Unit 1.2: The Quest For Civil Rights Flashcards
What was life like in the south pre 1917?
-Slavery was a reason behind the civil war - south, slavery was prominent - many plantations
-1865 - 13th amendment - abolished slavery - due to Lincoln
-1868 - 14th amendment - former slaves are made US citizens - laws in the constitution apply to slaves
-1870 - 15th amendment - right to vote for black males
-Laws changing doesn’t mean attitudes change
-Plessy V Ferguson 1896
What was Plessy V Ferguson 1896?
Rule black and white people were ‘separate but equal’ - segregation legal as long as groups being segregated are being treated equally - difficult to combat segregation
What was life like in South post 1917?
-Jim Crow Laws introduced in 1917
-Facilities for AA were worse than white - social, educational and economic disadvantages
-Wilson introduced segregation in the workplace
-Poll tax on AA - couldn’t vote in national elections without paying to vote as well as literacy tests that were very difficult - limited voting - on paper, voting rights were the same but they weren’t
-Brown V Board
-Underrepresented in politics - not enough people present to fight for their rights
-Lower paid jobs - due an unequal quality of education - there were exceptions like MLK
What were the Jim Crow Laws? When were they introduced? When did they end?
-Jim Crow Laws = Southern states legalised the marginalisation of AA, they limited voting, excluded access to higher education or stopped them from getting well paid jobs - if laws were broken, some were killed or jailed - introduced in 1917
-1964 CRA 1965 VRA - ended Jim Crow Laws
What was the KKK?
-Ku Klux Klan
-Lynched coloured people
-made up of WASPs - against non-WASP but especially black people
-Resurged during the Second Red Scare and Civil Rights Movement
-Started after the civil war after the 13th amendment - disappear and become less influential - come back in the 1920s (specifically 1915) - membership increases to 5-8 million
-Imperial Wizard found guilty of SA so it declined once again at the end of the 1920s
Why did the KKK use lynchings? Statistics on lynching.
-they felt as though segregation wasnt enough and that black people needed to be terrorised into obedience
-1915-30 - 65 white men lynched and 579 black men lynched - lynchings were often unjustified - only made illegal 2022
Who was Emmet Till? What was the impact of this?
-1955 - Emmet Till was a 14 year old boy who was visiting relatives in the south from Chicago and was lynched for talking with a white woman, allegedly asking her for a date as he didn’t understand souther rules
-it shocked many and got a lot of publicity
What was the membership of the KKK by 1925?
-The membership of the KKK by 1925, was between 3-8 million
Who did members of the KKK include?
-people of political power in the South even state governors
-those of social power such as policemen and the army
-rumours that Harding, Coolidge and Truman were all part of the KKK
What was the role of women Klan members in the KKK?
-rarely took part in more violent Klan activities such as lynchings
-but, they brought up their children up as whites supremacists and especially in rural areas
-created anti black environments that even non Klan people felt too intimated to reject it - indoctrinated children
What had more of an impact on life in the South? KKK or JCL?
-KKK
- JCLs legalised segregation, however the KKK enforced it through their actions
Why was there limited federal intervention in life in the south for AA’s?
-republicans had a Laissez faire attitude so they didnt want to get involved
-Supreme Court is the federal government and they ruled that segregation was legal
-The republicans felt like they could express opinions but could not enforce it with legislation
-Harding made a race committee but he didnt feel like it was the job of the president to make legislation based on their opinion, not a moral issue
-Depression in 1929 - main concern for the gov, not civil rights - but the CCC as part of the new deal that helped AA’s
What was the Great Migration? What is it also known as? Some other key facts?
-also known as the Northern Migration
-The Great Migration was the mass movement of about five million southern blacks to the North and West between 1915 and 1960
-During the initial wave the majority of migrants moved to major northern cities such as Chicago, Illiniois, Detroit, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York
-By World War II, the migrants continued to move North but many of them headed west to Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, California, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington
Why did Black Americans emigrate north?
-North were welcoming AA and helping to solve their issues that they were facing due to the racial segregation of the South
-To get better jobs and employment opportunities
-To work in industrial areas not in agriculture
What impact did the Great Migration have on the North?
-Black people came to have political influence e.g. Chicago - the elections for mayor in 1919 - black people were listed to and a powerful black elite grew that was pro segregation
-Segregation made it more likely that AAs could try for positions in politics as a black American campaigning in a black ward was likely to sweep the black vote
-In some cities like NYC, they didnt have a political influence but they did live in smaller more segregated parts of the city with their own businesses, schools and churches - churches became important in organising protests
-Black migrants dislodged white workers especially those who were members of unions and pushing for better conditions, which allowed employers to force employees to leave unions
What impact did the Great Migration have on the South?
-The labour force shrank
-The farming areas of the South struggled to get by which was intensified by pre existing economic problems - poorest, black farmers struggled most
-Southerners tended to see their migration as black people voting with their feet over Jim Crow Laws as those who remained in the south were seen as accepting Jim Crow
What were the 3 factors that had an impact on civil rights?
- New deal and FDR
- WWII
- Truman
Why was there a shift by black voters in the 1930s? (ND&FDR)
1930s - black voters shifted from voting republican as they freed them from slavery or to voting Democrats
-believed the new deal would help them progress and recover from the depression - impact on the Roosevelt landslide
What was Roosevelt’s view on civil rights? (ND&FDR)
-Appointed some black advisers but needed the support of many who were against equal rights
-did little to advance civil rights
-restricted the number of black workers on a project if a donor to the project wanted this
What was Executive order 8802? Why was it important? (ND&FDR)
-An executive order issued when the war broke out which banned racial discrimination in the defence industry to get as many people into war work as possible regardless of their colour
How did the New Deal discriminate against Black Americas? (Alphabet agencies) (ND&FDR)
-agencies provided relief and work - people chosen to do work by merit alone but black people were constantly moved off projects to make way for whites
-Black Americans weren’t helped as many of them were farm workers who were supported in social security
-CCC helped AA’s but the rest didnt
How did Black Americans benefit from the New Deal? (ND&FDR)
-They benefited because the NRA made minimum wage equal for all colours
-new deal measures did help blacks becuase of their situation like one third of low income housing built had black tenants
-CCC - civilian conservation corps helped 200,000 AA’s
Why did Black Americans protest against the New Deal? (ND&FDR)
-About their treatment during the New Deal - sometimes having support from communists rather than black civil rights organisations
Who were the NAACP and why were they important during the 1930s? (ND&FDR)
-National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
-A group of people established in 1910 that set up legal actions against segregation in the USA, failure to support protests led to communist groups taking over
What was the impact of communist support of black civil rights? (ND&FDR)
-The impact of communists was that communist lawyers uncovered a conspiracy and men were not found guilty in a case where 9 young men were framed for raping 2 girls - communists particularity lawyers helped the AA’s
What organisations were set up during the 1930s protesting against the New Deal? Why were they important? (ND&FDR)
-Organisation that set up support systems during the Depression such as Father Divine of the Peace Mission church group set up restaurants and shops that sold food and supplies at a lower cost
-Women’s organisation like Housewives Leagues campaigned to boycott stores until they hired black workers
What was Executive order 7027 and what impact did it have? (ND&FDR)
-Set up the Resettlement Administration in 1935 that resettled low income families in new housing and lent money to black farmers who had lost homes got loans
-only helped 3400 out of 200,000 farmers
Why did Black Americans not gain from the war induced boom from 1939? (WWII)
They didn’t benefit much from the boom as white workers were given priority over them
Who was A Philip Randolph and why was he important? (WWII)
-May 1941 - A. Phillip Randolph threatened a 100,000 strong black march on Washington unless Roosevelt banned discrimination in the army and defence factories
Why was there an increase in Black American defence workers? (WWII)
-Executive order 8802 - prevented the march that Randolph threatened - 3% of defense workers were black 1942, 1944 it was 8%
What happened in 1943? Why was this significant? (WWII)
-1943 - outbreak in racist violence by white people becuase they had to work with black people
-meant that towns set up race relations committees to investigate improvement as riots and strikes damaged the war effort
What were some of the positive and negative impacts of white and black people working together during the war? (WWII)
-Shortage of workers meant that white skilled workers had to train black unskilled workers - worked together and became friends which affected whites reactions to post war civil rights efforts
-however, a survey at the end of the war saw that many were racist and in support of housing segregation and said jobs should be given to white peoples instead of black strikes and riots by white workers due to increase migration
Did Truman support civil rights? Why? (T)
-Supported civil rights due to the negative treatment of black soldiers after war - he thought it was unjust as they fought equally as hard as white people to save America
What did Truman fail to do with civil rights? (T)
-Failed to pass anti lynching, anti segregation and fair employment laws
Why were civil rights measures difficult to get through? (T)
-Civil rights measures difficult opposition due to southern opposition (such as the Dixiecrats) and mild northern opposition
What did Truman set up in 1946? What was its aim? (T)
-Set up the presidents committee on civil rigths in 1946 to aim to create equal oppournties in work and housing
-to create for federal support for civil rights
Why was it difficult for Truman to fight for civil rights? (T)
-Truman focused on Cold War instead of civil rights - made it difficult to have success in civil rights
Why was desegregating the military and all work done by businesses for the government an important turning point? (T)
-Important for Truman to desegregate the military using executive order 9981 in 1948 as part of his fair deal and desegregating the work done by businesses for the govenrment due to increasingly important black vote
-Truman made changes due to shock over attacks over returning black soldiers
How were civil rights fought for between 1917-55?
Peacefully, they were dressed nicely and protested calmly with signs - would show the whites who believed that blacks were aggressive, that they weren’t possibly making them begin to see each other as equals
What tactics did Black Americans use?
Non violent protest, picketing, boycotting and sit ins - drew public attention
What groups were set up to fight for civil rights?
NAACP and the National Urban League
Why did the number of civil rights groups and membership of them increase after both WWI and WWII?
NAACP went from 9000 in 1917 to 90000 in 1919 and 600,000 in 1946 because of more smaller and local organisations base around church groups
Black soldiers fought for America and whites began to want equality as they saw them as equals
What was the separatist movement?
-Black Americans were never going to have true equality to whites - should stop fighting for it - should embrace segregation and fight for equal conditions in it
-Intention: make children who were black feel proud not inferior
-Marcus Garvey 1920s - said blacks should go back to Africa
What was the Brown v Board of Education case?
-1951 - NAACP lawyers took cases to desegregate schools - overruled due to Plessy v Ferguson ‘separate but equal’
-Took the case to the SC to challenge PvF - won and got it overruled
-Judge earl warren was the SC judge in the case in 1954 - said segregating schools wasn’t equal - colleges and schools should be - set no timescale for this but added to it saying it must be done in deliberate speed
-1954 - a girl had to travel so long to school over dangerous train tracks instead of going to a closer white school
Examples of rules for non violent protests 1917-55?
-Dress well, to look respectable
-Do not be loud or abusive
-Do not fight back if attacked
-Show support for the government, in return they will support us
-Persuade white people to change their views about black people
-Encourage white people to join and protest alongside us
What was the NAACP? What were their aims and some of the things that they did?
-Set up in 1909
-Aim to gain black Americans their legal rights - mounted a campaign against lynching
-Published pamphlets about lynching, demonstrated, held marches and petitioned Congress
-Laws against lynching brought to Congress but blocked by Southern politicians e.g. storm Thurmond
-Plessy v Ferguson had said that segregation was permissible, if it was ‘separate but equal’ - made the fight for civil rights tough
-NAACP provided lawyers to defend black people on trial who it felt had been unjustly accused
Timeline of significant NAACP legal cases?
- 1926 Sweet trial -Doctor Sweet and his family move to a house in a white area in Detroit in 1925; the house is surrounded by an angry mob and one of Sweet’s friends fires a gun and shoots a young man; all the men in the house are put on trial for murder; NAACP lawyers take up the case and win
- 1938 Gaines v Canada - Supreme Court orders the University of Missouri to take black students
- 1936 Murray v Maryland - University of Maryland’s law school is desegregated
- 1946 Morgan v Virginia - Supreme Court overturns a Virginia state law segregating buses and trains that moved from one state to another
- 1948 Shelley v Kraemer - Bans regulations that bar black people from buying houses in an area in any state
- 1950 Sweatt v Painter and McLaurin v Oklahoma - Desegregates graduate and professional schools in Texas and Oklahoma
- 1954 Brown v Board of Education of Topeka - Desegregates schools: first use of evidence that, as well as unequal provision, segregation was psychologically harmful for black schoolchildren
Who was Thurgood Marshall?
-Chief legal counsel for the NAACP
-Won 29/32 segregation cases
-Nominated to important legal positions by Kennedy and Johnson
-Became the first black American to serve in the Supreme Court
What is direct action?
The use of strikes, demonstrations, or other public forms of protest rather than negotiation to achieve one’s demands
Why was there a shift towards direct action in the 1940s and 50s when it came to the quest for civil rights?
-rights weren’t being expanded at a fast enough rate
-peaceful protesting wasnt doing enough
-people wanted to see what it would be like to do something different
-there were other protests around that time such as the workers strikes and they took inspiration from trade unioners and others
What was the economic position of black Americans by 1917?
-There were systems to make blacks remain permanently in debt
-When the price of cotton fell in 1872-77, African Americans were the most deprived
-Southern Homestead Act 1866 - 44 million acres handed out to 4000 former slaves
-Land was of poor quality and they didnt have the funds to invest in seeds and equipment so they couldn’t make any money of the land given to them
-1870s the ‘Exoduster’ movement moved slaves to find new land - could use to make money
-Tuskegee Negro Normal Institute - 1881 - black boys given skills in farming introduced by Booker Washington
-Maldwyn Jones says that living standards of African Americans increased by reducing mortality rates and an increase in land ownership (20% of black farmers owned land by 1910)
What was the social and legal position of black Americans by 1917?
-‘Black Codes’ didnt allow POC to hold office or vote and introduced vagrancy rules but these were suspended by federal officials within a year
-Violence increased - in 1865, in the Shreveport area of Louisiana over 2000 AA’s killed
-90 houses in the black shantytown were burned, 12 schools and 4 churches
-Jack Dupree spoke about equal rights and his throat was cut by the KKK in front of his wife
-1876, 70,000 blacks at school in the south compared to none in 1860
-Literacy rates increased by 31% between 1865-1960
-Independent black churches set up courts so that they could have access to justice
-Charles Caldwell - first black man to be found not guilty by an all white jury - shot by whites
-Supreme Court undermined the 14th amendment and CRA of 1866 and ‘75
-Jim Crow Laws were introduced in the 1890s, Florida banned interracial marriage, 1898, Williams v Mississippi upheld a law that said literacy tests must be used for voting
What was the political position of black Americans by 1917?
-60 ex confederates & former VP of the confederacy voted into congress - extreme racism
-some southern whites barred from running for office
-14th amendment gave blacks citizenship -states found ways around this
-There was the first black diplomat in 1869 Ebenezer Bassett appointed to Haiti
-President Grant introduced three Force Acts - authorised federal supervision of elections and then the ‘KKK act’ dealt with terrorism and allowed the suspension of habeas corpus
-1871- KKK suppressed
-1877 - 2 blacks in senate and 15 in reps
-1900 - 181,000 AA males but 3000 registered to vote in Alabama
-1900 - George White was the only black congressman - not anymore blacks in for another 28 years
