BDC CH. 8

Question 1

What was the concept of racial uplift?

Answer 1

accommodationist-type strategy

• built/strengthened segregated institutions
• enlisted white cooperation/support for nonpolitical causes like public health + education
  (BE)

Question 2

How did the black public health campaign receive support from whites?

Answer 2

stressed that germs crossed racial lines

• if blacks get sick whites will get sick as well
• whites encouraged b/c it was an issue that didn’t harm racial hierarchy
  (IW)

Question 3

What was the black public health campaign (National Negro Health Movement)?

Answer 3

• local CIC committees helped support black health support campaign
• 1932 = US Public Health Service creates Office of Negro Health Work
• helped spread Negro Health Week nationally (was started by Booker T.)
  (LNH)

Question 4

How did blacks use the National Negro Health Movement to their advantage?

Answer 4

used public health issue to make political claims + criticize segregation

• Charleston 1932 = women’s club housing survey to identify worst slums
• influenced siting of city’s first public housing
  (CI)

Question 5

Who were most responsible for lobbying for state/local black issues?

Answer 5

middle class black women

• were already highly organized through clubs/church
• inc. white supremacy further enhanced their importance
  (WI)

Question 6

How did increased white supremacy make black women more important leaders in the community?

Answer 6

• disenfranchisement stripped black men of voting + holding office
• segregation was harshest on black men
• women already accustomed to not voting but skilled in organization adapted better to new racial order
• found it easier to work in non-confrontational manner
• whites saw black women as less threatening (allowed them to speak their mind more)
• had support of white women (were keenest supporters of interracial cooperation among whites)
  (DSWFWH)

Question 7

What was the most important women’s initiative?

Answer 7

• 1920 = two white women (Sara Estelle Haskin + Carrie Parks Johnson)
• went to Tuskegee Institute to meet w/ ten leaders of National Association of Colored Women (NACW)
• talked of ways to promote interracial understanding
• encouraged by wartime cooperation w/in YWCA
  (NWTE)

Question 8

What happened after the 1920 meeting between Haskin + Johnson + the NACW leaders?

Answer 8

• black women invited to special meeting of Southern white women in Memphis
• white women were veterans of temperance movement + women’s suffrage campaign
• white female Southern progressives still just as against racial integration as men

Question 9

What happened at the Memphis meeting?

Answer 9

• black women greeted warmly
• black women gave speeches
• white women listened + sought an honest understanding of black grievances
• landmark event
  (BBWL)

Question 10

What effect did the Memphis meeting have?

Answer 10

• prompted all male CIC to form a Committee on Women’s Work
• state/local women’s committees multiplied (most organized under Methodist church)
• 1927 = over 600 local committees in interracial work (mostly improving black living conditions)
  (PSN)

Question 11

What were some of the actions taken by the local women’s committees?

Answer 11

• helped establish dental/health clinics in public schools
• secured library/hospital privileges
• set up municipal playgrounds
  (HSS)

Question 12

What happened in the late 20s after the Memphis meeting?

Answer 12

enthusiasm for interracial cooperation ran out of steam

• interracial gatherings began to lose symbolic impact
• state/local committees became dormant
• meetings w/ educated black women no longer popular
  (ISM)

Question 13

What event occurred in 1930?

Answer 13

Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching takes action (ASWPL)

• led by Jesse Daniel Ames
• disputes argument lynching protects white women from black rape
• shamed law enforcement officials who turned prisoners over to mobs
• tried to prevent threatened lynchings from happening
  (LDST)

Question 14

What did the ASWPL think of a federal ban on lynching?

Answer 14

actually opposed federal action

• Southern congressmen managed to defeat several anti-lynching bills
• but threat of federal intervention made ASWPL’s argument for state action more persuasive
  (SB)

Question 15

What was the impact of the ASWPL’s campaign against lynching?

Answer 15

• by 1941 they’d secured pledges against lynching from almost 1400 sheriffs/policemen

Question 16

How were the limitations of racial uplift + interracial cooperation increasingly apparent in 1930?

Answer 16

local funding for black causes went to 0 after start of Depression

Depression revealed vulnerability of black institution building

• black owned banks + insurance companies + fraternal societies all failed in Depression

Depression undermined voluntarism

• only federal gov. had means to alleviate unemployment + build public facilities + improve living conditions
• many blacks looking to Roosevelt administration to better their situation in the South
  (LDD)

Question 17

How has the interracial cooperation movement shown to always have been a poor substitute for political action?

Answer 17

• CIC had always drawn black criticism since its creation for being too weak + ineffective + conservative
• saw it as org. wanting to preserve status quo instead of changing it
• CIC did not seek political rights for southern blacks + failed to question racial segregation
• did not want to challenge structure of white supremacy
  (CSCD)

Question 18

Why were the CIC so careful not to attack white supremacy too badly?

Answer 18

• thought attacking Jim Crow system would rekindle white nightmares of Reconstruction
• could evoke even greater violence + repression
  (TC)

Question 19

What were the attitudes of white members of the CIC?

Answer 19

• felt that black progress could be achieved w/in confines of segregation
• true to extent but segregation + true equality were incompatible
• white superiority was very essence of racial segregation
• why most white Southerners suspicious of interracial cooperation
  (FTWW)

Question 20

What was an example of how whites w/ every interracial contact had to make sure it explicitly underlined black inferiority?

Answer 20

• white custom of withholding courtesy titles from black people (Mr/Mrs.)

Question 21

How did the CIC’s unwillingness to confront white supremacy reflect the conservatism of its white supporters?

Answer 21

• Memphis meeting failed to produce common program b/c black women demands deemed too radical
• blacks wanted better schools + child welfare + more respect of blacks in white newspapers
• blacks wanted equal transport facilities + protection of black girls + suppression of lynching + voting
  (MBB)

Question 22

What did the more liberal members of the CIC do in the 1930s?

Answer 22

• saw interracial cooperation had reached point of diminishing returns
• looked to influencing Roosevelt administration to promote change in South
  (SL)

Question 23

Who was Harold Ickes?

Answer 23

• Roosevelt cabinet member (Secretary of Interior)
• former president of Chicago NAACP
• brought concern of racial justice to New Deal
• prohibited racial discrimination in Public Works Association
• required every building contract to have a fair employment clause
• made the gov. more accessible to black opinions
  (RFBPRM)

Question 24

What was an effect of the New Deal on black opinion access to the government?

Answer 24

had established tier of black advisers in gov. departments/agencies

• Black Cabinet
• did not function as policy making body but exercised great influence over New Deal implementations
  (BD)

Question 25

How did campaigns to improve black education reveal the benefits of racial uplift?

Answer 25

• united black community
• elicited valuable support from whites
• Rosenwald Fund stimulated massive black Southern education funding/donations from residents
• increase of state funding helped as well
• blacks still retained faith in education entering Depression (parent-teacher associations)
• desire for good education led many to migrate to cities (only place blacks could go to public high school)
  (UERIBD)

Question 26

What had been an ongoing campaign by blacks when it came to education?

Answer 26

for black public schools to be staffed exclusively w/ black teachers

• had largely achieved objective by WWI
• NC passed bill in 1919 confining white teachers to white schools
• black teachers became majority in black private schools by 1930
  (HNB)

Question 27

What organization tactics did black teachers use to press for educational improvements?

Answer 27

had formed 5 national associations

• cultivated philanthropic orgs.
• influenced Southern whites through CIC
• criticized racism in textbooks
• decried racial stereotypes in Hollywood movies
• promoted teaching of black history
• sought recognition from the NEA
• lobbied the federal gov.
  (CICDPSL)

Question 28

What were the costs/compromises involved in the campaign for bette education?

Answer 28

black teachers had to bend to demands of segregation

• white supremacists tightened control over state funded black colleges post disenfranchisement

black teachers pressured to keep academic standards low

white support contingent on black acquiescence to white supremacy
(BBW)

Question 29

How did whites look at black teachers?

Answer 29

leaders but marginal leaders

• not elected + beholden to white school boards/state officials
• blacks couldn’t demand + bargain + negotiate
• had to resort to self-belittlement strategies to get white support
  (NBH)

Question 30

What are a couple examples of degrading strategies used by black educators to secure white support?

Answer 30

• WH Hubbard = sent students to do jobs at all girls school in return for used school materials
• Laurence Jones = put on work overalls to demean himself when meeting w/ white state officials
  (WL)

Question 31

How did the degrading strategies used by people like Hubbard + Jones make them even more dependent on whites?

Answer 31

philanthropic $$$ brought improvement but at cost of inc. bureaucratic control by Southern whites

• black owned schools had to be deeded to county education boards to receive Rosenwald $$$
• some private black schools only survived by accepting state $$$/control
• black state agents on General Education Board couldn’t challenge white supremacy
• black teachers were appointed by white county school superintendents
  (BSBB)

Question 32

What was the relationship between white superintendents + black principals in the new “training schools” of the 20, 30, 40s?

Answer 32

• closely monitored black principal work/after school activities
• superintendents treated them as errand boys
• expected to tell them what was going on in black community + inform blacks (racial diplomats)
  (CSE)

Question 33

What was the effect of black principals having to act as racial diplomats between white superintendents + the black community?

Answer 33

becomes impossible to know where blacks loyalty was

• widespread perception by blacks that teachers/ministers acted as spies for whites
• temptation to sell out group for own self interest was great
• compromised position of teachers in black society (became distrust worthy)
  (WTC)

Question 34

Why did teachers becoming agents for whites didn’t necessarily mean they were selling out the race?

Answer 34

some said they wanted to manipulate whites

• forward black interests

Question 35

What were some of the benefits awarded to black teachers that weren’t available to other community members?

Answer 35

enjoyed greater freedom of speech

• white superintendents rarely visited black schools
• black schools mostly run by black GEB officials to promote “manual work” (Jeanes teachers)
• Jeanes teachers began growing in power + took on many leadership tasks in black schools
• acted as general social workers + problem solvers
  (WBJA)

Question 36

What were some of the powers of the Jeanes teachers in black schools?

Answer 36

• hiring/firing of teachers
• lobbying school boards
• raising funds
• organizing public health campaigns
• setting up PTAs
• establishing homemakers’ clubs
  (HLROSE)

Question 37

Why did blacks beginning in the 30s begin to question whether the campaign for better schools could bring about fundamental social change?

Answer 37

Southern black kids receiving less public funding than ever during the Depression

• even when black schools improved so did white schools keeping the gap the same

whites still monopolized political power + owned nearly all wealth + subjected blacks to discrimination

• no school could solve all these issues
• whites were encouraging black education as a means to divert them to nonpolitical ambitions
  (SW)

Question 38

What was the state of most black schools in the 30s?

Answer 38

dreadful + dilapidated

• most lacked basic school supplies
• a lot of the staff was poorly trained + underpaid
• most classrooms were overpacked
  (MAM)

Question 39

Why did many black intellectuals in the 30s begin to doubt education could lead to significant social reform?

Answer 39

of black college kids inc. but were degrading

• began adopting white college norms like sports + greek societies
• imitated more white academic programs
• began to tarnish theory of talented tenth leading the race
  (BIB)

Question 40

What were some good things about the black education campaign in the 30s?

Answer 40

• black teachers still encouraged racial pride + self ambition while under white control
• black teachers supported Carter Woodson’s Negro History movement (formed Negro History weeks)
  (BB)

Question 41

How did the relationship between democracy + black education grow in the 30s?

Answer 41

• democratic ideals shared by New Deal + progressive educators
• white schools argued education was essential for survival of democracy
• black teachers used arguments to further curriculums around equal rights + democracy
  (DWB)

Question 42

How were the black colleges considered “oases of freedom”?

Answer 42

• some permitted opening of NAACP chapters
• nearly all allowed outside speakers
• teachers enjoyed great deal of freedom
• were not autocratic institutions of legend
  (SNTW)

Question 43

What was the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC)?

Answer 43

one of most important civil rights orgs. of New Deal era

• started after student protest at Virginia State (1937)
• was a strike against oppressive rules (forced president to permit student gov. association)
• Virginia Union students petitioned state legislature against spending cuts + racial inequality same year
• was an offshoot of NNC but not exclusively student movement
• won support of black college presidents
  (SWVWW)

Question 44

What were some of the measures supported by the SYNC?

Answer 44

• supported tobacco worker strikes in Richmond
• garbage worker strikes in Atlanta
• teamster strikes in New Orleans
• launched South-wide “right to vote” campaign in 1940
  (SGTL)

Question 45

What was the Durham Manifesto of 1942?

Answer 45

interracial cooperation document

• opposed compulsory segregation lightly
• stressed current problems of racial segregation + neglect
  (OS)

Question 46

What was the effect of the Durham Manifesto?

Answer 46

secured enough white support to create Southern Regional Council (SRC)

• attracted criticism for its failure to go against Jim Crow
• but became source of info/support for Civil Rights Movement of 50s/60s
  (AB)