Black Civil Rights Flashcards
What was passed on the 31st Jan 1865?
13th Amendment, abolishing slavery
What was passed on the 9th July 1868?
14th Amendment, made all people born or naturalised in the USA citizens (including slaves)
When was the 15th Amendment passed?
3rd Feb 1870, made all US citizens have equal voting rights (except women)
What happened to Fannie Lou Hamer in 1962?
She tried to register to vote in Ruleville, Mississipi and was sacked from her job and told that people “weren’t ready” for her to do this
Segregation defintion
The enforced legal seperation of racial groups in public life
How many anit-black race riots in 1919?
25
Who was Booker T. Washington?
A famous black American who supported accepting segregation. Had a significant following from wealthy black Americans and some whites. They felt he saw how Southern Whites feared black people getting equality.
What were some of the Jim Crow Laws?
Where to sit on a tram, where to live, which schools to go to. Workplaces became segregated with seperate entrances and exits.
What was the impact of the Jim Crow Laws?
Meant to ease white southerners fears after losing control when slavery ended. It was the “final solution”
How were black people disriminated against when voting?
Voters had to pass an almost impossible literacy test to pass and in some states had to be home owners
How many black people eligible to vote in 1896 and 1904?
In 1896 it was 130,334 and in 1904 it was 1342
Between 1915 and 1930 how many white men were lynched?
65
Between 1915 and 1930 how many black men were lynched?
579
What happened to Emmet Til in 1955?
At 14, he was lynched for allegedly asking a white woman on a date. He wasn’t even from the South. He was from Chicago visitng relations in the South
When was Plessy vs. Ferguson and what did it rule?
In 1896 it ruled that depsite the 14th Amendment segregation was constitutional if provision for both races was equal
Why didn’t Presidents do more against segregation?
They could express an opinion but could do very little to enforce legislation. When the depression hit and the focus shifted on correcting that civil rights fell even further down the agenda
What did some Presidents think about segregation?
Wilson had no problem with segregation
Harding was pro civil rights and addressed 30,000 people about the vils of segregation but did nothung
Coolidge and Harding were committed to a Laissez-faire attitude
What did black people do between 1917 and 1932?
There was a wave of black migration from South to North and East
In 1920 how many of the black people in the North lived in Chicago?
40%
When and why did the black migration begin?
Began in WW1 with a demand for labour in munitions factories in the inudstrial centres. They advertised in Southern newspapers offering housing, free travel and higher wages.
When and why did the black migration begin?
Began in WW1 with a demand for labour in munitions factories in the inudstrial centres. They advertised in Southern newspapers offering housing, free travel and higher wages.
What could black people now do in the North?
Vote and some were elected to local and federal government
When was Oscar Stanton De Priest elected into congress?
1929
What was clear in Chicago 1919?
Black people could keep a mayor in power so therefore there needs were listened to by politicians and in turn a black business elite came to prominence which could also lobby politicians
Who did black people shift their vote to in the 1930s?
Shifted from Republican (who abolished slavery) to Democrat (the party of the new deal)
Why did Roosvelelt do little to further civil rights?
He needed pro-segregation politicians to pass the new deal legislation
What did Roosevelt pass in WW2 bannining racial discrimination in the defence industry?
Executive Order 8802
What did the new deal do for black people?
The agencies set up to provide work projects to give relief were meant to employ on “merit alone”. - Black people were moved off projects for white people.
Black farm workers were sacked in their thousands.
Social security provisions did not apply to farm workers or those who worked in other people’s homes.
Some new deal measures did help but only because of their situation (⅓ of low income housing built had black tenants, because many of the poorest people eligible were black)
Who did black people have more support with over their treatment during the new deal than the civil rights one?
Communist organisations
When did the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) turn down the case of 9 young black men raping two white girls on a train in Scottsboro, Alabama?
- Communist lawyers instead took on the case and uncovered a conspiracy.
How many NAACP members in Birmingham, Alabama during 1930s?
6
How many black communists in Birmingham, Alabama during 1930s?
3000
What was he Housewives Leagues boycott?
“Don’t buy from where you can’t work”
What did Father Divine set up in Harlem?
The Peace Mission church group. Set up restaurants and sold food
How many people did A. Phillip Randolph lead in Washington in protest to black workers being excluded of the economic boom in 1939?
100,000
How did Roosevelt respond to the Washington protest?
He executed EO 8802
How many defense workers were black in 1942?
3%
How many defense workers were black in 1944?
8%
