Black Americans In The Early 1950s Flashcards
What is segregation?
Seperating groups of people usulay by race or religion
What is discrimination?
Treating people differently because fo their race or religion…
What was an ghetto?
The poorest parst of the town. Usualy had a high black population
Why did many black people live in ghettos?
Theu didn:t have a good educaton or a good job and therefore had a low income
Describe a ghetto?
Low income area
Prodomantly black population
Non maintained well and had poor facilities
Normally had a shortage of supplies
What were the racist laws called in the south?
Jim Crow laws
What did Jim Crow laws do?
Encorced segregation
Give exampels of segreagation in the south?
Busses (black people had to sit in the back.
There would be white only toilets ect
What was normaly a reccuring theme through all of the “black” schools, toilets ect?
Low quality
Low funded
Not maintained
Newrly always worse than the white one
What were federal laws?
Laws that governmed the whole country
What were state laws?
Laws which only effected the individual state
What where white children brought up to believe?
That black people were inferior to them
That black people were lazy and uninteligent
Hwo were black sympathises treated?
As badley as black people
What was the police and law enforcment full of?
White racists
KKK members
How were black people treated by police?
Theu were regualy beaten up untill they confesed to crimes that they didn’t commit
Imprisoned for no reason/ given really harsh sentences
Pften presented in court with White Layers who wouldn’ deffend the client (as they were black)
Theu couldn’t be on a jury
What would happen to someone who killed a black person?
Probaly nothing
If a black person killed another black person then the crime would be really unlikly to make it past a report stage
What does the KKK stand for?
Ku Klux Klan
What could the KKK do?
Persecuted people who wern’t white
Theu burnt crosses in front of housed
Blew up homes and murdered people
How did WW2 help the civil rights cause?
Made people see black people as more able
It started the Cold War where the USSR would always point out the racial inequality in the “free world” -it was an enmarisment for the government- (so they would be more likely to make it better)
In 1954 how mnay southern towns had black policemen?
143
In 1956 how mnay black americans were registed to vote?
What about before the war?
20%
3% before WW2
Hwo were black people prevented from voting?
- White employers threatened to sack black voters who voted
- On voting/ regestering days white ganges hanged outside voting places and beat up black american’s for trying to vote
- Black people (who went to court to deffend their right to vote) were often beaten up or murdered
- States set their own rules for voting - some states made it harder for black people to vote eg by giving them a harder reading test
How did education help the Civil Roghts movement?
Better education of black americans lead to some people seeing them as more equal
How did migration help the Civil Roghts movement?
Poor black people moved north (for a better life)
Liberal whites moved south (to get away from the Black Americans)
(Made the difference more noticable - more people agnoleged change was needed)
How did the frowth of southern cities help the Civil Roghts movement?
More jobs for black people
How did the Cold War help the Civil Rights movement?
Made the government sensitive about how they would be seen in the world
How did Television help the Civil Rights movement?
Made the horrors of what was happening to more apparent
How did WW2 help the Civil Rights movement?
Some whites saw blacks as more able, having worked with them
Black Americans pushed for intergration after seeing it abroad
When was NAACP set up?
1909
What did NAACP stand for?
National Association of the Advancment of Colored People
When was CORE set up?
1942
What did CORE stand for?
Congress of Racial Equality
What did NAACP and CORE both believe in?
Non violence
Alot more things
What did NAACP focus on?
Fighting Civil Rights in the courts
What did NAACP set up?
When?
LDF - Legal Deffence Fund to help wrongly convicted black people to appeal
1940
What did LDF eventualy decide?
When?
1950
Not to work with equal but seperate courts but to work by chainging the laws
Where did “seperate but legal” come from?
Plessy v. Ferguson Court case in 1896
What did the Plessy v. Ferguson case do?
Uphels Jim Crow laws
It said segregation was acceptable of theu were equal
How did the NAACP overcome Plessy?
Firstly - they provided proof that the facilities wern’t equal
Secondly - they argued that equal facilities wern’t the same as equal opotunity. Theu have psychological studies to show how segregation in schools made black pupils feel inferior
Where did CORE mainly work?
What may habe this caused?
The North
May have caused them to have a lower amount of members that NAACP
Why was CORE unusual?
In the early years most of their members where white and middle class
What tyoe of tactics did CORE use?
Sit ins
Peaceful protests
Pickets
Non violent things
What did CORE train it’s members to do?
Resist pain and make sure that they never resorted to violence even if spat on or swan at
Best way to lay if they were being beaten up
What was a picket?
Demonstarations outside a place you believe is doing wrong
Why were black priests and clergy often involved in the Civil Rights movement?
Most were paid by the church so they wouldn’t loose there jibs of they spoke out against rasism
Theu could gain support of a lot of black people
They were often educated and good speakers
They often had a good network of contacts
They wanted to do the right thing
Why were black churches often targeted by white violence?
They were often used as meeting places for civil rights
What did black churches stress?
There shoud be no violence (Non violence)
You should forgive people who have been abusing you
What did some white people think about black churches?
Many white poeple aproved of it because they stressed non violence
Other white people were suspisious of them because they saw them as a threat
What did many white polotitions think about black churches?
Many liked them because if they had to meet with the black community they would rather meet with priests who were normally well educated and polite
What would black churches do?
Prganise mass
Organises picnics
Celebrate and prey
Organise classes that taught children values such as obedience and forgivness
They would also orginise protests
When was the RCNL set up?
Where?
1951
Mississipi
What does the RCNL stand for?
Regional Counsil of Negro Leadership
Who was the RCNL’s leader in 1951?
T.R.M Howard
Where did T.R.M Howard live?
Mound Bayou (an all black town)
What did the RCNL do?
Campaigned for black rights withing segregation and focused of voter regestration
Also about police brutality of black people
Give an example of what the RCNL did?
Facts?
Held anual rallys between 1952-55
Crowds over 10,000
Where was a big place for protests?
Why?
In universities
The Black Americans would be well educated and therefore would be more accpeted by the white people
Who claimed that the bible said intergration was a sin?
The Southern Church Organisers
Who were two people murdered because they tried to vote?
Where and when?
George Lee
Lamar Smith
Mississippi, 1955
What happened to the people who murdered Lee and Smith?
No arrests
Lee’s death was put down to a car accident
Who was Emmett Till?
A 14 year old boy from Chicargo who was visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955
What happened to make Emmet Till go into the store?
After telling his cousin about his white girlfriend he was dared to go into a shop and talk to Carolyn (Roy’s Wife) - he went into the shop and boight some sweets and then left shortly after
What is said to have happened in the store?
Carolyn said that he grabbed her and made sexual suggestions, As she ran to the car for her gun (in self deffence) Till wolve whissled at her (this bit has been confermed by Till’s cousins)
What happened after the incident in the store with Emmet Till?
When Roy Bryant returned from his trip he was told about what happened to his wife. The next night with his half brother, they went to kindap Till from his uncles house.
Describe the actual murder of Emmett Till?
Roy Bryant and his half brother beat Till up, then shot him and dumped his body into the river with heavy weights (attacked to his neck) and barbed wire.
The body was found 3 days latter
By 1955 what was normal in Mississippi?
Murders of Black Americans
What was special about Emmett Till’s funeral?
His mother (Mamie Bradley) insisted on having an open coffin funeral (in Chicargo) which attracted press ehich put pictures of his brutal murder on the newspaper. This caused a public outcry.
What happened to Till’s murderers?
The triall (which was being reported on across the country) only lasted 1 hour with a verdict of not guilty
What eventually happened to the murderers of Emmett Till?
They sold their story (admitting to the murder) to a magazine for $3,500 (they actually profited of the murder)
What was the NAACP’s reaction to the murder of Emmet Till?
They created a pamflet called “M is for Mississippi and Murder”. It linked Lee’s, Smith’s and Till’s death
What did southern members of the House of representitives and congress often block?
Laws trying to help Civil Rights
Who were the most significant opponents to Civil Rights in the government?
Dixiecrats
Who were the dixiecrats?
Southern democrats who formed their own breakaway party rather than support Civil Roghts bills.
What happened to the Dixiecrats?
By 1954 theu rejoined the democrats
When did the Dixiecrats split from the Democrats?
Why?
1948
Because Truman put forward a Civil Rights bill
Why did some people think that Civil Rights was never going to happen?
Even if you won court cases you needed to governers and the police to enfore it.
This rarley every happened in the South
Why was the main difference between the North and the South?
The South had actual racist laws whilst the North didn’t have racist laws but due to bad education and other factors black people were often segregated a lot
