Civil rights quick notes

Question 1

13th Amendment Loophole & Convict Leasing

Answer 1

• Southern states exploited the 13th Amendment’s clause allowing involuntary servitude “as punishment for a crime.”
• 90% of convict laborers were African American.
• Convict leasing was highly profitable:

Alabama started in 1874, earning $164,000 by 1890 (over 10 times more than in 1874).

By 1890, all 13 Southern states were using some form of convict leasing.

Authorities conducted targeted arrests or “sweeps” of Black men to fuel the system.

Question 2

Lynching and Racial Terror

Answer 2

• Lynching escalated during the 1880s–1890s:
• In 1892, 161 African Americans were lynched—the peak year.
• Ida B. Wells exposed that in ⅔ of lynchings, there was no allegation of rape or assault on white women.
• Lynchings occurred roughly every two days in the 1890s.

Question 2

Voting Rights Suppression

Answer 2

• Poll taxes began in Georgia (1877), Florida (1885), and Tennessee (1888).
• By 1890, states like Mississippi introduced literacy tests and poll taxes via new constitutions.
• By 1908, nearly every Southern state had legally disenfranchised African Americans.
• In South Carolina, where 60% of the population was Black, less than 1% could vote by 1896.

Question 3

Exodus and Education

Answer 3

• Poor conditions led to the Exodus of 1879, where 40,000 AAs moved to the Midwest.
• Despite adversity, African Americans built educational institutions:

In Georgia, they built 1,544 schools educating over 11,000 students.

By 1891, Black literacy had risen to 42%.

Question 4

Limited Progress & Backlash (1900–1930s)

Answer 4

• Limited Political Representation
  African Americans held seats in South Carolina’s legislature until 1900 and Georgia’s until 1908, but were later excluded due to disenfranchisement laws.
• Atlanta Compromise (1895)
  Booker T. Washington urged vocational education and economic self-reliance in return for reduced Black demands for civil rights—but whites failed to uphold their end, maintaining violence and school underfunding.
• Cultural Racism
  Institutional racism was culturally enforced: white children were taught to address Black men with racial slurs instead of respectful titles.

Question 5

ND Labor Rights

Answer 5

• The 1935 Wagner Act gave industrial workers the right to unionize—but excluded agricultural and domestic workers, affecting ⅔ of Black workers.
• The CIO helped unionize 200,000 Black workers by 1940.

Question 6

ND Economic Assistance

Answer 6

New Deal programs helped many African Americans:

• Provided 1 million jobs, nearly 50,000 public housing units.
• FERA spent $4 billion on relief; by 1935, 30% of Black families received relief (compared to 10% of whites).
• WPA (1936–40) gave work to 350,000 AAs/year and employed 5,000 Black teachers, educating 250,000.
• CCC offered 200,000 jobs in conservation.

Question 7

ND Political Shifts

Answer 7

African American political allegiance shifted:

• 1932: ⅔ supported Republican Herbert Hoover.
• By 1940: 70% voted Democrat, drawn by New Deal support.
• FDR consulted a “Black Cabinet” of African American advisors.

Question 8

ND Rural Impact

Answer 8

• Black sharecroppers were hit hard and not included in Social Security.
• 200,000 sharecroppers were evicted between 1933–1940 due to economic changes and mechanization.

Question 9

Civil Rights Legal Progress (1915–1965)
Supreme Court Victories

Answer 9

• Guinn v. U.S. (1915): Struck down “grandfather clauses.”
• Smith v. Allwright (1944): Banned exclusion from primaries.
• Morgan v. Virginia (1946): Banned segregation on interstate buses.
• Brown v. Board (1954–55): Declared school segregation unconstitutional.
• Browder v. Gayle (1956): Victory for Montgomery bus boycott.
• Boynton v. Virginia (1960): Helped launch Freedom Rides.
• Loving v. Virginia (1967): Ended bans on interracial marriage.

Question 10

Freedom Summer and Voting Rights

Answer 10

• Civil Rights Act (1964) prompted push for voting rights.
• Selma Campaign (1965) + Freedom Summer (1964) pressured LBJ to pass the Voting Rights Act (1965).

Question 11

Grassroots Mobilization

Answer 11

• 85% of AAs in Montgomery boycotted buses (1955–56).
• 250,000 joined the March on Washington (1963)—organized by NAACP, SCLC, CORE, and SNCC.
• SNCC raised $1.5 million via churches and federal grants.

Question 12

Federal Government Involvement AND Black Power Initiatives

Answer 12

Federal government played a vital role:

• Eisenhower sent troops to enforce school desegregation at Little Rock.
• Civil rights victories depended on executive, judicial, and legislative cooperation.

Black Panthers:

• Opened 49 free medical clinics, including one in Illinois that treated 2,000 people in its first 2 months.
• Helped establish a “Model Police Precinct” funded with $3 million, overseen by community-elected police boards.
• 85% of AAs in Montgomery participated in the bus boycott 1955-6 & the ACLC, NAACP, CORE & SNCC combined to organise the March on Washington in 1963 which 250,000 people took part in.

Question 12

Violence as Both Barrier and Catalyst

Answer 12

KKK and white supremacist violence remained persistent:

• The 1871 KKK Act temporarily suppressed the Klan.
• Mississippi (1964) murders of three civil rights workers highlighted the risks.
• Bull Connor’s brutality in Birmingham (1963) turned public opinion in favor of civil rights.
• Violence sometimes backfired, galvanizing federal intervention or public support.

Question 13

TBC