social opposition to AA

Question 1

What were Jim Crow Laws?

Answer 1

Separated races in public places (e.g., schools, transport, restrooms, and theaters).

Question 2

What did Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas do?

Answer 2

In 1957 he used National Guard troops to bar the entry of nine black children to the Central High School after a federal district court had ruled that the school must be desegregated. (Little Rock).

Question 3

What did George Wallace, Governor of Alabama do?

Answer 3

He opposed enrolment of black students at the University of Alabama and the desegregation of schools.

Question 4

What did the Police do in the Freedom Rides?

Answer 4

When the Freedom Rides arrived in Birmingham, Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor allowed a white mob to attack them for 15 minutes without taking action.

Question 5

What did the Police do in the Birmingham Protest 1963?

Answer 5

Police Chief Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor over-reacted and ordered police dogs and water cannons to be used on the protestors. The whole world was watching the violence as it unfolded on television

Question 6

What did the Police do to Rodney King?

Answer 6

• African American Rodney King was stopped for drunken driving in Los Angeles in April 1991.
• He resisted arrest and was very severely beaten repeatedly by police.
• The incident was caught on video camera. Despite the clear evidence, in March 1992 an all-white jury acquitted the policemen who were accused of serious assault.

Question 7

what were the results of the Rodney King incident

Answer 7

A stream of protest erupted in the form of race riots in the city. Over 50 people were killed and over 2,000 injured.

Question 8

what was Lynching

Answer 8

The period between 1880 and 1910 saw the height of a lynching campaign against African Americans. White mobs would take an African American man and submit him to beatings and torture before murdering him, usually by hanging. It was alleged that the victim had committed a serious crime such as raping a white woman.

Question 9

was the white reaction to lynching

Answer 9

Southern state governments and police forces did little to stop it. Cases were rarely brought to court and, if they were, the all-white juries would not convict.

Question 10

statistic about lynching

Answer 10

By the 1890s, on average, an African American was brutally killed every two days.

Question 11

what was the result of the Chicago race riots in July 1919

Answer 11

23 black and 15 white people dead and 1,000, mainly black, families homeless

Question 12

what were the Chicago Race Riots July 1919

Answer 12

• A teenage black boy accidentally drifted towards the ‘whites only’ section on Lake Michigan beach.
• He was stoned, and then drowned.
• Thirteen days of sporadic violence followed when Irish and Polish workers attacked the city’s black ghettos.

Question 13

what was the Detroit Riot 1943

Answer 13

Violence broke out after rumours that a black man had raped and murdered a white woman. 34 people died, 25 of them black, yet the vast majority of those 1,600 arrested were African American.

Question 14

what was the murder of Emmet Till

Answer 14

• Emmet Till was a 14 year old black youth from Chicago who was visiting Mississippi where he was said to have made remarks to a white woman and wolf whistled.
• He was shot in the head and his body dumped in the river.
• Despite clear evidence against the two alleged murderers, an all-white jury found them not guilty.

Question 15

what was the impact of emmet Till’s open casket?

Answer 15

• Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open casket at his funeral in Chicago.
• Photographs of Till’s disfigured face were published in major outlets like Jet magazine and circulated widely.
• The images shocked the nation and drew attention to the deep injustices faced by African Americans in the South.

Question 16

When was the KKK formed?

Answer 16

• First formed in December 1865 in Tennessee
• it was specifically set up to oppose any attempt to try to persuade newly enfranchised blacks to vote Republican and guarantee the supremacy of the white race.

Question 17

What methods did the KKK use?

Answer 17

-Used intimidating methods: white hoods, flaming crosses and secret oaths.

-They physically attacked, beat, lynched and murdered African Americans, destroying their property and on occasion setting off bombs.

• Efforts were made to stop African American voters from registering and voting. These were later institutionalised as Jim Crow Laws

Question 18

What figure shows the extent of violence of the KKK?

Answer 18

There were 2000 deaths and injuries in Louisiana alone in the run-up to the 1868 presidential election.

Question 19

Why did the KKK wither away?

Answer 19

• The Klan’s methods led to Republicans and African Americans uniting against it. Effective indictments by federal courts began to have their effect by the early 1870s and the KKK was not strong enough to resist federal powers
• The Klan also became inactive due to there being no reason to exist- the Jim Crow Laws and Voting Restrictions implemented in the South did their job for them.

Question 20

When was the KKK reformed?

Answer 20

• There was a re-formation of the KKK in Atlanta, Georgia in 1915 organised by William Simmons.
• After Hiram Evans took over as leader in 1922 the KKK widened its targets to Roman Catholics and Jews and the political challenge of Communism.
• By the mid 1920s the Klan was in a decline. Klan membership fell from 4 million in 1920 to 30,000 in 1930

Question 21

What were White Citizen’s Councils?

Answer 21

• White Citizen’s Councils were developed which aimed to maintain segregation as much as possible.
• The earliest ones date from 1955 in reaction to the Brown verdict on segregated education
• They waged economic warfare against anyone supporting integration and believed in defying federal court rulings if necessary.
• For example, they pressured insurance companies to cancel policies of African American church members.