Civil Rights Depth Studies Flashcards
What percentage of African Americans of voting age were registered in Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi during the Gilded Age?
Virginia: 15%
Alabama and Mississippi: 2%
What percentage of African Americans were tenant farmers or sharecroppers in the Gilded Age?
75%
At its peak, how many African Americans were lynched in one year?
161
What proportion of African Americans lived in the South during the Gilded Age?
9 out of 10
What percentage of eligible African American children were enrolled in school during the Gilded Age?
40%
What percentage of African Americans supported Roosevelt in 1936?
75%
How did the number of African Americans working in federal government change under Roosevelt?
Roosevelt tripled the number of African Americans working in federal government.
How did the Federal Housing Administration harm AAs?
Refused to insure mortgages in African American neighbourhoods.
What was black life expectancy in the Gilded Age?
33
What was a benefit and limitation of the Social Security Act for African Americans?
It returned a greater percentage of earnings to low paid workers which disproportionately favoured African Americans. However, it did not extend into many African American jobs such as tenant farmers or sharecroppers.
Why was the acreage reduction of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration harmful to African Americans?
The acreage reduction aimed to increase prices for farmers. It is estimated that 100,000 African Americans lost their jobs as a result.
How many African Americans had joined the CIO by 1939?
200,000
What is a statistic representing the failure of the civil rights movement to address economic inequality?
The unemployment rate of African Americans was twice the national average.
Which two athletes raised the Black Power fist at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics?
John Carlos and Tommy Smith
What did the downturn of the 1880s mean for a particular Native American tribe?
Meat subsidies were cut to the Lakota tribe
How many women did Franklin Roosevelt appoint to senior government positions?
22
How many women worked in the Civil Works Administration?
275,000
How many women worked in the Works Progress Administration?
300,000
How many women worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps?
None
How many women were employed in New Deal relief in total?
743,000
Why did NIRA harm women in some respect?
It established lower rates of pay for women.
What legislation passed in 1932 harmed married women?
Legislation passed in 1932 prevented companies from hiring married women. This was repealed in 1937
What was the Knights of Labor membership by 1886?
700,000
What had happened to KoL membership by the summer of 1887?
It had fallen from more by half after the Haymarket Affair, and it continued to plummet.
What was the growth rate during the Gilded Age?
About 7%
What characterised the periods 1873-77 and 1893-97?
Economic downturns, unemployment rose to around 16%. The lack of a welfare state meant that poverty was fundamental to working class life, especially with growing inequality.
How many rail workers were killed in accidents in 1889?
2000 workers
How did union membership change from 1933 to 1938?
1933 (3.7 million)
1938 (8 million)
What was the minimum wage introduced by the Fair Labour Standards Act (1938)?
25 cents an hour. Child labour was also banned.
How were African Americans systematically disenfranchised in the South?
Literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes. The Supreme Court declared these constitutional in ‘Williams vs Mississippi’ (1898).
What percentage of African Americans of voting age were registered in Mississippi after 1890?
6%
What was the outcome of United States vs Cruikshank (1876)?
In United States v. Cruikshank (1876) the Supreme Court overturned the convictions of whites who had murdered hundreds of African Americans who had organized for political and civil rights.
At its peak, how many African Americans were lynched in a single year?
161
What did Tuskegee University offer students?
Booker T Washington established Tuskegee University in 1881. It offered training in agricultural and manual trades, as well as some academic learning.
What was Booker T Washington’s Atlanta compromise?
Booker T’s Atlanta Compromise speech can be viewed as a rationale for segregation and disenfranchisement. He implored African Americans to focus on their opportunities rather than their disadvantages, and to focus on personal and educational improvement. He was invited to the white house by Theodore Roosevelt.
To whom and when was the first Harvard PhD awarded to an African American?
William E.B du Bois in 1896.
Which union accepted African Americans in the Gilded Age?
The Knights of Labor, though the American Federation of Labor did not.
What was the attitude of the Famers’ Alliance (1870/80s) towards African Americans?
The Farmers’ Alliance was a group that emerged in the 1870s/80s and advocated for improved farming conditions, excluded African Americans. AAs established the Colored Farmers Alliance which tried to negotiate with their white counterparts but they had little success.
Did African Americans voting rights improve during the New Deal?
No, they still remained disenfranchised by literacy tests and poll taxes in the South.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance took place during this period. This saw an explosion of African American, music, art, and expression. Harlem was the destination for many African Americans who moved North as part of the Great Migration away from the Jim Crow South.
What percentage of African Americans were living in the South in 1940?
77%
What was the psychological impact of Black Power?
It gave the black community a sense of pride in their identity.
What did Martin Luther King say about Malcom X?
“I totally disagree with many of his political and philosophical views, as I understand them.”
What was the wider focus of the Black Power movement compared to the Civil Rights Movement?
Protesting segregation, they believed, failed to adequately address the poverty and powerlessness that generations of systemic discrimination and racism had imposed on so many Black Americans. The unemployment rate of African Americans was twice the national average.