Social (1890-1920) Flashcards
4
Describe lynchings 1890-1920
- 3724 lynchings between 1889-1929
- 85% of victims were AA
- only 4 lynchers arrested
- 1901, proposed anti-lynching bill introduced by former slave Congressman George Henry White openly opposed by elected politicians
4
Describe Ben Tillman
- Democrat Governor of SC
- Nicknamed ‘Pitchfork Ben’
- Openly encouraged lynching mobs - even participated personally
- Escaped criticism through his local political dominance
1
Why was their a lack of civil rights activism 1890-1920?
Hard to make progress in white dominated South
2
Describe the Springfield riot 1908
- lynch mob ran riot in Springfield, Illinois (birthplace of Lincoln)
- 9 black people and 8 white people killed
3
Describe W.E.B Du Bois
- his collection of essays ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ (1903) is landmark of AA literature
- founded Niagara movement in 1905 - opposed racial segregation and disenfranchisement
- founded NAACP in 1909
4
Describe the NAACP
- Founded 1909
- Coalition of black intellectuals and white liberals (latter was initially majority)
- committed itself to the abolition of segregation and to enforce equal voting rights
- By 1919, had 90k members in 300 branches
2
Describe the revival of the KKK 1890-1920
- Revival of KKK from 1915
- 1915 - Epic silent film ‘the birth of a nation’ glorifies KKK
4
Describe Ida Wells
- black newspaperwoman in Memphis
- wrote articles in 1891 critical of education available to AA children
- 1892, attacked the lynching fever and a mob destroyed the paper’s office
- Her office was ransacked and she fled the South
3
Describe Frazier Baker
- 1897, appointed postmaster of Lake City under McKinley administration
- Local campaign forced his removal
- 1898 , white mob attacked his home and murdered him and his infant daughter
2
Describe segregation 1890-1920
- Between 1887-1892, 9 states passed laws requiring segregation on public conveyancers
- Plessy v Ferguson 1896
3
Describe Plessy v Ferguson 1896
- 1892, Homer Plessy imprisoned for refusing to move off white first-class carriage
- Violated Separate Car Act 1890 in Louisiana
- Ruled segregation and Jim Crow constitutional permitted ‘separate but equal’
4
Describe Booker T Washington
- Founded Tuskegee institute in 1881
- Moderate compared to W.E.B Du Bois
- Atlanta Compromise 1895
- TR invited him to WH in 1901
4
Describe the Atlanta Compromise 1895
- Promoted industrial education, industrial occupations and learning of other practical trades for AAs
- Suggested AAs should not focus efforts on equality or integration
- Work with system not against it
- first supported then opposed by WEB Du Bois
3
Describe political progress in the AA situation 1890-1920
- Booker T Washington invited to WH - denoucned by Tillman
- Wilson public statements gave hope
- NAACP formation 1909
5
Describe political limitations in the AA situation 1890-1920
- Ben Tillman
- Black leaders like Du Bois disillusioned by cautious approach of Pres Taft
- Wilson electorally dependent on South
- Plessy v Ferguson 1896
- Atlanta Compromise 1895
1
Describe the ‘Great Migration’
Movement of 6m AA from rural Southern areas to urban areas of Northern states between 1916-70
2
Describe the push factors for the ‘Great Migration’
- Ongoing racial oppression in JC laws
- Poor economic conditions
1
Describe the pull factors for the ‘Great Migration’
- Reports of good wages and living conditions - spread by AA newspapers and word of mouth
4
List the different factors of segregaton 1890-1912
- Plessy v Ferguson 1896
- Lack of unified political movement - Atlanta Compromise
- Lynching (including Tilman)
- Regional tensions in urban North
6
Describe mass immgration 1890-1920
- 1890-1920, 20m imms, mostly from Europe (18.4m 1890-WW1)
- Record 8.5m imms in 1900-1910
- By 1900, NY had more Italians than Naples and over double the Irish as Dublin
- By 1914, 1.4m Jews in a NY pop of 4.7m
- Chinese and Japanese imms usally settled in SF
- By 1890, 1/10th of population was Chinese
4
Describe the effects of immigration on cities
- Agencies ensured employment within hours of arrival
- Formed unskilled cheap workforce in rapidly growing industries
- Assmilated and became important consumers
- Shaped character of cities e.g. Polish Triangle in Chicago
1
Describe urbanisation 1890-1920
- Percentage living in urban areas grew from 20% (1860) to 51% (1920)
3
Describe the poor conditions of urban areas 1890-1920
- By 1900, over ⅔ of those arrivals from 1880-1900 existed below subsistence level
- Regularly lived in tenement housing
- Low wages meant women and children often had to work
3
Describe tenement housing 1890-1920
- Overcrowded - up to 12 people
* In 1900, only 4% of NYC tenements had indoor plumbing - Disease common - 1 in 5 children dying before the age of 5 in some urban areas
3
Describe political reformist responses to mass urbanisation 1890-1920
- In 1901, NYC established the Tenement House Department
- City Beautiful Movement emerged in 1900s - aimed to improve urban design and provide more green spaces
- Progressive Movement and goo-goos advocated for political reforms and better working conditions for immigration
1
What did the Tenement House Department (NYC) do?
required landlords to provide basic sanitation and ventilation
4
Describe the reaction to immigration 1890-1920
- Groups like American Protective Association put pressure on government to limit immigration
- Trade Union and existing urban worker opposition as imms often used as strikebreakers
- Southern/Eastern Europeans did not assimilate into US culture as much as Northern Europeans
- Fears they brought radical left ideas of anarchism and socialism
2
Describe the Gentlemen’s Agreement (1907)
- Japan agreed to deny valid US passports for workers intending to emigrate to USA
- except to certain categories of business and professional men
5
Describe change for women in WW1
- 1m in war effort
- Employment rate grew from 24% to circa 40% (1918)
- 90k served in armed forces in Europe as clerks, nurses, etc
- Greater freedoms - smoking, drinking, going out unchaperoned
- Participation in WW1 weighed heavy on passage of 19th amendment (1920)
4
Describe continuity for women in WW1
- Few in specialised-industry - only 6k in aircraft manufacture
- Role seen to buy war bonds
- Unions still opposed hiring of women
- Little job security as dimissed after war
5
Describe change for AAs in WW1
- ‘War for Democracy’ saw 360k volunteer and 200k serve abroad
- Industrialisation in North accelerated Great Migration
- Black consciousness spurred by interaction with attitudes of less racist French
- Black Press comprised 200 weekly papers and 6 monthly magazines
- The NAACP periodical The Crisis increased circulation from 41k to 74k (1917-1918)
3
Describe the ‘Great Migration’ in WW1
- 500k Southern AAs moved to Northern cities
- 1914 to 1918, population of Detroit rose from 5k to 41k
- Pay considerably better than cotton fields of South
3
Describe continuity for AAs in WW1
- Segregation in armed forces
- AA troops confined to labour battalions (construction, transportation, etc) rather than combat
- Black Press investiagtions fearing subversion of AA troops
4
Describe the causes of the Red Summer 1919
- large scale ‘Great Migration’
- industrial labor competition
- overcrowding in urban ghettos
- greater militancy among AA men that had fought to ‘preserve freedom’
3
Describe the Red Summer 1919
- Approx 25 race riots throughout USA
- Chicago Race Riot 1919 most severe - 38 died (23 black, 15 white)
- 19 more lynchings than year prior
6
List anti-immigration and espionage laws 1917-24
- 1917 Espionage Act
- 1917 immigration act
- 1918 Sedition Act
- 1918 Immigration Act (Dillingham-Hardwick Act)
- 1921 Emergency Quota Act
- 1924 Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed Act)
2
Describe the Espionage Act 1917
- Intended to prevent insubordination in military operations or recruitment
- Debs prosecuted under this act
2
Describe the immigration act 1917
- Implemented literacy test that required over 16 year olds to demonstrate basic comprehension language
- Excluded anyone from ‘Asaitic Barred Zone’, except for Japanese, Filipinos and China (already barred since 1882)
1
Describe the Sedition Act 1918
- Curtailed free speech during war
2
Describe the Immigration Act (Dillingham-Hardwick Act) 1918
- Gave government power to deport ‘undesirable aliens’
- Specifically anarchist, communists and labor organisers
5
Describe the Palmer Raids 1919-20
- Triggered by anarchist bombings of the Italian Galleanists
- Nov 1919, agents under the orders of Palmer’s justice department raided the offices of ‘radical organisations’ in 12 cities across America
- Documents seized and suspects arrested
- Dec 1919, 249 ‘radicals’ deported back to Europe
- Jan 1920, all known communist party offices shut down after raids in 33 cities
Palmer - Attorney General
6
Describe the aftermath of the Palmer Raids 1919
- Similar action at local and state level
- ‘Red flag’ laws banned left-wing insignia
- Vigilante gangs operated against union activists in Washington State and California
- Red Scare lost momentum during 1920
- SC ruled evidence collected during the Palmer raids was illegal and could not be used in prosecution
- Torpedoed Palmer’s expected 1920 campaign
2
Describe the different reasons for the support of female suffrage
- temperance movement wanted greater voting bloc behind cause
- some mc white women believed it could reinstall white supremacy by countering growing black vote
4
Describe the expansion of female suffrage in the 1910s
- 1910 - Washington
- 1911 - Oregon and CA
- Number of female voters at 2m
- Yet presidential franchise had not been granted in any Eastern states
3
Describe the NAWSA
- 1890, factions merged to form National American Woman Suffrage Association
- Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- 1916, announced last blitz ‘Winning Plan’ campaign
2
Describe the ‘Winning Plan’ campaign
- avoid ‘detours’ into hopeless states, namely in South
- focussed on moblising lobbying of federal government
4
Describe the National Woman’s Party
- Splinter group of NAWSA formed in 1916
- led by Alice Paul
- drew influence from militant tactics of British suffrage campaign
- hunger strikes and White House pickets (1917)
3
Describe the granting of the 19th amendment
- WW1 slowed campaign but furthered argument by demonstrating women’s dedication to war effort
- ‘Anthony Amendment’ (19th amendment) ratified in 1920
- 1920 elec - more than 8m women voted
