Civil Rights In The USA 1918-1968 Flashcards
Explain why the 1920s were not as fun as they seemed
- Many unemployed
- lots of poverty - slums
- Crime soaring - Al Capone
- Women couldn’t vote
- Severe racism
- 1929 Wall Street Crash
Explain why immigrants came to the USA
- Intro steam ships - better source of transport - shorter journeys - 1 week rather than 3 months
- Good education offered - eg Harvard Uni seemed very attractive - thot help achieve American dream
- Trying to escape - Jews escaping persecution from E. Europe - Russians escaping communism - pushed out homes
- Promise of freedom - US promised free speech and freedom to practice own religion
- Poverty - lack of food/ poor living standards in home countries - by 1920s US boasted highest living standard in world
- Better jobs - eg Ford motor company attractive- more money in US
Describe the experience of immigrants on Ellis Island
- 3rd class passengers taken to Ellis Island
- Given a ticket and had to wait many hrs in crowded conditions with no toilets, food, water
- Then inspected by a doctor
• Marked with chalk
- LCD (loathsome contagious disease)
- If passed medical exam went through questioning process with translator - if failed put in detention
- Those who passed given landing card and allowed to enter US
Describe the immigrants’ experience in America
- Language Barrier - not speak English
- Overcrowding- disease - Spanish flu 1918
- Religion - WASPs - Ford not empty Jews
- Poverty
- Discrimination - couldn’t get jobs, abuse
- No political rights
- Settled with own ppl - China Town, Little Italy - confusion + suspicion/ WASPs felt threatened
- Crime - stereotyped- Wrongfully accused
Describe attitudes towards new immigrants
- Racism - hatred of Jewish race
- Superiority - white race above all others (Nordic/ Aryan)
- Fear - govt systems (communism 1917) - religion (Catholicism - Ireland Italy)
- Disgust - diseases + overcrowding in slum conditions
- Anger - taking jobs/housing from true Americans
- Paranoia- language barrier - felt immigrants plotting something
Describe how the US closed its doors on immigration
- 1902 - Law on Chinese immigration - Made illegal
- 1907 Agreement between US + Japan - stopped immigrantion of Japanese workers
- 1907 - Dillingham Commission - introduces literacy test for immigrants
- 1921 Immigration law - only 3% of each nationality living in US would be allowed in
- 1924 Immigration law - cut to 150,000 per yr
Explain why America closed its doors on immigration
- Economic issues - jobs - stoke breakers - strain on housing
- Fear of new religions - Jews + Catholics
- Crime - blames immigrants - Al Capone
- Nativism- racist attitude
- Fear of social unrest - aftermath Russian Rev 1917
- Overcrowding - disease - Spanish Flu 1918
Describe the Jim Crow Laws
- Transport segregated - bus station waiting rooms
- Eating places segregated - lunch counters
- Separate education- Black + white school
- Social places separate - parks, toilets, water fountains
Describe the effect of Jim Crow laws on blacks in the South
- Discrimination of jobs - not law - not employ blacks - thot stupid
- Lived in Fear/ intimidation - punishments of law not adhered to - KKK
- Humiliation- blacks had to pay for bus ticket at front, get off, go to back and get on - degrading drew attention
- Feeling of injustice - in order to vote blacks had to sit a test with impossible questions eg how many bubbles on a bar of soap - felt very unfair - whites not have to sit
Describe the activities of the KKK
- Cross Burning - terrorise, intimidate - symbolised white supremacy
- Lynching - mob culture - no police/courts - hangings beatings shooting
- Marches - throughly streets - threatening posters - warnings to leave town - intimidation- Washington 1925
- Arson - burned down black communities/ schools/ churches
Explain why the KKK was not stopped
- Powerful ppl were members - state officials, policemen
- Klansmen elected to positions of political power - mayors, judges
- Bribery/ threats
- Hidden - hoods - invisible empire
- Blacks had no say - no votes/ black politicians
- No black police officers / judges
Explain why people moved to the North of America
- Poverty- American Dream
- Job prospects- bed spring factories
- Avoid KKK - escape
- Join others - family
- Less segregation
- Intimidation
Explain why blacks moved to the North
- American Dream
- Promise of better jobs
- Adverts + letters from family
- Fear of KKK
- Jim Crow laws
- Sharecropping
- Boll weavel infestation
- Little money spent on education
Describe the experience of blacks in the North
- Poor whites saw blacks as unwelcome job competition
- Bosses used blacks as strike breakers
- Seen as uneducated + unskilled - harder to get well paid job = poor
- Racism - whites felt superior - segregated
- Race riots demonstrated level of racism - Chicago 1919
- Better than south - by 1920s some blacks able to prosper in their own communities eg Tulsa Oklahoma - 100s black businesses
Describe the effect of WW2 on blacks
- Blacks served in US Forces and to an extent were treated equally
- Gained promotion in armed forces (black regiments)
- Fighting for freedom but didn’t experience freedom at home
- CORE - Congress for racial equality - 1942
- President Truman tried to improve civil rights
- Tried to end segregation in armed forces but remained till 1950s and suggested lunching a federal crime but rejected
Explain why there was a growth in civil rights after 1945
- 1909 NAACP ( National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) - 1st organisation resulted I growing
- Jim Crow/ inequalities = unfair/anger
- Lynching - unfair, fear + injustice
- WW2 - unfair, freedom, irony
- CORE 1942
- President - place of power/ support
- India - inspiration + showed results
Describe the death of Emmet Till
- 1935
- Sparked movement
- Death + violence
- Public display of body
- Protests
- Mass funeral
- One of many who were murdered
- North + South division
- 2 killers acquitted
- Empathy
Explain why the lunching of Emmet Till was important to the civil rights movement
- Violence - shocked ppl- disfigures face - outrage - disgust
- Killers acquitted- outrage - showed extent of racism in south - anger - reporters/ press
- Empathy - Northern whites empathetic
- Support - 50,00 ppl from Chicago went to see body - many joined movement - $ sent to NAACP
- Embarrassing- Govt embarrassed about level violence South - meant to be most democratic free nation
- United North + South - Joined together to grieve
- Popular culture helped distribute the message - shocked ppl everywhere- ‘The Ballad of Emmet Till’ by Bob Dylan
Describe the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- 1955 - blacks were angry that Rosa Parks had been arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man - fed up
- Black decides to boycott buses as they made up majority of ppl using them - would hurt bus companies
- Decided to walk everywhere or organised car pools
- Huge economic impact on bus companies
- Buses eventually desegregated