The Development of The Civil Rights Movement 1954-60 Flashcards
What were the ‘Jim Crow Laws’ in 1876?
Laws that legally segregated Black and White Americans
What does the Jim Crow Laws 1876 suggest?
Black and White people should be deemed ‘seperate but equal’
What consequences would Black people face if they used toilets, buildings and bus seats?
They could be evicted, fined or arrested
Why was it difficult for black people to vote?
black people were often given more difficult literacy tests to make them fail
Poll tax was too expensive
What did most states require citizens to do, to vote?
They needed to pass a literacy test to register to vote
What was the the ‘grandfather clause’?
If white people fail a test they can still vote if their grandfather was registered
Why could most black americans stuggle to vote even when they passed the hard literacy test?
You need to pay a poll tax which was too expensive as black people had low paying jobs
White people often believed black people were _________ to them
Inferior
What does the NAACP of 1909 stand for?
National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
What was the main objective or the NAACP?
To overrule the Plessy Vs Ferguson and jim crow laws
What does CORE of 1942 stand for?
The Congress of Racial Equality
What was CORE’s main objective?
To use non violence to end segregation
How did the NAACP try and support black people?
Fought legal cases for black people
Established the Legal Defence Fund to help balck people who were wrongly convicted of crimes
How did CORE try and support black people?
They used boycotts, pickets and sit ins to gain publicty
What is thr main difference between NAACP and CORE?
CORE was not as known as NAACP
NAACP operated mostly in the north
CORE was mostly white members
What was ‘reconstruction’ after the american civil war in the 1860s?
When northern states aimed to change political and economic systems in the southern states
What changes did reconstruction lead to?
Formerly enslaved black americans had a right to have US citizenship
Voting rights for Black Americans
Why was reconstruction unseuccessful?
The state governments took the rights and freedoms away
Whats the difference between a federal government making a law and a state government making a law?
Federal - laws enforced nationally
State - laws enforced locally
What are some examples the Jim Crow Laws initiated?
Seperate facilities like toilets for blacks and whites
Black students cant attend white schools
Limits on where a black person can live
What was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)?
A violent and secret organisation that believed in white supremacy
Why was the KKK so powerful?
When black people opened a case, the judge was ussually white and was biased
What does lynching mean?
Executing without a law order
What are some actions of the KKK against black people?
Burning crosses
Lynching
intimidating them to prevent them from voting
How were black activist (black people who supported the civil rights movement) treated?
Faced extreme violence
Who was the black activist, George Lee?
A black voter in missispi who refused to fgive up his right to vote.
He was shot in his car and authorities ruled it as accidental
Who was Emmet till?
A 14 year old African American who was accused of harrasing a local whote woman in thr store
What happened to Emmet Til in 1955?
He was kidnapped, mutilated and shot. His body was found in anriver
What happened to the kidnappers of Emmet Till?
They were arrested. The uncle identified them as the kidnappers but were found not guilty by the all white judge
What was the significance of Tills Mother holding an open casket funeral?
A huge national audience was aware of the violence and discrimation black people faced
What was the Brown Vs Board of Education of Topeka case in 1957?
A case raised due to how black students were unable to attend nearby schools because of the colour of their skin
What did the court decide about the Brown Vs Board of Education Of Topeka case in 1957?
The ‘seprate but equal’ rule did not work in public education
What was the local whote reaction to The Brown vs Topeka decision?
They were shocked and many joined the KKK
How did Marshall, on behalf of the browns, agure that segregation in schools was wrong
He used arguements supported by psychologists that segregation created a feeling of inferioritydemotivated black students to learn
Why was Brown vs Topeka not completely successful?
Racism could not be abolished over night
Court did not set a timescale for it to happen
What was the long term significance of the Brown Vs Topeka case?
It was the beginning of the end of ‘seperate but equal’
Maked the beginning of desgregation
Supreme court was supporting balcks for the first time
What was the little rock nine
What was the little rock 9?
Where 9 black students attempted to intergrate with a white school
What did the little rock nine face when they arrived at the school?
White mobs threatened the students with violence
Why did the little rock 9 gain attention?
Events of white violence were broadcasted internationally which harmed US reputation.
Because the little rock 9 incident was harming US reputation, How didnPresedent Eisenhower respond?
He sent in federal troops and ordered the state troops to protect the black students rather than block them
After 3 weeks, the little rock 9 successfully were able to attend school. Was this the end?
They still had to be protected by soilders most of the year. They still face bullying and racism from white students
Why was Rosa Parks Arrested in 1955?
She refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger
What did the NAACP and WPC decide to organise on the day of Rosa Parks trial?
A city bus boycott
Why was the Motgomery bus boycott significant to the city?
70% of bus riders were black
Bus companies lost 3000 dollars of revenue each day
Who was the Montogomery Bus Boycott led by?
Martin Luther King
Since blacks used public transport as their main source of travel it was hard for them to commit to the Montogomery Bus Boycott.
What made things easier?
The MIA set up car pools and black taxi drivers to be a replacement
How did authorities make the Montogomery Bus Boycott difficult for black people?
Leaders like MLK were violent attacked - had their homes bombed
Car pools were fined with made up offences like driving too slow
How did the Bus Boycott become a success?
People around USA supported it.
Compared it to degregation in schools at court
