NAACP

Question 1

What was the NAACP?

Answer 1

-National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
-National organisation with branches across the USA

Question 2

Who was the NAACP led by?

Answer 2

-both blacks and whites

Question 3

What did the NAACP focus on?

Answer 3

-focuses on civil rights rather than social conditions

Question 4

Who was James Welson Johnson and what did he target?

Answer 4

-the NAACP secretary in the 1920s James Welson Johnson targeted desegregation voting rights and education

Question 5

Who was Walter White?

Answer 5

-James Welson Johnson’s themes were continued by the new secretary Walter White in the 1930s

Question 6

What were the NAACP’s policies?

Answer 6

-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

Question 7

What were the NAACP’s central policy?

Answer 7

-lobbying rather than mass action was the central policy
-supports anti-lynching law though it fails->contributes to decline in lynchings

Question 8

What was the NAACP’s membership like post WW1?

Answer 8

-growth in membership post 1915 impact of WW1

Question 9

What was the NAACP’s membership like in 1920 and what does this suggest?

Answer 9

-90,000 members plus by 1920->suggests greater interest in civil rights

Question 10

What happened to the membership of the NAACP by 1923?

Answer 10

-by 1923 there was a decline to 50,000 members

Question 11

How was the NAACP seen?

Answer 11

-NAACP was seen as cautious and bureaucratic

Question 12

What was the impact of the NAACP being run by middle class?

Answer 12

-run by middle class AAs and whites limited relations with socially deprived majority

Question 13

What was opposition to the NAACP like?

Answer 13

-in the north there was peaceful opposition to the NAACP
-in the south white population were violently anti-NAACP

Question 14

What did the NAACP limit?

Answer 14

-NAACP limited speaking opportunities in the south

Question 15

What did the communist implement after 1929?

Answer 15

-new militancy->meant more violent methods in support of a political/ social cause

Question 16

How many black supporters did communists have?

Answer 16

7,000

Question 17

What were the Scottsboro boys?

Answer 17

-organised the legal defence of Scottsboro boys 1931
-Scottsboro trial->9 AAs accused of rape->led to Supreme Court changes

Question 18

What was the overall impact of communists?

Answer 18

-overall little impact due to fears of Communism so civil rights leaders were wary of links

Question 19

Why did the NAACP focus on the courts rather than federal/ legislative?

Answer 19

-NAACP found federal/legislative routes blocked so they focused on the courts

Question 20

Why did the NAACP have few success in the early period?

Answer 20

-state appeals had to be exhaust before going before the Supreme Court->slow progress

Question 21

What was the composition change of the Supreme Court in the 1930s?

Answer 21

-7/9 judges replaced with more liberal individuals

Question 22

What was Gaines vs Canada? When was it?

Answer 22

-1938
-‘separate but equal’ must mean equal->didn’t challenge the system

Question 23

How did the NAACP change voting in the Supreme Court

Answer 23

-15th Amendment still not enforced->voting restrictions
-of limited value in progressing civil rights

Question 24

What was achieved in 1944 in relation to the Supreme Court?

Answer 24

-a Supreme Court ruling that it was illegal to deny an African American’s right to vote in primary elections

Question 25

What is evidence of success in the NAACP?

Answer 25

-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

Question 26

What is evaluation of success in the NAACP (but)?

Answer 26

-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