Source questions Flashcards
Positives of Gilded Age for workers and unions.
- Wages rose some 60%, despite a rapid rise in the workforce caused by immigration
- Inc. in transport and heavy industry = inc. demand for labour. USA indus. overtook UK (leading producer of indus. goods)
- No. of craft-oriented labour un.s grew
- Un.s e.g. KOL = rapid growth (1881: 20,000, 1886: 700,000) + included AA + w.
- AFL est. in 1886: first successful national labour federation; sought to link all un.s; some businesses = willing to wk w/ it + est. mechanisms by which businesses & wks. could negotiate
- Un.s = able to extend influence into politics at national + local level
- Some sickness clubs est., but compensation = limited
- Wk.s org.s = able to use growth in no. of indus. wks (from 885,000 to 3.2 million 1860-1900) to win some concessions from emp.s
- 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act restricted monopolies and anti-competitive practices
Negatives of Gilded Age for workers and unions.
• Inc. inequality + poverty (2% owned 30% of wealth)
• Unskilled wages = 30% of skilled
• Demand for skilled dec. ∵ inc. in mechanisation
• ‘Contract’ system (rather than perm. employment) meant that wks could be laid off during quiet periods
• Few rights + long hrs + dangerous conditions (1889: 2,000 rail wks died in accidents); emp.s would often not introduce safety precautions ∵ would reduce profits; courts ruled that indus. injuries = risk an emp.ee had to take
• Violent strikes, beginning w/ 1886 Haymarket Affair - 4 strikers and 7 policemen killed; damaged reputation of KOL ∴ m.ship collapsed to 100,000 by 1890
• Eco. slump at end of 1880s weakened pos. of wks ∵ job insecurity, wage reduction
• Wkforce divided btwn white, skilled (made up most un.s) and AAs; emp.s often employed AAs in preference ∵ cheaper; exacerbated by arrival of imm.s from Europe & Asia ∵ fears they would inc. wkforce ∴ dec. wages ∴ un.s did not allow them
- Striking ability weakened due to fear of being replaced
• Laissez-faire enc. large corporations ∴ no protective leg.
• Some gains when eco. grew from 1860-80, but lost when slumps set in
• Rapid industrialisation meant that many of the new, unskilled wks = excluded from un.s ∴ no representation
• 1892 Homestead strike (Frick shot and stabbed) virtually bankrupted the AA (and m.ship dec. from 24,000 to 10,000 1891-4); Carnegie Steel = non-unionised for another 40 yrs; not a single steel plant in Pennsylvania was unionised in 1900
• 1894 Pullman strike
- Attorney general issued an injunction to stop anyone interfering w/ movement of mail
- Pres. Cleveland sent 2000 fed. troops to break strike
- Fired at protestors, killing 4
- SC legalised use of injunctions + issued Omnibus Indictment Act prohibiting persuading others to strike
• 19th C = characterised by gov. upholding pos. of emp.s against un.s
• Violence provided emp.s w/ justification to resist calls for recog.
Positives of New Deal for workers and unions.
• Most sig. gov. intervention took place during FDR’s presidency
• 1933 National Industry Recovery Act (NIRA) - set up National Recovery Administration (NRA) to imp. relations btwn emp.s + emp.ees
- Enc. firms to agree codes of practice to imp. hours, wages, un. rights
- Enshrined in law the right of wks to org. un.s + take part in coll. barg.
• 1935 National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act
- Guarantees the right of private sector employees to organise into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action such as strikes
- Aims to correct the “inequality of bargaining power”
- Allowed closed shops
- National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) est. to enforce act + negotiate on behalf of wks
- Companies prevented from using blacklists or own un.s
- Banned use of spies against unions
• Un. m.ship inc. 3.7 mil (1933) to 9 mil (1938) - suggests that gov. action played a crucial role
• Some major indus., which had resisted recog., now recog.d un.s; 1936 sit-in strike at GM led to recog. of United Automobile Workers’ Union
• 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act
- Min. weekly wage set
- 8 hr working day
- 40 hr working week
- FDR called it the most important piece of New Deal legislation since the Social Security Act of 1935
• 1937 CIO est. - enc. whole-indus. based un.s + enc. AAs & other ethnic groups to join
• 1934 Railway Labor Act
- Meant that Randolph’s BSCP (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) union could claim the right to represent the porters
- Randolph demanded that the National Mediation Board officially declare the BSCP as the porter’s rep.
- 1935, finally gained recog. & Pullman began to negotiate; within a year, BSCP had enrolled 51% of all porters
Negatives of New Deal for workers and unions.
• Many emp.s inc. Henry Ford, did not recog. NIRA or Wagner Act
• 1935 Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States: SC declared NIRA unconstitutional as it supposedly violated 10th Amendment
• Emp.s used those willing to break strikes or strong-arm tactics to intimidate wks. + continued violence against wks
• Although welfare reforms helped some poor ppl, there were limits ∵ of conflicts btwn state + fed. rights
• Extension of rights to all wks had not been achieved
- Unskilled: no rights; many in mass-prod. indus.s lacked the gains made by skilled wks; those, esp. at lower end of pay scale, who were in most need of protection, did not benefit
- Ethnic minorities (esp. AAs + Mexican imm.s): v. vulnerable pos.
- Women: almost always paid less ∵ leg. upheld pay differentials
- Agr. wks: National Labor Relations Act did not give them the right to join un.s; attempts to imp. their pos. would have to wait until 1960s (United Farm Workers union)
Positives of the Black Power movement for workers and unions.
• Further enc. abandonment of any racist practices in un.s
• Helped focus concerns on poverty - a far greater issue among AA wks; could be linked to Johnson’s ‘Great Society’, which aimed to reduce no. of ppl living below pov. line
• Some c.r leg. may have been influenced by the movement - had a pos. impact on wkforce esp. Economic Opportunity Act 1964
• May have enc. Nixon’s policy of affirmative action
• Provided practical help for AAs who lived in ghettos + kept issue of ghettos on pol. agenda
• 1970: AA wks made up 20% of largest un.s in AFL-CIO
• At Hotpoint, Black militancy over racial issues provided a fighting example to white Hotpoint workers. Together, the workers elected a new, militant leadership to the Sheet Metal Workers local the following year–a leadership that supported the Black workers’ demand for an anti-discrimination clause in the local contract. Hotpoint workers regularly organized mass pickets, as they led a national, multi-union strike against GE that began in October 1969 and lasted into the winter of 1970.
• AAs played a large role in the 1970 postal strike
• The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) was an organization of African-American workers formed in May 1968 in the Chrysler Corporation’s Dodge Main assembly plant in Detroit
- DRUM’s main achievement was to show the potential to build a revolutionary organisation based around working-class politics and activism
- By focusing on the workplace, DRUM and its offshoots provided a model for militant whites, even those who were initially unsympathetic to the politics of Black liberation. Without the earlier efforts of DRUM, it is unlikely that the 1973 wildcats would have occurred.
Negatives of the Black Power movement for workers and unions.
- Militancy + violence lost support among whites + some AAs
- Much of campaign = about black culture + emphasising differences from whites, not integration or much emph. on eco. pos
- Concern about eco. pos = just one issue among a ten-point programme
- Further divided c.r movement + un. movement ∵ emph. on AA wk solidarity rather than general wk solidarity
- Main eco. concern = poverty, in which large no.s of AAs lived; may have resulted in less support for advancing labour rights
- Un.s had not been very helpful in promoting equal opp.s for AA; AAs ≠ well represented on AFL-CIO leadership, even though the org. followed a non-racial policy, while racism = evident in some firms
- Many AAs did not join un.s led by white ppl, which weakened unity of wkforce
- AA wks = largely excluded from craft un.s, esp. building trades
Positives of Gilded Age for African Americans.
• AA buying power gave them imp. leverage against white businesses
• Set up own insurance/banking companies
• Formed all-black unions
• All-black universities (black Ivy League/elites)
• Had achieved constitutional agreements (even if they were not enforced, this was a big step)
• Support given to Booker T Washington by Alabama laid basis for later c.r. agitation
• Eco. success in North (too much emphasis on discrim. in South may detract from this
• AAs played a big part in Westward expansion
- Up to 1/4 of cowboys = AA
- AA trappers, miners, shopkeepers
• All-black towns in West e.g California
• Individuals
- Nat Love: cattle roper
- Mary Fields: stage coach driver
- Bass Reeves: deputy US Marshal
• Grant used federal troops to support legislation (not used again in this way until 1950s)
• 1870 - Fifteenth Amendment
• 1875 - CR Act
• Level of voter reg. + pol. involvement not seen again after 1877 until 1970s
Negatives of Gilded Age for African Americans.
• White democrats regained pol. control of South by systematic use of electoral fraud, violence, intimidation
• Eco. coercion
• In wake of Populist movement, state gov.s in South sought to exclude blacks from pol. life
• Voting qualifications declared constitutional by SC
• Black disenfranchisement until 1960s
• High lynching figures
- From 1882-1900, 1645 AAs lynched
- 47.7% of AA lynchings from 1882-1968 took place from 1882-1900
• JC laws; Tennessee seg. rail travel in 1881 - soon spread through South
• AAs = outside the remarkable assimilation of diff. nationalities/cultures of GA
• Ironically, the infamous deal of 1877 btwn Hayes and Tilden took place in a hotel owned by a wealthy AA; CR ended; rights of states to deal w/ AAs as a local issue restored to the time of Black Codes
• Lousiana, AA voters: 1896 = 13,000; 1900 = 5000
• By 1890s, AA brutally killed every two days - lynching - almost institutionalised; no fed. forces to suppress violence
• 1883 United States v. Harris: 1875 CR Act = uncon.; private discrim. did not fall under fed. jurisdiction
• 1898 Wilkins v. Mississippi: voter reg. laws ≠ uncon. ∵ no specific mention of race (technically true, but obvious that aim = disenfranchise AAs)
• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson: est. legal basis for seg.
Negatives of New Deal for African Americans.
- AAs hit especially hard by prolonged joblessness
- NIRA minimum wage regulations made it illegal for emp.s to hire ppl who weren’t worth minimum wage as they lacked skills - an est. 500,000 AAs lost jobs
- Policies from ND made it harder for emp.s to hire ppl; inc. tax discouraged employing
- Agricultural Adjustment Act 1933 cut farm prod. + raised food prices to help farmers; less prod. = less wk for thousands of AA sharecroppers + forced to pay higher prices
- Wagner Act 1935 harmed blacks by making labour un. monopolies legal, which inc. unionisation and raised no. of insiders who had incentive + ability to exclude AA outsiders
- Roosevelt adapted plans to meet demands of AFL+ dropped provision in leg. calling for prohibition of racial discrim.; un.s = allowed to exclude AAs
- Most of ND spending programmes went to West + East due to the need to gain pol. support
- No.s of AAs on relief remained high
- Social Security Act did not apply to mass of AA sharecroppers in South
- No CR Act
- Little done to inc. AA voting/end segregation
- Roosevelt = conscious of pol. influence of Southern Democrats to pass direct measures on AA c.r
- CCC not est. on initiative of admin., but a response to a demand by AA congressman Oscar De Priest - single AA rep. in Congress for 11 million AAs
- FLSA did not cover agr. or dom. service
Positives of the Black Power movement for African Americans.
• By 1960, NOI had become a national org. recog. in every black community
- Visible contrast to c.r. org.s
- Vilification of whites + endorsement of self-defence = anathema to humanistic lang. of SCLC, SNCC, CORE
- Brought attention to unemp., police brutality
- By 1963, concessions = common due to fear of Muslims
• Trad. c.r. org.s were not addressing white supremacy, but were perpetuating it
• King’s appeal in North = less than Panthers’
• Radicals had enc. consciousness of AA identity + awareness of grievances
• Real threat = forced concessions; a peaceful protest would not have achieved this; energised AAs + achieved aims
• Gave rise to a new confidence and pride in being black and a sense that white values could be challenged rather than accepted
Negatives of the Black Power movement for African Americans.
- By 1970, FBI infiltration had a huge effect on Back Panther leadership
- Gained more publicity than their real influence deserved
- Achieved far less than MLK
- Many historians conclude their studies of the civil rights movement in 1968 w/ MLK’s death
- Radicals = unable to resist power of state
- Clashes w/ police led nowhere + strengthened opponents to c.r
- Goals = too diffuse to be easily realised
Positives of Gilded Age for Native Americans.
• Victory against Custer
- Convinced some Americans that the conflict was in response to poor treatment of NAs, and that there needed to be change (minority opinion)
• Two off-reservation boarding schools
- Set up as to the quality of schools on res.s = poor
- Boys = vocational training; girls = domestic skills
• Education provided opp. to find work
- Some worked in Indian agency offices; interpreters; scouts to army units
• Reservations = opp. to est. farming communities + opp. for better health care + allowed tribal life to continue (perpetuated culture and sense of belonging)
• Navajo tribe made gains from res. life
- Inc. land from 4-10.5 million acres
- Inc. sheep/goats from 15,000 to 1.7 million
• Dawes Act
- Landowners w/ full rights of citizenship
- Unintentionally allowed NAs to retain culture + customs
Negatives of Gilded Age for Native Americans.
• 1871 Indian Appropriation Act built on the 1851 act of the same name = start of reservation policy
- All Indians should be treated as individuals and legally designated “wards” of the federal government
- “no Indian nation or tribe” would be recognized “as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty.”
• Reservation life = failure
- Lost freedom + denied c.r.
- Harsh land; diff. to farm
- Education = poor
- 1880s = drought
- Measles + other diseases
- Alcohol addiction due to availability of whiskey
• Those from the off-res. boarding schools often found no employment + returned to res. life (when they returned, they felt alienated and were regarded as untrustworthy)
• Gov. subsidies = inefficient + cut further when there were other demands
- Humiliatingly dependent on food from gov.
• 1887 Dawes Act = start of allotment policy
- As landowners, now had to pay tax, which went against their belief that land belonged to all creatures and could not be owned
- Dec. in land owned ∵ unable to farm it ∴ bought by settlers; unable to manage the money ∴ slipped further into debt + poverty
• Wounded Knee = final destruction of Sioux
• Most NAs = unable to adapt to allotment policy + sold land to settlers
- Spent the money badly; fell into poverty
• Size of res. land = exponentially reduced
• Women in matriarchal tribes lost status as land = given to male head of family
• By 1900, only 100,000 of original 240,000 NAs from 1860 remained on plains
• In the 16th century, North America contained 25–30 million buffalo. Less than 100 remained in the wild by the late 1880s.
• 1898 Curtis Act
- Amendment to the United States Dawes Act; resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory, which had been previously exempt because of the terms of their treaties.
- In total, the tribes immediately lost control of about 90 million acres of their communal lands; they lost more in subsequent years.
- Transferred authority to determine members of tribes to the Dawes Commission as part of the registration of members. Thus, individuals could be enrolled as members without tribal consent.
- By effectively abolishing the remainder of tribal courts, tribal governments, and tribal land claims in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, the act enabled Oklahoma to be admitted as a state, which followed in 1907.
Positives of New Deal for Native Americans.
• John Collier appointed by FDR as Commissioner for Indian Affairs
• 1934 Indian Reorganization Act
- Greater administrative role in reservations
- Protected right to practise religion + assert cultural identity through dances and celebrations
- Stopped sale of NA land to individual buyers + recovered much unallocated land to expand/create reservations
- Extended political rights of women
- Right to manage mineral assets
• NA children allowed to attend local schools + learn about NA culture, rather than having Western culture forced on them
• Farming training
• Better medical services
• Reforms creates greater respect for NA culture
• Allotment policy abandoned
• Further loss of land prevented
• Tribes on reservations led by tribal councils; helped to encourage tribal loyalties, which earlier gov.s had wanted to break up.
• ND agencies built schools + hospitals
• Great Depression = worst time for US economy across the period but it was the first time that NA civil rights were advanced
Negatives of New Deal for Native Americans.
• Poverty = so great that measures did little
• 75/245 tribes rejected measures
• Use of secret ballot to see if they accepted the Act = unpopular - democratic, ‘white man’s culture’
• Improvements not maintained after WW2; at best, short-term benefit; termination after war limited impact of changes
• Allotment policy ended, but assimilation continued; it would be achieved through the reforms, which were intended to make NAs recognise the benefits of the American way of life
- Original proposals of IRA modified to pursue assimilation rather than separation
• Idea of separate federal court for NAs = abandoned
• Insufficient funds to buy back former res. lands
• Many lands that should have been returned were not given back
• Much funding for improving reservation conditions was transferred to the war effort
