The quest for civil rights 1917-80 Flashcards
What occurred in 1919 displaying tensions in America?
Red Summer where 25 race riots occurred - biggest in Chicago
What are terms for the Jim Crow laws?
The permanent system or the final settlement
Who created a movement to accept Jim Crow laws?
Booker T Washington
How were blacks persuaded not to vote?
Literacy tests, home-ownership clauses, whites choosing the candidates, white mobs at polling stations
How many black men were lynched between 1915-30?
579
How many members of the KKK were there in 1925?
Between 3 to 8 million
Name 2 famous KKK members in politics?
Edward L. Jackson, Indiana Governor and D.C. Stephenson
What was Harding’s opinion of Civil Rights and what did he do about it?
He disliked segregation (gave speech about it to 30,000 people) yet like Coolidge he was tied to laissez faire so did nothing
What showed the power of the Black electorate in 1919?
Chicago mayoral elections of William Thompson
How did the Great Migration weaken trade unions?
Whites in trade unions were ousted by blacks who would work cheaply
How did Roosevelt help blacks?
Black cabinet in White House, Executibe Order 8802 banning discrimination in defence industry in 1941, and New Deal
How did the New Deal aid blacks?
1/3 of new low-income housing was used by blacks, and NRA put minimum wage as equal for either race
How did the New Deal disadvantage blacks?
Blacks were not protected in New Deal (ie farmers and AAA) and blacks were moved off projects for whites, if the donor wished
How did the communists and civil rights movement mix?
Black support for communists were higher than NAACP in some areas, Scottsboro Trials done by commies and black media supported communist equality desire
How were some 1930s civil rights protests?
Harlem - Father Divine of Peace Mission set up programme to sell cheaper than white-run stores, and Housewives League ‘Don’t buy where you can’t work’ scheme
What was Executive Order 7207?
Resettlement Administration set up to give low-income families new housing, but only helped 3,400 out of 200,000 farmers
What were the failures of WWII in terms of civil rights?
1943 250 ‘hate strike’ race riots, still no desegregation in army and TU excluded blacks
What were the gains that WWII gave blacks?
Race relations committees set up in many places, blacks trained as whites unavailable, white acceptance ie working with blacks and Tuskegee Airman
What shows the racism of congress in 1946?
Fair Employment Practises Commission not funded by Congress
Which piece of legislation abolished discrimination in the army?
Executive Order 9981 in 1948
How did the Cold War tamper with civil rights gains?
Civil Rights became unimportant compared to USSR, and National Negro Congress ended up on communist list due to membership
NAACP membership in 1919 and 1946?
90,000 and then 600,000
1920s civil rights success in courts
1926 Sweet Trial protects people protecting their house from white mobs, and legal fund set up during case as well for blacks
What shows failures of Brown vrs Topeka II?
1965, 1% of black children were in integrated schools
What occurred in 1917 to try to help Civil Rights?
Silent Parade Protest in New York with 10,000 blacks, but no anti-lynching legislation as a result
What pre-Brown direct action movement occurred, after 1940?
1942/49/52 sit-ins to desegregate public facilities and Journey of Reconciliation (interstate bus desegregation) with Congress of Racial Equality in 1947
When did the Montgomery Bus Boycott start?
5th of December 1955
When did the Supreme Court rule bus segregation was unconstitutional?
13th of November 1956
Which group organised the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
Montgomery Improvement Association
What did MLK set up in 1957?
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
How did MLK aid the Civil Rights movement?
He gave them a leader and a plan ie on how to appear to be the oppressed, under the oppressor. He also accepted whites into the movement
Which day was the start of the Little Rock Nine incident?
4th of September 1957
How did MLK help the Little Rock Nine?
He talked to Eisenhower about sending down forces to Arkansas, which he did
When was the Greensboro sit-in?
1st of February 1960
What was set up on the 15th of April 1960?
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
What did the SNCC try to do?
Register black voters, often in the most racist parts of the antebellum south
When were the Freedom Rides, what did they try to achieve and who led them?
1961, proving bus restroom facilities were desegregated, and with James Farmer leading within CORE
What was the aim of MLK in Birmingham?
To desegregate the entire city
How did MLK go about his business in Birmingham, 1963?
Filled jails with children and protestors, distributed leaflets about the American Dream, provoked violence from Bull Connor the Chief of Police
Percentage of Americans calling race the most pressing problem in 1962 and post-Birmingham
3% up to 42%
What was the aim of the Freedom Summer in 1964 and how much success did it have?
Black voter registration in Mississippi by SNCC members, though 6 died and only 1,600 voters out of 17,000 accepted
What did Stokely Carmichael set up in 1965?
From the SNCC Carmichael set up the Lowndes County Freedom Organisation, with the idea of Vote Panther, then go home, as well as the Black Power cry
When were the Black Panthers set up and what did they do?
1966, roam the streets armed pushing for more black education and history courses, free schoolchildren breakfasts and sometimes separation from USA by blacks
Price of Watts Riots for LA in 1965
$18 million, 43 dead
How did white views of race riots change in the 60s?
White police violence and black non-aggression changed to one of extreme black bombing and violence
What did MLK do post-1965 and why did this not work?
Social issues, Northern Crusade against slums with Poor People’s Campaign, but was less effective as no unified force, less media interest in social problems rather than violence of Black Panthers
What was the Civil Rights Act of 1960?
Made it a crime to obstruct federal orders and also federal voting ‘referees’
Socio-employment score of black females (1-75) in 1940 and 1980
13 to 36
Percentages of blacks registered to vote in 1966
58.2%
Percentage of black school drop-outs in 1980 between 25-34 with a criminal record
75%
Percentage of Native Americans in towns and cities in 1970
50%
What were the 2 issues for Native Americans?
Tribal homelands and self-determination
Which resolution of 1953 threatened Native Americans greatly?
Termination of tribal lands owned by the federal government so they could be sold off
What was set up by Native Indians in 1968 and with what slogan?
American Indian Movement, based off much of the Civil Rights campaign, calling for Red Power
Example of AIM protest in 1973 based on Civil Rights campaign
Village of Wounded Knee occupied for 71 days declaring independence for the Sioux people - only AIM leaves when government promise change
Which president supported Native Indian rights and which piece of legislation was passed in 1972 showing this?
Nixon, with Indian Education Act giving more funds to tribal schools
How did the Voting Rights Act of 1975 help Indians?
It gave them a vote like it did for blacks
What was passed in 1978 showing the success and failure of Indian rights?
Indian Child Welfare Act giving more, but not all control over adoption of Native American children
Example of Indian rights for land success in 1970 and failure in 1971
Blue Lake of Taos Pueblo tribe returned by Congress, but in Hawaii Indians were still evicted to get land for building
What was the bracero programme?
Initiative between 1942 and 1964 which placed 4.6m Mexicans into work - though the lower pay they later received caused white resentment
What were the 4 issues for Hispanics?
Land, workers rights, discrimination and deportation
How many Hispanics were deported in Operation Wetback 1953-58?
3.8 million
What did Cesar Chavez do for the Hispanic movement?
Fought for workers rights and conditions with unions, strikes and marches - also fasting with group United Farm Workers boycotting grapes and lettuce from 1970
What did Reies López Tijerina do for the Hispanic movement?
Mass demonstration on National Forest land (1966), as well as a violent citizens arrest of an abusive district attorney which ended in a fire fight in New Mexico (1967) - also worked with Black Power
What did Rodolfo Gonzales do for the Hispanic movement?
Focus on race in Crusade for Justice alongside Black Power which influenced a 1966 student walk-out and direct urban influence
What did José Angel Gutiérrez do for the Hispanic movement?
With his La Raza Unida party he got more latinos to register to vote as well as giving them someone to vote for
What were the Brown Berets/Power?
Working like Black Power, they were a militant group in most cities by 1968 encouraging school walk-outs and campaigning against police brutality, idea of Chicanos rights
What was passed in 1974 to help Hispanics?
Equal Opportunities Act which provided more bilingual education
How did the 1975 Voting Rights Act help Hispanics?
It provided language assistance for Hispanics at polling booths
How did workers rights and land disputes change for Hispanics in the 70s?
While some workers rights were improved by the work of Chavez, the results were patchy across the states and land disputes were never settled
What was the issue for gays in the 50s?
Until Illinois decriminalized being gay in 1962 nowhere was safe, and the Lavender Scare was running parallel to the Red Scare at the same time
When was homosexuality decriminalized in all states?
2003
When and where was the gay movement began and with which movement?
Stonewall, 1969, with the Gay Liberation Front
Number of marchers in NYC 1970 Gay Pride
10,000
How did gay soft pressure change minds in the 70s?
As more prominent gay areas in LA, NYC, Chicago and San Francisco started to grow, straights who knew gay people opened up to them
When was 50% of people pro-equal gay rights?
1977
Who was elected as openly gay and where in 1974 and 1977?
Kathy Kozachenko in Michigan and Harvey Milk in San Francisco
When was the vote on Proposition 6 and what influenced the result?
1978, with campaigning by Milk as well as Carter and Reagan
What did the Governor of California do 1979-81 to support gay rights?
Appoint 4 openly gay state judges
Which event backed by who shows some failure in the gay rights campaign?
Dade County Florida vote of 1977 rejecting a law to stop anti-gay discrimination led by Anita Bryan and the Save Our Children society
Booker T Washington’s grand plan
From 1985 idea of economic improvement and education before political equality
NAACP founder and date
WEB Du Bois in 1909
Victims of 1919 Chicago race riot
23 blacks and 15 whites killed
Black Pride explained
From Marcus Garvey with Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914, ideas built in Negro World magazine (100,000 readers) of separate development, deported in 1927
Number of blacks who gained a job in New Deal
1 million
NAACP membership in 1940 and 1945
50,000 up to 450,000 (based upon black experience abroad)
Truman civil rights action of 1946
Committee on Civil Rights in 1946 released To Secure These Rights report, calling end to segregation, ignored by Congress
Example of NAACP pressure in Congress
Costigan-Wagner Bill of 1934 to ban lynching passing House not Senate
1944 case helping blacks
Smith v Allwright, easier to vote
1950 case helping blacks
Sweatt v Painter which allowed a black student to go to a white law school
Supreme Court case upheld with Freedom Rides
Boynton v. Virginia 1960
Gains of blacks by 1955
Desegregation in some universities and colleges, major league teams of sport, some voting rights
When did Meredith make his challenge to Mississippi University?
1962
Who supported civil right’s within JFK administration?
Robert Kennedy as attorney general supporting desegregation of transport facilities and more
1968 Civil Rights Act
Banned discrimination in housing (success of Northern Crusade)
Nation of Islam ideas and membership heights
Black people should set up a separate nation within America, 40,000
1967-68 northern riot government reaction
National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorder led by Governor Kerner - fear of 2 separate US nations of black and white
Founders of Black Panthers
Newton and Seale, Black Panther Party in California in 1966
Who did the Black Panthers gain respect?
30 urban chapters offered self-help advice with welfare and legal rights aid, and Free Breakfast plan
Height of Black Panther membership
5,000
Damage of MLK assassination riots
Across 125 ghettos, 46 died and $67m damage
Proportion of blacks in middle class in 1980
1/3rd
Percentage of black vote won by Nixon
5% representing lack of Presidential help throughout the 1970s
Facts showing problems of Native Americans
Unemployment 10 times national rate, life expectancy 20 years lower, suicide rate 100 times higher
2 Native American sit-ins
1969 Alcatraz Island lasting 19 months and creating a unified force of 50 tribes, and 1972 Bureau of Indian Affairs
Peaceful work carried out by Native Americans
National Congress of American Indians went to court with old treaties such as in Alaska, Maine and Massachussets where rights to land were won
Percentage of Mexican Americans living in cities in 1970s
85% with high birth rate within the barrios
Early gay movement
Mattachine Society for gays to share experience in meetings in liberal states
Number of gay organisations in 1973
800
Result of gay movement not in government
American Psychiatric Association remove homosexuality from its list of diseases
1975 law helping Indians
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act which gave more education and economic control
Facts showing remaining issues for Native Americans
Higher rates of suicide and alcoholism, 90% lived in substandard housing, 40% unemployment rate
Political gains made by Hispanics
1974 New Mexico and Arizona Governors were chicanos, latino vote courted in 1980 for example with amnesty offered to Texan immigrants by Presidential candidates
General issues for Hispanics remaining
Chicano movement not influential across country and still discrimination in housing and schools
2 examples of failures of gays
Christian Coalition of Pat Robertson launched crusades against gay rights and 1996 Defense of Marriage Act
