How And Why Did Black Americans Fight For Civil Rights 1917-55? Flashcards
Life in the South in 1917
Faced legal restrictions
Booker T Washington famous black American who advocated accepting segregation
Most extreme discrimination, segregation and violence
Impact of Jim Crow Laws
Introduced laws on segregation as a different form of control
Segregated every aspect of life
Passing literacy qualification to vote or be homeowners; most blacks weren’t
Polling stations surrounded by whites
Lynching and the Ku Klux Klan
Southern lynchings often advertised beforehand
1955, lynching of Emmett Till for allegedly asking to take a white woman on a date
KKK against any non-WASP group
1925 membership of 8million
Women not actively involved yet brought up white supremacist children and created anti black environment
Did the federal govt intervene in the south?
Hindered black equality
Plessy v Ferguson ruled ‘separate but equal’
Harding spoke out about lynching yet committed to laissez faire
Why move north?
Black migration began as USA entered WWI and needed workers for munitions factories
Offered housing, transport and wages
General I mpact of moving north
Some black professionals lived in own black communities
Black Americans moved to their own areas of rich white suburbs, to be nannies or domestic servants
Black people could vote and were elected to local and fed govt
Political impact
Black people had more of a political influence
Powerful business orientated black elite
Segregation more likely to try for positions in politics as a black American campaigning in a black ward likely to win
Yet where population more distributed- less likely to have political power
Impact of migration in the South
Labour force shrank
Farming areas of south struggled
Migration as ‘voting with their feet’ over Jim Crow Laws
Impact of the New Deal
1930s: shift from voting Republican (abolished slavery) to Democrat (New Deal)
Roosevelt appointed some black advisers but needed support of those against civil rights too
Issued ex. Order banning racial discrimination in defence industry
Action the New Deal took
Supposedly put people into work ‘by merit’
Black people moved off projects to make room for whites
Social security provisions didn’t Apply to farm workers or those who worked in other people’s homes
Some helped due to the situation of black Americans (low income etc)
Role of communists in protesting against the New Deal
NAACP turned down case of 9 young black men framed for raping 2 girls in a train- communists took case and won
In north, relief funds should be allocated equally amongst races
Black church organisations
Set up support systems
Harlem, Father Divine of Peace Mission Church group set up restaurants and shops to sell affordable food and supplies
Housewives Leagues
‘Don’t buy where you can’t work’
Depression of 1937 impact
Hit black workers particularly hard
Resettlement Administration: resettle low-income families in new housing and lend money where needed
1939: 2million sign petition asking for fed aid to go to Africa
Gains of black Americans through WW11
Didn’t gain from war induced boom
White workers given preference
1942-44: black defence workers from 3% to 8%
Race relations committees set up due to outbreaks of racist violence
Impact of Truman
Proposed anti lynching, anti segregation and fair employment laws
Failed to push through congress
Blocked by ‘dixie-crats’
Presidents committee in Civil Rights
Urged strong federal support for civil rights
Cold War: focus more on fighting communism
Executive orders on desegregating military
In election year and aware of the value of black vote, shocked by racist violence
