

Question 4

First Great Migration Change

Answer 4

In 1914, the First World War broke out in Europe, bringing a halt to european migration. The labour shortage offered greater opportunities for black Americans and helped speed up migration towards war-related industries. The First Great Migration involved the departure of 1.6 million black Americans, from rural areas to cities predominantly. 1910-1925, 10% of the country’s black American population moved north. Between 1910 and 1930 black American population increased by 40% in northern states.
To take advantage of job opportunities created by the war. Recruiting companies from the north travelled south, promising a better lifestyle, end to poverty. The Chicago Defender encouraged black Americans from the south, living in the north to publish letters, which stated that their life was better in the North. Black Americans also joined the US military.

Question 5

First Great Migration Change 2

Answer 5

From 1922, USA experienced an economic boom. Development of mass production through assembly-line techniques lowered the price of manufactured goods and increased demand. General Motors and Ford recruited tens of thousands of black Americans in their plants. Detroit, the centre of the car industry, expanded its population of black Americans from 5,741 to 120,066 1910-1930. Agriculture declined at the same time, with demand falling sharply after the First World War and began importing more food.

In 1914, the boil weevil spread across the southern states, destroying crops, plunging thousands of black Americans into poverty. Cotton demand dropped after the war, dropping by 32 cents a pound between 1920-21.

1929-1941 saw the Great Depression, and then, from 1933, the New Deal. Federal government established agencies through which black Americans could obtain jobs. Works Progress Administration, the National Youth Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps allocated 10% of their budget for black Americans.

Question 6

First Great Migration Continuity

Answer 6

Black soldiers segregated in the military.
· During the First World War more African Americans were in employment, however they generally lost their jobs at the end of the war.
Between 1890 and the outbreak of the First World War, southern states passed segregation laws, essentially nullifying the 1870 Fifteenth Amendment. Literacy tests for registration and poll tax prevented black Americans from voting. Grandfather Clause meant that if someone’s grandfather did not vote, then they could not vote. In 1915, the KKK was revived and violent attacks increased.

Question 7

Post 1945 Change

Answer 7

Second World War had a great effect. 1941-45, national income, wealth and industrial production more than doubled. 1940-45 GNP increased from 99.7 billion to 211 billion. 1933-45 unemployment fell from 25% to 1.9%. 12 million joined the armed forces, 17 million jobs were created by the war effort. Average wages increased by 30%. 700,000 black Americans moved north, 120,000 moved west to LA, given that war industries were concentrated on the west coast.
By 1945, more black Americans lived in urban areas than in rural areas. By 1970, 80% of black Americans lived in cities compared to 70% of the general American population.

Question 8

Post 1945 Continuity

Answer 8

After the Second World War, there was increasing migration back to the south. ⅔ of black American migrants to the south 1965-70 returned to their area of birth. Some fled due to violence and crime, limited job opportunities in the north. Others sought job opportunities in the ‘Sun Belt’, Florida, Georgia and Texas. From the 1970s, the old south offered more job opportunities as heavy industry in the Rust Belt (mid-western states) went into decline, particularly after the oil crisis of 1973. Detroit’s jobs were cut by more than half in the 30 years after WW2. In 1947 there were 3,272 manufacturing firms, in 1877, this was at 1,954. In 1963, Michigan and Illinois produced 30% of the nation’s manufacturing output, the south 21%, by 1989, the former had been halved, the latter increased to 29%. Still, in Birmingham Alabama, 52% of migrants reported kinship ties as a reason for moving, 12% to care for family. By 1970 53% of black Americans lived in the old south

Question 9

Desegregation Change

Answer 9

1954, the US Supreme Court declared that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional. In 1956 racially segregated public transport was deemed illegal. Under Johnson Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, giving civil equality.

Question 10

Desegregation Continuity

Answer 10

By the 1960s, many cities were becoming de facto racially segregated. Suburbs were dominated by white Americans, whilst black-dominated areas were in the inner-city South Bronx, Harlem, Watts. Federal Housing Administration supported anti-Jewish and anti-black restrictive covenants on new suburban housing developments. This meant that suburban houses could not be sold to Black Americans, but were forced to live in privately-owned rental accomodation in inner-city areas. Housing quality was poor, high-rises were favoured leading to cramped population. White residents began to leave cities, meaning that the growth in cities was primarily in the suburbs. 1950-60 18 million moved to the suburbs.

Progress was slow in the South. October 1969, the Supreme Court demanded racial integration at once after the Alexander v. Holmes County School Board case. In April 1971 in the Charlotte Mecklenburg case, the Court demanded that children be bused from black-only and white-only areas to ensure full integration. 1969 68% of black American children attended segregated schools, 1974 8%. 1973 Maynard Jackson became the first black American since 1877 to become mayor.

Question 11

Riots

Answer 11

Harlem
Philip Payton’s Afro-American Realty Company sold, leased empty properties to black Americans. 1920-30 87,000 black Americans arrived from the old south and West Indies, 118,000 whites moved out. Harlem renaissance.. Race riots in 1935 and 1943. Post Second World War Harlem declined. Black community was forced into a small area in Upper Manhattan. Double the unemployment of New York as a whole. 1990 study found that a 15 year old girl in Harlem would have a 65% chance of surviving to 65.

Chicago Riots
July 1917 major race riot in East St Louis, Illinois where black workers were being used to break a strike at an aluminium plant. 48 black Americans were killed and hundreds injured. 26 race riots in the USA in the summer of 1919. Chicago was hit the worst. Eugene Williams entered a beach for whites, he was attacked by white bathers and drowned. When a black American was arrested, a group of black Americans were attacked by the police. Riot confined to the South Side where 90% of the black American population lived. 1,000 black families were made homeless. Population of black Americans in Chicago had doubled 1916-18, black-dominated areas had expanded.

Tulsa Race Riot
Tulsa was a boom town, oil had been found there, attracting workers. Dick Rowland was accused of sexually assaulting a white girl in a lift. Tulsa Tribune published a fictitious story about the event. Greenwood, the predominantly black American neighbourhood was attacked by white mobs 200-300 black Americans killed 1,000 black homes and businesses were burnt. Half of Tulsa’s black population left Tulsa. Background of legal segregation in the South, revitalisation of the KKK.

Watts Riot
Under Kennedy, affirmative action was introduced in federal employment. Under Johnson Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, giving civil equality. Watts Riot of south central LA took place in August 1965. 3,500 black people protested poor housing and employment. Similar riots broke out in over 200 US cities 1964-68. Sparked by the arrest of a young black American motorist. Looting and destruction ensued. 34 were killed, 1,032 injured. A fireman, deputy sheriff and a policeman were killed. Property damage exceeded $40 million mainly to white businesses.

Newark Riot
In 1967 Newark had the highest percentage of substandard housing in the USA and the second highest percentage of crime and infant mortality. July, taxi driver was arrested for assaulting a policeman. National Guard fired on the rioters. 26 black americans had been killed, 1,000 injured, $10 million damage to property. Johnson set up the Kerner Commission to report on the causes.

Question 12

Free at Last

Question 13

Improvements (legal)

Answer 13

13th Amendment 1865 ends slavery. Civil Rights Act 1866 guarantees AA citizenship and equal protection before the law. 14th Amendment 1868 addressed citizenship rights and protection under the law. 15th Amendment 1870 granted African American men the right to vote.
1867 Reconstruction Acts place 10 former CS under military control. Congress created the Department of Justice, and the officer of solicitor general to enforce federal law in the South. Passed the Enforcement Acts 1870-71, which were criminal codes protecting freedmen’s rights to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries. Allowed the government to intervene if states did not comply. New Justice Department prosecuted thousands of Klansmen

Question 14

Negative impacts (legal)

Answer 14

After its ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in November 1865, the South Carolina legislature immediately began to legislate Black Codes. The Black Codes created a separate set of laws, punishments, and acceptable behaviors for anyone with more than one black great-grandparent. Under these Codes, Blacks could only work as farmers or servants and had few Constitutional rights. Restrictions on black land ownership threatened to make economic subservience permanent.

Question 15

Improvements (economic)

Answer 15

Migration tended towards northern cities. Cincinnati, north of Kentucky, had 3,700 black Americans by 1877, 70% had moved from the south.
Thousands of new public schools and three new universities were set up specifically for African Americans 1866-68.
By 1900, 150 African American newspapers existed across the country.

Question 16

Problems (economic)

Answer 16

By 1890 three in four African American farmers were either tenants or sharecroppers, compared to one in three whites. Old plantations were divided up into small farms where rent for use was paid by giving landowners a share of the crop, who were often the original slave owners. To raise money for development, a credit system was introduced which led to high interest and debt amongst sharecroppers. In 1900, male African American workers earned an average of 45% the pay of male white workers.

Question 17

Improvements (Politics)

Answer 17

Due to radical reconstruction and the enforcement of the reconstruction acts by military force, by 1871, 15% of officeholders in the South were black. In the 1870s, 22 African Americans were elected to Congress.

Question 18

Factors in Improvement: Federal Government

Answer 18

1867 Reconstruction Acts place 10 former CS under military control. Congress created the Department of Justice, and the officer of solicitor general to enforce federal law in the South. Passed the Enforcement Acts 1870-71, which were criminal codes protecting freedmen’s rights to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries. Allowed the government to intervene if states did not comply. New Justice Department prosecuted thousands of Klansmen.
The role of the Freedman’s Bureau

Question 19

Factors in Improvement: Supreme Court

Answer 19

13th Amendment 1865 ends slavery. 14th Amendment 1868 addressed citizenship rights and protection under the law. 15th Amendment 1870 granted African American men the right to vote.

Question 20

Factors in Limiting Rights: Federal Government

Answer 20

The 1876 presidential election was disputed, initially resulting in the Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden gaining more electoral votes but 20 states were unresolved. An informal deal was struck, assigning the republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes the unresolved electoral votes in return for the formal ending of Reconstruction.

By 1869 Southern Democrats in Congress had deprived the Freedmans Bureau of much of its funding.

Question 21

Factors in Limitation: Supreme Court

Answer 21

1873 the Slaughter-House Cases held that the Privelegs or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment only protected legal rights of federal U.S. citizenship, not state citizenship, effectively limiting its ability to protect people on a state level.

Question 22

Factors in Improvement: black Americans

Answer 22

By 1900, 150 African American newspapers existed across the country. Chicago Defender encouraged immigration north. Establishment of the Tuskegee Institute, provided degree programmes for black students. Thousands of new public schools and three new universities were set up specifically for African Americans

Question 23

Causes of Failure

Answer 23

Use of white primaries. Roosevelt relies on southern democrats, who helped him to galvanise the support necessary for his landslide victory. Southern democrats voted against the inclusion of farmworkers and maids in the Social Security Act, the Wagner Act, and the Fair Labour Standards Act. An anti-lynching Act passed the House in April 1937 227:120 but was buried by Southerners in the Senate, who continually blocked efforts to bring it to an up-or-down vote on the floor.

States such as Georgia, run by Democrats, intended to maintain white supremacy, segregation, cheap black labour and a white electorate, so they ignored black American grievances. In Greene County, through the early New Deal years, Civil Works Administration projects hired twice as many whites as African Americans, and paid whites 75% more. Eugene Talmadage, the governor of Georgia from 1932, courted rural voters through white-supremacist, anti-corporate tirades, generating great grass roots support. 1933-37, Georgia state government subverted many of the early New Deal programmes. Social security aid during the New Deal was devolved to state governments. Southern Democrats ensured that such benefits would not reach black Americans, most of whom worked in excluded jobs.

Some Southern Democrats campaigned to address black American grievances, notably Huey P. Long. Share our wealth campaign calls for fairer distribution, criticises Social Security calling it insufficient and raising concerns about discrimination in this bill.

A significant cause of the failure to address black American grievances was the all-pervading depression, which focused minds elsewhere, principally unemployment among whites, and for FDR on ‘saving America’ Most black grievances focused on relief, as they were not covered by the Social Security Act or the National Labour Relations Act. This was the fault of the whole federal system rather than simply southern white Democrats

The Supreme Court remained unhelpful to the cause of black American grievances, e.g. Trudeau v Barnes (1933) insisted on all state appeals being exhausted before it would hear cases. Black Americans outside the South continued to suffer de facto segregation and discrimination in housing, employment and education. Their grievances could not be blamed on southern whites.

Question 24

NEW DEAL

Question 25

Did not improve

Answer 25

AAA offered white landowners cash for leaving their fields fallow, which they accepted; they, however did not pass on any of the funds to the black sharecroppers who actually worked the land. African American farmers were often evicted.

1933 National Recovery Administration, responsible for industrial recovery, had hardly anything to offer African Americans as the National Industrial Recovery Act’s provisions covered the industries from which black workers were usually excluded. Neither farm nor domestic labour, two sectors where African Americans constituted a substantial labour force, were covered under the NIRA. Original version of the 1935 Social Security Act did not provide old-age pensions for farm and domestic workers, which automatically excluded a substantial number of senior African Americans (40% in the South). White democrats in Congress insisted on racial segregation for the New Deal programmes. In the first few weeks of operation, CCC camps in the North were integrated. By July 1935 all camps were segregated. Adult white men held the major leadership roles in all the camps. Director Fechner refused to appoint black adults to any supervisory positions.

Roosevelt showed no interest in pushing civil rights issues and refused to back a federal anti-lynching bill – the New Deal produced no improvement in this area.

Question 26

Changes to the Democrat Party

Answer 26

FDR was elected as a president in 1932, and realigned the voting blocks that supported each party. He ran on the New Deal, prioritising government sponsored reactions to the Great Depression. Roosevelt rallied the progressives in the Democrat Party as well as southern Conservatives. His chief opposition came from northeastern conservatives. Roosevelt won the 1932 Democratic primaries only because of John Nance Garner, who controlled the vote of Texas and California.

Question 27

Improved

Answer 27

Black Americans benefited from increased relief payments – 30 per cent of all black Americans were on relief by 1935. The New Deal agenda stipulated that up to 10% of all the programs’ beneficiaries must be African American, which was approximately equal to the rate of the black population in the United States. Black workers participated in all the major programmes that created employment, including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration.

At the instigation of Philip Randolph, the leading AA trade unionist, June 1941, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which created the Fair Employment Practice Committee, stating that the federal government would not hire any person based on their race, colour, creed or national origin in the federal government or defense-related administration. Marine Corps remained all white until 1942. The President’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, championed the cause of racial equality, encouraging Roosevelt to meet with a delegation of AA leaders in September 1942, who demanded full integration into the forces. Roosevelt agreed but did not implement it. McLeod Bethune, a black southern woman, became a close friend of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, she formed a coalition of leaders and black organisations called the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, serving as an advisory board to the Roosevelt administration