To what extent did the changing pattern of settlement and segregation impact on civil rights issues?

Question 1

Plessy v Ferguson

Answer 1

segregation created ‘separate but equal’ treatment and so did not go against the 14th Amendment

Question 2

Why did mass migration in Harlem happen?

Answer 2

• BA Philip Payton and his company (the Afro-American Realty Company) sold BAs houses - this helped fuel the Great Migration
o Philip died 1917 of liver cancer but between 1920-1930, 87,000 BAs arrived from the Old South and West Indies and 118,000 WAs moved out

Question 3

Claude McKay, BA poet, said Harlem was the…

Answer 3

• “black metropolis and the black capital of the world”

Question 4

The New York Herald Tribune said that…

Answer 4

• Harlem Renaissance was the development of distinct black culture - music, song, poetry, literature
o Announced by the New York Herald Tribune in 1925

Question 5

Name some people involved in the Harlem Renaissance.

Answer 5

♣ Countee Cullon
♣ Langston Hughes
♣ Aaron Douglas

Question 6

Why did Harlem stop being so successful?

Answer 6

Stopped by the Great Depression, not really in effect again until after WW2

Question 7

Describe overcrowding in Harlem.

Answer 7

o In 1920s there were 215,000 people per square mile whereas in 2000 there were 2,000 people per square mile

Question 8

Describe life expectancy in Harlem.

Answer 8

o Life expectancy for a 15 year old girl resident of Harlem same as a 15 year old in India
♣ 65% chance of surviving until 65
♣ Black man had a 37% chance of surviving until the same age

Question 9

What happened to Harlem in the 1960s?

Answer 9

o Harlem because an important base for radical black Americans like the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X and his followers, the Black Panther party etc but at some time was the focus of black culture and a strong religious life

Question 10

What happened to Harlem after the 1960s?

Answer 10

o the low housing prices led to an influx of middle class BAs, Asians and Hispanics

Question 11

Describe what caused Tulsa

Answer 11

• 30th May 1921, a BA Dick Rowland was accused of sexually assaulting a white girl in a lift and was arrested
• 31st May the local newspaper, the Tulsa Tribune, published a fictitious story claiming he had scratched the hands and face of the girl
• By 10.30pm that evening, 2,000 WA surrounded the prison and attempted to lynch them
• Black sympathisers went to the prison to protect him

Question 12

What happened in Tulsa?

Answer 12

• Greenwood attacked by a white mob by the end of the night
• 200-300 BAs were killed
• 1,000 black businesses and homes were burned
• Half of Tulsa’s black population (2,500) left the town after

Question 13

When was Tulsa?

Answer 13

1921

Question 14

The first two riots were due to?

Answer 14

Lack of civil rights.

Question 15

Chicago was the worst riot in…

Answer 15

• Chicago was the worst riot in the Red Summer

Question 16

What ‘caused’ Chicago?

Answer 16

• 27th July 1919, with the temperature of 30 degrees
• 17 year old Eugene Williams entered a public breach usually reserved for white people (the 27th street beach)
• Several white bathers attacked him, letting him die by drowning
A BA was arrested for the murder and a group of BAs attacked the police

Question 17

What actually caused Chicago?

Answer 17

o The black population of Chicago had doubled between 1916 and 1918
o BAs not allowed to join trade unions
o Competition for housing divided Chicago

Question 18

What happened in Chicago?

Answer 18

• Confined to the South side of Chicago where 90% of BAs lived
• Lasted for 5 days and led to 36 deaths, 25 of which were BA
• 537 wounded
• Homes of BAs attacked and 1,000 were made homeless
• Brought to an end by the Illinois National Guard and a large thunderstorm

Question 19

When was Chicago?

Answer 19

1919

Question 20

What caused the Watts Riot?

Answer 20

• The protest was against poor housing, unemployment, and police harassment
• Marquette Fyre, a young BA motorist, was arrested by a highway patrolman
• Led to a large scale riot

Question 21

What happened during the Watts Riot?

Answer 21

• Watts riot was in central LA, 11-15th August 1965
• Over 3,500 black rioters participated
• Rioters overturned and burned cars, looted grocery stores, liquor stores, department stores and pawnshops
• Over 14,000 California National Guard troops were mobilised and a curfew zone of over 45 miles was established
• 34 killed and 1,032 reported injuries

Question 22

Why did the Newark Riot occur?

Answer 22

• At the time, the rioting was blamed on the exceptionally hot weather but it was more to do with housing segregation
• In 1967, Newark had the highest percentage of substandard housing in the USA and the second highest percentage of crime and infant mortality
• The mayor’s selection of secretary to the Newark school board and the plan to build the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry on a 50 acre site that BAs thought should be used to solve the housing problem also created tensions

Question 23

What happened during the Newark Riot?

Answer 23

• The arrest of a BA taxi driver charged with assaulting a police officer led to 4 days of rioting
• The National Guard were deployed - on day 3 they opened fire on the rioters
• 26 BAs had been killed including 10 year old Edward Moses
• 1000 BAs injured and $10 million of damage had been done to property
o The Kerner commission to report on the causes of the riots

Question 24

US national gross profit…

Answer 24

• US national gross profit rose from 227 billion in 1940 to 355 billion in 1950

Question 25

Describe WA and BA income in 1950 and 1960.

Answer 25

o WA income $4,392 1950
o BA income $2,461 1950
o WA income $5,835 1960
o BA income $3,233 1960

Question 26

In the 1950s…

Answer 26

• the USA’s 12 largest cities gained 1.8 million BA residents

Question 27

What did the Federal Housing Administration do?

Answer 27

• The Federal Housing Administration supported anti-Jewish and anti-black restrictive covenants on new suburban housing
o Aimed to make sure neighbourhoods had racial cohesion
o Actually, BAs forced to live in privately owned rental accommodation in inner city areas, became rundown racial ghettos

Question 28

Describe the effects of the Public Housing Act under Truman?

Answer 28

• Many cities failed to provide the public housing meant to be provided under the Public Housing Act under Truman
• Even in areas where this did happen, it was usually high rise blocks

Question 29

Describe Levittowns.

Answer 29

• Levittowns were purpose built new communities of affordable private housing for WAs
• 17.000 houses each developed mainly in New York and Pennsylvania
• ⅗ families in America owned a home by 1960 - an all time high
• 1950-60 - 18 million people moved to the suburbs

Question 30

During 1950-1960…

Answer 30

1950-60 - 18 million people moved to the suburbs

Question 31

Brown v Board of Education…

Answer 31

• 1954 - the landmark case of Brown v Board of Education, the US Supreme Court decided racially segregated schools were unconstitutional

Question 32

Alexander v Holmes County Board

Answer 32

• 1969 case Alexander v Holmes County School Board demanded racial integration at once

Question 33

Charlotte Mecklenburg case

Answer 33

• 1971 Charlotte Mecklenburg case, court demanded that black and white people should be bussed into schools from segregated areas

Question 34

Describe desegregation in schools.

Answer 34

• 1969 - 68% of BA children attended segregated schools

o 1974 only 8%