Section 1: The constitution and the contribution of the federal powers to the progression of civil rights in the 1940s and 1950s

Question 1

What are the three Branches of the US governement?

Answer 1

1. Legislature

Congress

senate:

• elected for 6 years
• 2 members from each state

house of representatives:

• 1/3 members elected every two years
• members from each state according to size of population

2. Executive

President:

• elected ever 4 years

Cabinet:

• made up of advisers chosen by the president

Departments:

• headed by secretaries to carry out government policies
  3. Judiciary

The Supreme Court:

• safeguards the constitution
• acts to make the law clear and to decide when asked whether laws passed are constitutional or not
• Federal courts

Question 2

How did the nature of the American system of government impact on the federal government’s ability to pass civil rights legislation?

Answer 2

• the federal system protected the states’ rights by instituting a central government and a the same time not abolishing the states’ own governments so they retained their own autonymy
• the concept of the seperation of powers ensured that no one branch of government had too much authority to prevent the rise of a dictatorial executive president
• if any one branch of government tried to exercise too much power the other two branches could prevent them by a system of ‘checks and balances’
• the constitution was extremely difficult for the president enact law because they had to be agreed by a vote in both houses of congress
• it was a ‘status quo’ system because it was extraordinarily difficult for the president to fundamentally change american society because if the president wanted to pass laws that the states disagreed with then they could vote against the president’s laws in congress

Question 3

What are the most important powers of the legislative branch over the executive that could help or stop civil rights?

Answer 3

1. can override the presidential veto
2. can refuse to pass laws or to provide funding that the president requests
3. controls federal appropriations

Question 4

What are the most important powers of the legislative branch over the judiciary that could help or stop civil rights?

Answer 4

1. can propose constitutional amendments
2. can reject supreme court nominees
3. can impeach and remove federal judges

Question 5

What are the most important powers of the executive branch over the legislative that could help or stop civil rights?

Answer 5

1. can veto acts of congress
2. carries out and interprets laws passed by congress

Question 6

What are the most important powers of the executive branch over the judiciary that could help or stop civil rights?

Answer 6

• nominates supreme court justices
• nominates federal judges
• can refuse to enforce court decisions

Question 7

What are the most important powers of the judicial branch over the executive that could help or stop civil rights?

Answer 7

1. can declare executive actions unconstitutional
2. has the power to issue warrants
3. chief justive presides over the impeachment of the president

Question 8

What are the most important powers of the judicial branch over the legislative that could help or stop civil rights?

Answer 8

1. can declare laws unconstitutional
   2.

Question 9

Which is the most important branch in helping civil rights?

Answer 9

the legislature has the power to make laws, while the president has the power to enforce these laws in the day to day running of the country but all in all the supreme court has the power to intrpret these laws having the final say in legal disputesand is charged with upholding the bill of rights so is therefore the last resort for citizens seeking to defend their civil rights.

Question 10

Who was Harry S Truman and how committed was he to civil rights?

Answer 10

unexpected reformer

racist at hear knew racism wrong motives not just purely political wanted to retain respect for law

1. he was moved by stories of black veterans who were victims of racist attacks after fighting corageously in WW2 and publicly said that for this to be neglected by the state highlighted that ‘something is radically wrong with the system’
2. he was aware of the growing importance of the black vote to the Democratic Party after Roosevelt’s popularity
3. the cold war impacted truman’s committment to civil rights because he believed america had a moral duty to fight communism and promote freedom; set a good example to a Cold War world faced with the choice between US-style freedom and Soviet-style enslavement
4. believed better education of blacks would benefit the economy
5. truman still used the word ‘nigger’ privately and made racist jokes
6. recognised that race relations were increasingly important in politics- blacks were increasingly important democratic voters
7. recognised he had already lost the extremist white vote so he might as well ensure the liberal and black vote
8. his advisors told him many believed blacks held the balance of power in presidential elections because they voted as a block and were geographically concentrated in pivotal large and closely contested electoral states such as new york, illinois and michigan- poltical advantage of seeking civil rights
9. 1945 did little to help the FEPC end discriminatory hiring policies by a washington dc transportation company when congress refused his request for continued funding
10. personal ambivalence over race relations explains his half-hearted commitment to fepc
11. before 1948 he had to be cautious over controversial issues because voters had not elected him president

Question 11

How far did the use of federal government power by president Harry S Truman help the campaign for civil rights?

Answer 11

• 1946 he established the President’s Committee on Civil Rights and commissioned them to produce the report ‘To Secure These Rights’
• however it was not able to achieve many of the recommendations due to lack of support in congress
• signed executive order 9980 guaranteeing fair employment practises in the civil service; equal treatment in federal hiring
• it was was hanidcapped by a shortage of funds and conservative employees
• signed executive order 10308 establishing the Committee on Governent Contract Compliance (CGCC) to ensure lucrative government defence contracts didnt go to discriminative companies
• however it could only recommend not enforce, couldn’t force companies to adopt fair employment pracitses
• he couldnt push this because he couldnt antagonise congress during korean war
• CGCC prevented federal housing administration from lending money to building projects which made segregated housing
• however fewer houses were built than that demolished decreasing amount of housing available to african americans
• as part of ‘Fair Deal Programme’ he committed the government to building houses in deprived urban areas to address economic problems faced by African Americans
• however the fair deal programme was under-funded lacked support of senior civil servants
• government appointments: william hastie; ralph bunche appointed to american ambassador to the UN (where he mediated between israelis and palestinians winning a nobel peace prize 1950)

Question 12

How far did the speeches by Harry S Truman help the campaign for civil rights?

Answer 12

• 1940 radical speech for Missouri in his campaign for re-election to the senate saying black people should have equality before the law, civil rights and better housing
• he was the first president to address the NAACP- in 1947 at Lincoln’s memorial to a crowd of 10,000 he said all americans were entitled to full civil rights and freedom and he urged an end to lynching, poll tax, inequality in education and employment
• walter white historian’s view; felt that for its bravery and in the context of the time it ranked as one of the greatest presidential speeches.

Question 13

How successful were president Harry S Truman’s attempts at desegregation?

Answer 13

1. June 1948 signed executive order 9981 guaranteeing ‘equality of treatment and oppurtunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, colour, religion, national origin
2. 1949 desegregated the crowd at presidential inauguration ceremony
3. attmept to desegragate Dulles Airport in Washington D.C
4. however 1950 proposal denied but he manged to achieve the desegregation of the airport’s restaurant (significance of airport is that it was the first impression foreign dignatories had on arriving in america)
5. small steps but symbolic actions did well to awaken usa consciousness to civil rights issues!

Question 14

What was the significance of president Harry S Truman’s 1948 presidential election in the campaign for civil rights?

Answer 14

• the poltical gamble
• Truman was vice-president and became president in 1945 on Roosevelt’s death
• the 1948 presedential election was Truman’s first attmept to be elected president.
• His presidential campaign had one civil rights speech in harlem (the first president to campaign in harlem)
• however it was difficult because there was a split in the party due to Truman’s commitment to civil rights which seemingly assured a Republican victory-
• democrats in the north praised his anti-segregation policies; southern democrats (Dixiecrats) refused to support Truman and put forward their own candidate J. Strom Thurmond.
• However for the first time a president who was committed to challenging segregation was elected.
• He had won support of black voters becuase he stood by his policy against opposition carried an unprecedented 2/3 of the black vote
• his reelection was demonstrative of the political power of black voters because it proved you could lose the votes of southern racists and still become president
• political disadvantage of seeking civil rights legislation loss of southern democrats

Question 15

How far did the report to Secure these rights in 1947 help the campign for civil rights?

Answer 15

• 1946 president truman established a liberal civil committee to investigate experience of racial minorities in america
• aimed to draw national attention to unnacceptable situations

Question 16

What were the recommendations made by the report ‘To secure these rights’ 1947?

Answer 16

1. anti-lynching legislation
2. abolition of the poll tax
3. voting rights laws
4. a permanent FEPC
   an end to discrimination in interstate travel
5. an end to discrimination in the armed forces
6. a civil rights division in the justive department
7. administration support for the civil rights suits in the federal courts
8. the establishment of the united states commission on civil rights

Question 17

What problems were highlighted by the report ‘To secure these rights’ 1947?

Answer 17

1. violence,
   * 300 reported lynchings in the 5 southern states between 1882-1945
2. racist police brituality,
   * pistol-whipping, beating prisoners with rubber hoses, dragging prisoners through public areas, bullwhipping, denial of medical treatment to prisoners, prisoners tied up and drowned, these methods also used to make prisoners confess to crime they didnt comit
3. voting,
   * 18% of black people in southern states were able to vote in 1944 due to grandfather clause and literacy tests
4. discrimination in the armed forces,
   * army 1/70 black soldiers promoted to rank officer 1/7 white soldiers promoted
   * navy 1 white officer:7 white sailors 2/10,000 black sailors promoted
5. employment and education,
   * 62% of working black men employed in low-wage farming (28% white men)
   * black worker received 47 cents an hour (65 cents white men)
   * black high school graduates earned $755 a year ($1, 454 white men)
   * black teachers earned $342 annually ($1,107 white men)
6. Health,
   * 1 black doctor: 3,377 black patients (1 white doctor: 750 white patients) due to refusal of medical school to accept black students

Question 18

Who was Eisenhower and how committed was he to civil rights?

Answer 18

• he was born in an all-white southern town
• spent much of life in southern states and in segregated armed forces
• fear of miscegnation- his public calls for racial equality of opportunity did not mean black and white had to mingle socially
• feared the emotional strains of desegregating schools
• ideologically opposed to federal intervention for example his rejectioin of the re-establishment of the wartime FEPC
• political motivations for inactivity- republican party witnessed the disagreements in the democratic party over civil rights issues. the republicans had done well in the south as a result; they could only lose by adopting a firm civil rights policy.
• eisenhower’s staff felt that black organisations over- dramatised incidents of racial injustice

Question 19

How far did Eisenhower use his presidential power to help the campaign for civil rights?

Answer 19

• sole black person on his staff, ex-NAACP worker E. Frederic Morrow employed in 1955
• however, white house clerks and typists refused to file or type for him and eisenhower never consulted him on civil rights, morrow concluded that eisenhower never understood how black people felt
• Eisenhower only met black leaders (king, Wilkins and randolph) once
• randolph critcised eisenhower’s inactivity called for more presidential leadership
• eisenhower avoided talking to congressman Adam Clayton Powell who he considered to be a rabble rousing extremist

Question 20

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1957?

Answer 20

• passed under Eisenhower’s government
• focused on voting rights
• proposed the establishment of a Commission on Civil Rights- a bi-partisan committee designed to monitor the voting rights of america’s black citizens
• individuals found guilty of preventing black americans from registering as voters fined $1000 or a maximum sentence of 6 months in jail.
• these penalties were relatively small and did not act as a deterrent

Question 21

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1957?

Answer 21

• passed under Eisenhower’s government
• exteneded the powers of the comission on civil rights by requiring local authorities to keep records of voter registration
• allowed the comission to monitor the black voter registration more accurately
• 1960 eisenhower’s two acts had only increased the proportion of black voters by 3%