Obstacles to civil rights before 1941

Question 1

List of factors

Answer 1

Activities of the KKK
Divisions in the black community
Popular prejudice
Legal impediments

Question 2

Activities of the KKK

Answer 2

• The KKK were a terrorist group targeting ex-slaves
• Their membership was at around 3,000,000, many of whom were very powerful people
• They could get away with whatever they wanted
• Figure of 3 million was made up, membership declined in the 30s
• The KKK committed many atrocities
• Black people were afraid to stand up for themselves out of fear of the KKK’s brutal actions

Question 3

Divisions in the black community

Answer 3

• There were leaders: Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B Du Bois
• Support for these leaders would make you a target for hate
• These leaders believed in totally different ideologies
• There was no cohesion, everyone was campaigning for separate ends
• However, more groups meant more individual views being expressed, and they got the attention of the media

Question 4

Popular prejudice

Answer 4

• Many black people from the south moved north to find the American dream - Met with poverty, poor housing and job competition - north’s inhabitants did not like the job competition
• The racism of the south began to bleed into the North
• Black teenager stoned to death in Lake Michigan, began red summer of 1919
• Riots caused the deaths of 15 white people and 23 black people, revived the activity of the KKK
• Woodrow Wilson sided with the black community

Question 5

Legal impediments

Answer 5

• 1892, Plessy v. Ferguson, led to Supreme™ court ruling ‘separate but equal’
• Gave way to the Jim Crow laws
• Jim Crow laws more the fault of specific states rather than Supreme™ court
• Woodrow Wilson (very popular with the black community) openly supported and defended segregation
• Shows the extent to which people were sure this was the way things would always be - hesitant towards change