historian quotes - racial tensions

Question 1

What was Brigg’s sentiment on the main cause of racial riots in the US?

theme: Racial tension

Answer 1

“The main cause of all the riots was American society’s inability to cope with the rapid social and economic change that occurred at the end of World War I”

comment
Deeply entrenched racial divides were enhanced by the speed of change that occurred in the aftermath of WWI in which black populations proliferated in northern American cities.

Question 2

What in Brigg’s opinion did economic competition among lower classes contribute to?

theme: Racial tension

Answer 2

Short answer: racial tensions

Detailed answer: “Economic competition among the lower classes contributed to the growing racial tensions of the 1920s”.

comment
The competition for employment among the working class and the association of black Americans as siding with industrialists who white Americans were striking against, raised racial tensions.

Question 3

According to Briggs:
The ____ case of the ___ highlighted the problem of _______________________

theme: Racial tension

Answer 3

Scottsboro

1930s

Racism for African Americans
_____________________________________________
comment
The Scottsboro case, involved the sentencing of 14 African Americans to death (electric chair) for the alleged rape of 2 prostitutes on a freight train. The Communist Party used the incident as rhetoric for African American suppression by capitalist Americans and the promotion of communism. In October 1932, the US Supreme court reversed the convictions. All 14 African Americans were eventually let off free.

Question 4

In historian Brigg’s opinion, what factors in the south provided the conditions for racism in America?

–> led to racial tensions?

theme: discrimination

Answer 4

“Southern life itself provided the perfect breeding ground for racism. Factors included Jim Crow segregation, the political disenfranchisement of African Americans, tenant farming, sharecropping, peonage and lynchings”

comment
A series of discriminatory practices led to racial tensions between black and white Americans, involving segregation, restriction on sufferage (right to vote), tenant farming and lynchings.

Question 5

According to historian Powell, how did film contribute to racial tensions?

theme: Film → racism

Answer 5

“The Birth of the Nation (1915)… transformed racist pronouncements and injurious words into larger than life, moving truisms for predisposed audiences”.

comment
Film helped gel the racial assumptions of individuals to form a collective which formed the conclusion that their racist beliefs were true.