The Divided Union Flashcards
1
Q
Native Americans:
How many served in WW2?
what did this result in?
A
- 25,000 served in armed forces and further 40,000 worked in war production
- this meant many left reservations to work in cities like other groups
- too many NA lived in poverty on reservations
- Indian Commissioner John Collier suggested in 1941 reservation lift not accommodating
- hinted at return of assimilation
2
Q
What was initially set up to compensate NA?
A
- 1944: Indian Claims Commission set up to offer financial compensation to NA for lost lands (not return of lands)
- compensate them for past exploitation
3
Q
When did Termination really take off? + What was it?
A
- under President Eisenhower
- Aug 1953: Termination Policy announced
- reservations to be broken up and NA encouraged to move to urban areas
- NA weren’t consulted
- Idea was effectively that fed gov would absolve itself for any responsibility for NA, land sold and profits given to tribal members
- began with sale of valuable lands belonging to Menominee and Klamath tribes of Wisconsin ad Oregon
4
Q
Why and How did Termination fail/ was disaster?
A
- No effort to acclimatise NA to urban life
- Many who left reservations drifted into unemployment and alcoholism + gradually began to move back
- By 1960, only 13,000 out of 400,000 NA had moved permanently and only 3% of NA land lost
- policy abandoned but left ill feeling that later developed in 1960s Red Power and militant NA action
5
Q
How did WW2 benifit African Americans?
A
- Membership of NAACP rose from 50,000 in 1940 to 450,000 by 1945
- NAACP began to play important part in civil rights movement after war
6
Q
What was CORE?
A
- WW2 provided stimulus for Civil Rights Movement
- CORE: The Congress of Racial Equality
- founded by James Farmer: civil rights activist in 1942
- Racial inequality made US vulnerable to criticism in wider world particularly after decolonisation throughout the word and communist regimes
7
Q
What did Truman to for the Civil Rights Movement?
A
- Sep 1946: Truman set up Civil Rights Committee to investigate racial abuse
- 1947: published a report “To Secure These Rights”
- stated that USA couldn’t claim to lead free world whilst AA were treated unequally
- called for laws against lynching, abolition of the poll tax and FEPC to be made a permanent fixture
8
Q
What were the limitations of Truman’s contributions to civil rights?
A
- a coalition of 20 Southern Democrats and 15 Republicans blocked every civil rights measure that was introduced in the Senate for example anti-lynching bills
9
Q
What did Eisenhower do for the civil rights movement?
A
- facilitated desegregation in Washington DC
- Eisenhower passed Executive Orders desegregating government-run shipyards and veteran’s hospitals
- tried to encourage integration of schools, particularly after landmark Brown v. Topeka case ruled that schools should not be segregated
- city itself was desegregated as the 1950s progressed
10
Q
What were the limitations of Eisenhower’s contributions to the civil rights movement?
A
- less committed to desegregation
- maintained that legislation couldn’t change people’s hearts so laws to stop desegregation wouldn’t work
11
Q
Describe desegregation of the armed force
A
- Executive Order, passed by Truman in July 1948
- to desegregate the armed forces
- and guarantee fair employment opportunities in the civil service
- A Fair Employment Board set up to replace FEPC: its impact suffered fro underfunding
- By 1950: the Navy, Air Force and army were completely integrated
12
Q
What was the Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka?
A
- NAACP sought to bring cases against inequalities in education
- led with Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka
- Oliver Brown was AA whose 7 year old daughter Linda had to cross railroad tracks and wait for bus to go to school
- Supreme Court had new chief justice, Earl Warren who was sympathetic to civil rights issues
- 1954: court ruled that in education, separate but equal had no place; monumental decision
13
Q
What else did NAACP do for education?
A
- NAACP realised quality of education crucial for equality
- 1933, argued that Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896 imprecise, poorly thought out and vaguely written
- NAACP sent researchers to investigate how schools in South were unequal found:
- South Carolina: spent 3x more in white schools that AA schools
- AA teachers paid considerably less than white counterparts
- 1946: 1/4 of AA were illiterate
14
Q
What was the impact of the Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka ruling?
- positive
- negative
A
- Positives:
- Implementation began 1955
- By 1956-57, 732 school districts desegregated involving 300,000 AA students
- Negative:
- did not set deadline, vague
- no sanctions for non-implementation
- 240000 AA remained in segregated schools:
- most southern states opposed and didn’t act on law
15
Q
Progress in education in later 1950s
What was done to speed up desegregation of schools?
A
- Jan 1956: judges upheld ruling in 19 cases, demanding prompt start to desegregation or overturning existing laws on segregation
- NAACP had upwards of 170 cases pending
