NAACP Flashcards
What was the NAACP?
-National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
-National organisation with branches across the USA
Who was the NAACP led by?
-both blacks and whites
What did the NAACP focus on?
-focuses on civil rights rather than social conditions
Who was James Welson Johnson and what did he target?
-the NAACP secretary in the 1920s James Welson Johnson targeted desegregation voting rights and education
Who was Walter White?
-James Welson Johnson’s themes were continued by the new secretary Walter White in the 1930s
What were the NAACP’s policies?
-believed the races should live, work and be educated together
-it would take cases to federal courts that would establish the equal rights of AAs
-defended those accused of rioting but non-violent organisation
What were the NAACP’s central policy?
-lobbying rather than mass action was the central policy
-supports anti-lynching law though it fails->contributes to decline in lynchings
What was the NAACP’s membership like post WW1?
-growth in membership post 1915 impact of WW1
What was the NAACP’s membership like in 1920 and what does this suggest?
-90,000 members plus by 1920->suggests greater interest in civil rights
What happened to the membership of the NAACP by 1923?
-by 1923 there was a decline to 50,000 members
How was the NAACP seen?
-NAACP was seen as cautious and bureaucratic
What was the impact of the NAACP being run by middle class?
-run by middle class AAs and whites limited relations with socially deprived majority
What was opposition to the NAACP like?
-in the north there was peaceful opposition to the NAACP
-in the south white population were violently anti-NAACP
What did the NAACP limit?
-NAACP limited speaking opportunities in the south
What did the communist implement after 1929?
-new militancy->meant more violent methods in support of a political/ social cause
How many black supporters did communists have?
7,000
What were the Scottsboro boys?
-organised the legal defence of Scottsboro boys 1931
-Scottsboro trial->9 AAs accused of rape->led to Supreme Court changes
What was the overall impact of communists?
-overall little impact due to fears of Communism so civil rights leaders were wary of links
Why did the NAACP focus on the courts rather than federal/ legislative?
-NAACP found federal/legislative routes blocked so they focused on the courts
Why did the NAACP have few success in the early period?
-state appeals had to be exhaust before going before the Supreme Court->slow progress
What was the composition change of the Supreme Court in the 1930s?
-7/9 judges replaced with more liberal individuals
What was Gaines vs Canada? When was it?
-1938
-‘separate but equal’ must mean equal->didn’t challenge the system
How did the NAACP change voting in the Supreme Court
-15th Amendment still not enforced->voting restrictions
-of limited value in progressing civil rights
What was achieved in 1944 in relation to the Supreme Court?
-a Supreme Court ruling that it was illegal to deny an African American’s right to vote in primary elections
What is evidence of success in the NAACP?
-supports anti-lynching
-believed the races should live, work and be educated together
-it would take cases to federal courts that would establish the equal rights of AAs
-90,000+ members by 1920
->suggests greater interest in civil rights
-peaceful opposition from North
What is evaluation of success in the NAACP (but)?
-Ida B. Wells helped actualise this- lynching eventually became illegal
-seen as cautious and bureaucratic
-faced opposition->violence from whites in South and peaceful opposition from North
-by 1930 there was a decline to 50,000 members
-15th Amendment still not enforced ->still voting restrictions
-themes of accommodationism, congruent with Booker T. Washington
