Black Americans In The 1950's Flashcards
What is segregation?
Separating groups of people, usually by race or religion.
What are the Jim Crow laws?
Jim Crow was a lazy, stupid black character played by a white man. The ‘black code’ laws enforcing segregation was nicknamed this.
What was Segregation in the North like?
Segregation in the North was produced by discrimination.
What was life like for black people in the North?
-Usually had worst-paid jobs. Had to live in poorest parts of towns/cities called ‘ghettos’. Workers in school/hospital deal with old buildings/old equipment.
What was Segregation in the South like?
Segregation was different. Racist state laws, often called Jim Crow laws, enforced Segregation.
What were living in the South like for black people?
-Can’t eat in ‘white’ restaurants. -Thrown off bus or arrested if not in coloured section. -Black children couldn’t go to nearest school if it was a ‘white school’.
How did many Southern white people see black people as?
Racially inferior: ‘childlike’, lazy and unintelligent.
What were jobs in the South like for black people?
Many worked on farms as domestic servants. Few in Southern towns could find work in factories, even the lowest-paid jobs.
What was law like in the South?
Police/law courts were full of racist officials who didn’t support complaints by black people.
What was law like in the Deep South?
Many policemen and judges were members of Ku Klux Klan. Black people regularly beaten up to get them to confess crimes they didn’t do.
What is Negro crime?
If a black person killed a black person it often was not investigated.
Effect of WW2 on black and white people relations?
Some white people after working with black people in WW2 were more open to civil rights.
What were the benefits for black people having voting rights?
Politicians would need to make policies which are accepted by black people to gain their votes.
What were the reaction in the South of black people voting rights?
In many Southern states, white people stopped black people from voting by both official and unofficial methods.
What methods did white people do to prevent black people voting?
Employers threatened to sack black people. Made literacy qualifications to register harder so couldn’t vote. White gangs physically stopped black people from voting.
Factors that contributed to growth of civil rights movement?
Cold War. Television. WW2. New ideas. Education. Migration. Southern cities grew.
What civil rights organisations were made?
NAACP and CORE. These groups had more members in the North.
What is NAACP? When was it set up?
National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. Set up in 1909.
What is CORE?
Congress of Racial Equality. Set up in 1942.
Why were so many black clergyman involved in civil rights movement?
Because: most were paid by church so wouldn’t lose job. Were educated and effective speakers.
What were black churches often used for?
Meetings and gathering points for marches and protests.
What was some white people views on church organisations?
Some approved as it urged non-violence. Other whites were suspicious. They thought they were too organised and might become a threat.
Who was Emmett Till?
He was a 14 year old who was visiting relatives. He was murdered horribly by the husband of the woman Till apparently grabbed. Media outrage of his murder was huge.
