Black Americans in the 1950s

Question 1

What was segregation like in the North?

Answer 1

Segregation in the North came as a result of discrimination. Black people had the worst paid jobs, and were forced to live in crowded ghettos with poor, run-down facilities.

Question 2

What was segregation like in the South?

Answer 2

Segregation was enforced by the law (Jim Crow laws). Black and white facilities such as restaurants, buses and churches were kept completely seperate and there were facilities for both whites and blacks. Black facilities were funded significantly less and were often run-down.

Question 3

Why did the Civil Rights Movement grow in the 1950s?

Answer 3

• Improved education for black people
• Research - suggested that black people were not at all inferior to white people
• TVs - meant that people become more aware of racial injustice
• Cold War - The US were increasingly concerned about their international image
• Growth of cities - industries in the South grew, providing job opportunities
• Migration - communities changed as many black people migrated north

Question 4

What opposition did black people face?

Answer 4

• The KKK - Southern church organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan persecuted the blacks
• Emmett Till - a 14 year old black boy who was kidknapped at murdered in 1955
• Dixiecrats - a political group which broke away from the democratic party as they disagreed with Truman’s civil rights bill in 1948.

Question 5

Why was Emmett Till’s death significant?

Answer 5

Photos of Till’s mutilated body spread across the US which horrified many Americans and brought awareness to the severe injustices in the South. This publicity helped fuel the Civil Rights Movement.

Question 6

What was the statistics for black voters?

Answer 6

By 1956, around 20% of black Americnas in the South had registered to vote: only 3% were registered before the war.

Question 7

Why was it difficult for blacks to vote?

Answer 7

• White employers threatened to sack black employees who registered to vote
• White gangs gathered outside voting places to physically stop black Americans from voting.
• Most states had a literacy test to register to vote which were made intentionally harder for black people.

Question 8

What was the focus on the NAACP?

Answer 8

They focused on fighting for civil rights in court. They set up the Legal Defence Fund in 1940 to help wrongly convicted black people appeal their convictions. Their legal fight faced the “seperate but equal” ruling.

Question 9

How did the NAACP argue their case?

Answer 9

They provided evidence that seperate facilities were not equal, and argued that equal facilities were not the same as equal opportunities.

Question 10

What was the aim of CORE?

Answer 10

CORE consisted largely of white members, and they held peaceful, non-violent campaigns to target segregation. Their members were trained to withstand violent opposition.

Question 11

Why were church clergymen often community leaders?

Answer 11

• They were well paid by the chuch and would not risk losing their jobs.
• They were educated, effective speakers
• They could negotiate with the white community
• They could organise people and events