Civil Rights Flashcards
What treatment did black Americans face?
Across the USA, black Americans faced negative treatment such as racial segregation and discrimination. While discrimination and inequality was widespread in the North, in the South this was often the law. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in public parks, cinemas, restaurants, schools, universities and on public transport.
What were attitudes like in the ‘Deep South’?
The Deep South is those states in the USA’s south-east with a history of slavery and who formed the Confederacy during the US Civil War. Many people in these states held very traditional and conservative views. These states are Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina Virginia and Florida.
Why do many laws vary between states?
The US has a federal system of government. This means while the constitution gives federal government (President, Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court) some powers, it also gives states the right to pass many of their own laws.
What was the civil rights movement?
The civil rights movement refers to the campaigns for equal rights. A civil rights activist was someone who tried to persuade others to do the same.
Why was it so difficult for black people to receive fair treatment and justice?
Institutions including the police and law courts in the South were full of racist white officials who did not support complaints by black people. Police often beat up black people and crimes against black people were rarely investigated. Black people could not sit on juries, largely because they would have to be registered to vote, which white officials made extremely difficult to do.
What was the Ku Klux Klan?
A group who persecuted Jews, Catholics, communists, and anyone who was not white, especially African Americans. They put burning crosses in front of houses, blew up homes and murdered people. Many policemen and judges in the South were members or sympathetic to the organisation.
How did the Second World War affect campaigns for civil rights?
Over a million black Americans fought in the Second World War, in segregated units, or supported the war effort through work at home. After the war some white people were more sympathetic to civil rights. Moreover, the federal government wad embarrassed by Cold War propaganda that emphasized the denial of rights to black citizens.
How many black Americans could vote in the South?
Before the war around 3% could vote, while in 1956 about 20% were registered to vote.
Why were so few black Americans registered to vote?
White people could stop black people from voting using a variety of official and unofficial methods:
• Employers threatening to sack black employees
• White gangs gathered outside registration and voting places
• Black campaigners and the lawyers and activists who went to court to defend the right to vote frequently faced beatings or murder
• States set their own rules for holding elections
• Unfair voting registration tests, including literacy tests, that would be biased towards white people
What was integration?
When black and white people share all facilities and public services.
What factors contributed to the growth of the civil rights movement in the 1950s?
Factors included:
• Better education for black people, especially in the North, led to more black professionals
• Migration meant that many poor black people moved north and liberal whites moved south
• Southern towns grew, giving black people new job opportunities in industry
• The Cold War made the US government sensitive to international criticism
• New ideas disproved the idea that some races were genetically inferior – inequality was down to education and other social circumstances
• In the Second World War many white people worked with black people and black Americans saw integration abroad
• Television brought events into the living room – racism could not ignored across the USA
What nationwide civil rights organisations were there in the 1950s?
There were many organisations working for civil rights. Notable nationwide groups included the:
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, established 1909)
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE, established 1942)
These groups had more members in the North, partly because they had more white support there.
What groups campaigned for rights in the South?
There were many organisations working for civil rights. Notable nationwide groups included the:
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, established 1909)
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE, established 1942)
These groups had more members in the North, partly because they had more white support there.
What groups campaigned for rights in the South?
Local groups were often church-based. These often had more success in the South. Some local groups did not oppose segregation but wanted equal standards. These groups were important in helping develop tactics of non-violent direct action.
How did the NAACP campaign for civil rights?
Focussed on campaigning through the courts. They set up the Legal Defence Fund (LDF) in 1940 to help black people they believed to be wrongly sent to jail. In 1950 the LDF started fighting against segregation.
What was Plessy v. Ferguson?
A decision by the US Supreme Court in 1896 that declared segregation was allowed under the constitution, as it was ‘separate but equal’. This allowed for Jim Crow laws.
How did the NAACP campaign against Plessy?
The NAACP used two approaches to overcome Plessy. Firstly, they provided evidence that facilities were not equal and, secondly, they argued that equal facilities were not the same as equal opportunities because they reinforced racial inferiority.
How did CORE campaign against segregation?
CORE campaigns used non-violent direct action protests such as boycotts, pickets and sit-ins of segregated places (e.g. lunch counters, public transport).
How did church organisations campaign for civil rights?
Black American churches were important centres of most black communities in the South. Black clergymen were often community leaders and organisers, and were involved in the civil rights movement because:
• Most were paid by the church so would not lose their jobs if they spoke out against white racism
• They were educated and good public speakers
• They were good negotiators
• They had their own network of contacts in the black community
• They could persuade and gain support
• They sometimes used non-violent direct action, but stressed forgiving opponents
What was the RCNL?
The Regional Council of Negro Leadership (set up in Mississippi in 1951) was an example of an organisation that campaigned for black rights within segregation. Led by T.R.M Howard, the RCNL campaigned against police brutality and worked for voter registration. It held rallies and speeches.
What opposition did the civil rights movement face in the South?
They faced violent opposition from the KKK as well as from white Southern churches who used the bible to justify segregation.
Name two men who were murdered for registering to vote in Mississippi, 1955.
Reverend George Lee and Lamar Smith.
When and where was Emmett Till murdered?
The 14 year old from Chicago was murdered in August 1955 in Mississippi.
What happened to Till’s killers?
The trial was reported across the country. The jury cleared the defendants after about an hour. The defendants later sold their story (admitting the murder) to a magazine for $3,500.
What was the impact of Till’s murder?
Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley, insisted on an open casket with an open viewing of her son’s battered body in the funeral home. This led to huge publicity. The NAACP produced a pamphlet called M is for Mississippi and Murder, linking the cases of Till, Lee and Smith.
Who were the Dixiecrats?
The Democrats were the dominant political party of the South. Many politicians opposed integration. The most significant opponents were nicknamed ‘Dixiecrats’ after Southern Democrats who had formed their own breakaway party rather than support a civil rights bill put forward by President Harry Truman in 1948.
What was the Brown v. Topeka case?
NAACP lawyers brought several school desegregation and took them to the US Supreme Court as Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1952. On 17th May 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that the Plessy ruling should no longer apply so that ‘separate but equal’ could no longer be used to justify segregated education.
What was the impact of Brown?
- The Brown case reversed Plessy, sparking off many more desegregation campaigns.
- The Supreme Court set no timetable for desegregation, but in 1955 another Supreme Court case ruled that desegregation should be carried out by states ‘with all deliberate speed’. A vague statement that gave Southern states flexibility.
- In the Deep South progress was slower. Governors of some states, such as Kansas and Mississippi did not accept desegregation. Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia demanded ‘massive resistance’ by states using tactics such as closing schools that tried to desegregate.
- A white backlash began as can be seen from the Southern Manifesto, a declaration signed by 11 Southern States that claimed desegregation was ‘contrary to the Constitution’ and would ‘destroy the system of public education’.
What were the difficulties in desegregating schools?
Especially in the Deep South, many students, parents and teachers were opposed. Black students often faced intimidation and violence by racist mobs. Many black teachers lost their jobs or faced trouble from white students in integrated schools.
What happened at Little Rock High School in 1957?
Little Rock, Arkansas, was desegregating Central High School in 1957. Due to threats and discrimination only nine students were willing to go at the start of the school year. Governor Orval Faubus sent 250 state troopers to ‘keep the peace’ by stopping the black students from entering on the first day of school. On the second day, Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine students, was shouted at by a mob of white people as she walked into school.
What was the significance of Little Rock?
Photographs of Eckford and the white mob were in the newspapers worldwide with the Little Rock Nine becoming famous. The federal government became embarrassed by the publicity. As a result:
• President Eisenhower, who did not initially agree with legally enforcing integration, sent in 1000 federal troops to force Kansas to obey the law.
• Governor Faubus’ state troops were put under federal control using a presidential order.
• Eisenhower explained his actions on TV saying how states had to respect the law.
• At the end of the school year, Governor Faubus closed every Little Rock school for the next school year in order to avoid integration.
• Parents forced schools to re-open as integrated in September 1959.
What were the WCC?
The White Citizens’ Councils (WCC), set up after the Brown ruling, grew rapidly in the late 1950s. They campaigned against desegregation and, like the KKK, carried out threats and violent actions against black families and civil rights activists.
Were there ways for Southern states to avoid total integration?
Yes, many. States drew up plans for gradual desegregation, a school year at a time; segregated within schools; desegregated only one or two schools in an area and introduced ‘testing’ that that skewed against black pupils.
How did civil rights organisations cope with opposition to desegregation in schools?
The NAACP and CORE sent representatives to work with families of children involved in school desegregation. CORE produced a leaflet advising how students should behave during integration and warning them about the hostility they would face.
What was the WPC?
The Women’s Political Council set up in in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1946 to fight discrimination. The WPC were asking for changes to the issues of bus drivers and seating.
Who was secretary of the Montgomery NAACP and leader of its Youth Council?
Rosa Parks
Why did she become the figurehead of the bus boycott?
Parks was a respectable, middle-aged, married woman who was well regarded in the black community. There was nothing disreputable about her that opponents could use to make her look bad.
When was she Parks arrested?
1st December 1955
What action was taken due to Parks’ arrest?
The WPC called for a one-day bus boycott on 5th December. 90% of black passengers boycotted the bus company.
Who was Montgomery’s mayor?
Mayor Gayle
Who was chosen as leader of the MIA?
Martin Luther King
Why was he chosen?
He was new to Montgomery so had no friends or enemies among white officials. Moreover, he was a well-educated and respected clergyman who supported non-violent direct action in order to achieve civil rights.
When did the Montgomery Bus Boycott take place?
5th December 1955 to 20th December 1956.
How did the authorities respond?
Many white people in Montgomery (from Mayor Gayle, to the bus company owners, to the KKK and WCC) opposed the boycott. WCC membership rose sharply and even Mayor Gayle joined. White officials harassed MIA officials and arrested them on minor charges such as speeding. On 22nd February 89 MIA members, including King, were arrested for disrupting lawful business. Their trial increased publicity although King was found guilty and made to pay a $500 fine.
What system was introduced to help the boycott?
The MIA met with church groups and other organisations to set up car pools, which began on 12th December.
Why was the boycott successful?
Overall it was a combination of organisation, commitment, publicity and the leadership of King, Jo Ann Robinson (President of the WPC and English teacher who had been writing to Mayor Gayle since 1954), E.D. Nixon (NAACP member helped organise the boycott and went on fundraising tours) and Ralph David Abernathy (NAACP member and a clergyman who worked closely with King).
Why was the boycott important?
For several reasons:
• Showed black people could organise mass resistance
• Attracted widespread support and publicity
• Made King a well known figure
• Showed how non-violent direct action could work
What happened after the boycott?
While buses were desegregated the day after the boycott ended on 21st December 1956, there was still a white backlash. Several black churches were firebombed as were the homes of MIA leaders including King. Bus services had to be suspended for several weeks as shots were fired at black people. Bus stops and other facilities remained segregated for years after.
How did the federal government respond to the civil rights movement?
President Eisenhower introduced the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
