The development of the civil rights movement, 1954-60 Flashcards
What treatment did black Americans face?
Across the USA, black Americans faced negative treatment such as racial segregation and discrimination. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in public parks, cinemas, restaurants, schools, universities and on public transport.
What were attitudes like in the ‘Deep South’?
The Deep South is those states in the USA’s south-east with a history of slavery and who formed the Confederacy during the US Civil War. Many people in these states held very traditional and conservative views. These states are Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina Virginia and Florida.
Why do many laws vary between states?
The US has a federal system of government. This means while the constitution gives federal government (President, Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court) some powers, it also gives states the right to pass many of their own laws.
What was the Ku Klux Klan?
A group who persecuted Jews, Catholics, communists, and anyone who was not white, especially African Americans. They put burning crosses in front of houses, blew up homes and murdered people. Many policemen and judges in the South were members or sympathetic to the organisation.
How many black Americans could vote in the South?
Before the war around 3% could vote, while in 1956 about 20% were registered to vote.
Why were so few black Americans registered to vote?
White people could stop black people from voting using a variety of official and unofficial methods:
• Employers threatening to sack black employees
• White gangs gathered outside registration and voting places
• Black campaigners and the lawyers and activists who went to court to defend the right to vote frequently faced beatings or murder
• Unfair voting registration tests, including literacy tests, that would be biased towards white people
What factors contributed to the growth of the civil rights movement in the 1950s?
Factors included:
• Better education for black people, especially in the North, led to more black professionals
• Migration meant that many poor black people moved north and liberal whites moved south
• Southern towns grew, giving black people new job opportunities in industry
• The Cold War made the US government sensitive to international criticism
• In the Second World War many white people worked with black people and black Americans saw integration abroad
• Television brought events into the living room – racism could not ignored across the USA
What nationwide civil rights organisations were there in the 1950s?
- National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP)
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
What groups campaigned for rights in the South?
Local groups were often church-based. These often had more success in the South. Some local groups did not oppose segregation but wanted equal standards. These groups were important in helping develop tactics of non-violent direct action.
How did the NAACP campaign for civil rights?
Focussed on campaigning through the courts.
What was Plessy v. Ferguson?
A decision by the US Supreme Court in 1896 that declared segregation was allowed under the constitution, as it was ‘separate but equal’. This allowed for Jim Crow laws.
How did CORE campaign against segregation?
CORE campaigns used non-violent direct action protests such as boycotts, pickets and sit-ins of segregated places (e.g. lunch counters, public transport).
How did church organisations campaign for civil rights?
Black American churches were important centres of most black communities in the South. Black clergymen were often community leaders and organisers, and were involved in the civil rights movement because:
• Most were paid by the church so would not lose their jobs if they spoke out against white racism
• They were educated and good public speakers
• They were good negotiators
• They had their own network of contacts in the black community
• They could persuade and gain support
• They sometimes used non-violent direct action, but stressed forgiving opponents
What opposition did the civil rights movement face in the South?
They faced violent opposition from the KKK as well as from white Southern churches who used the bible to justify segregation.
When and where was Emmett Till murdered?
The 14 year old from Chicago was murdered in August 1955 in Mississippi.
What happened to Till’s killers?
The trial was reported across the country. The jury cleared the defendants after about an hour. The defendants later sold their story (admitting the murder) to a magazine for $3,500.
