Pre-1945 Flashcards
Emancipation Proclamation
Declared the freedom of all Slaves in 1862
14th Amendment
1868 - Gave citizenship to all Americans, rights to former slaves
15th Amendment
1870 - Gave all citizens voting rights regardless of race
Jim Crow Laws
1890 - 1910 -Legal Segregation, education transport healthcare and public facilities
Voting Rights of Black Americans
Grandfather Clause, literacy tests not applied fairly disenfranchising black people.
Klu Klux Klan
Defender of White Supremacists. Lynching, in 1900 115 lynchings occurred. 1915-1929 Politicians, police, judges were part of the Klan, little justice. ‘Birth of a Nation’ film glorified the Klan, $10m made.
Plessy vs. Ferguson
1896 - Homer Plessy showed Jim Crow violated the constitution. Segregation violated the 14th amendment. Segregation lawful, equally good. Influential, legal foundation, although Jim Crow enforced across the South.
Conditions in the North
- Little Forced segregation
- North industrial, ‘Great Migration’, 500,000,1 920’s Pay better
- Black union created ‘Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters’
- Easier to vote in the North
Conclusion
Underpaid, Ghetto’s, not slaves anymore
2nd World War
Over 1.2m black joined, trained in rural South witnessed segregation. Worse equipment training, different vehicles/operations.
Fair Employment Practices Commission
Executive Order in 1941, forced not to discriminate, threatening of march by Philip Randolph. Black migration to cities, 25% lived in cities in 1940. 1950, 1/3 lived in the North. Showed pressure on Government favour equality.
Voting
Before War - less than 2%, 1945 - 15% black population. Cities had a huge population, balance of power for voting. Voted William Dawson 1943 and Adam Powell 1945 to congress. William Haist, Federal Judge in 1949.
Detroit Riots
1943 - 34 people died, racial violence
