Unit 2- 1877-1915 Flashcards
1
Q
What happened by 1910?
A
- 25% of black farmers owned their land
2
Q
How many AA still lived in south by 1900 and why is it significant
A
- 90 %
- this is significant because it highlights the continuing struggles of a people newly freed from slavery
3
Q
What was life like for AA who moved to the north?
A
- They found that there was no legal segregation
- However they still faced discrimination
- and their range of employment opportunities, quality of housing and education was still heavily limited
- There was still greater chances of Franchise in the north
4
Q
What states were heavily populated with AA?
A
- Mississippi and Alabama
5
Q
What were Jim Crow Laws?
A
- Segregation laws that started to develop rapidly between 1887 and 1891
- When 8 southern states introduced formal segregation of races on trains
- It segregated all public facilities however facilities for AA were significantly inferior to those of the white
6
Q
How did JCL impact AA rights?
A
- Denied political rights as their were voting restrictions meaning there was a lack of political representation and they could not advocate for their interests
- It denied their economic rights as it ensured that AA were confined to low paying manual jobs and many were trapped in a sharecropping system which put them in debt
- denied social rights - AA schools were significantly underfunded and had limited resources and segregated housing policies forced them into overcrowded and underdeveloped neighbourhoods and often denied access to mortages
7
Q
What was the Plessy v Ferguson Case and what impact on AA rights did it have?
A
- 1896, the Plessy V Ferguson case was taken to the supreme court after Plessy sued after being denied a seat in an all white carriage and was arrested after violating the Separate Car Act
-The Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment, as long as the facilities provided were “separate but equal.” And this provided legal justification for JCL in all aspects of life, therefore having a negative impact on the rights of AA
8
Q
What did southern states implement to restrict AA from voting but did not go against the 15th amendment ?
A
- Poll Tax - Voter had to make a payment before voting
- Literacy tests - This was arranged so that questions for whites were simpler than those for AA
- Grandfather Clauses - effective measure to eliminate black but not white votes, this was voting rights to to only those who were eligible for it, which was those who had Fathers of Grandfathers who had voted before reconstruction, and this impacted AA because most African Americans had been enslaved and denied voting rights before the 15th Amendment (1870), their grandfathers were not eligible to vote.
9
Q
What other method did white southerners rely on to deny AA civil rights?
A
- Between 1880 and 1910 , levels of lynchings heightened
- this involved white people beating and torturing AA and kill them by hanging them
- this enforced white supremacy
- it created fear amongst AA which discouraged their motivations for civil right progression and made AA not want to speak out
- Lynching cases were denied trials, as it was alleged that the victim had committed a serious crime such as raping a women
10
Q
Who was Ida B Wells and what did she do for the rights of AA
A
- Was a key figure in opposing lynching
- Investigated lynching cases and challenged 2 myths, by showing alleged rape was not the cause of lynching and she exposed the false narratives and secondly she questioned the white female innocence in the alleged rapes
- She travelled to NY to expand her views
- The impact she has was that she raided awareness, however her impact was limited because she failed to gain any support from congress or President for an anti lynching law
11
Q
Who was Booker T. Washington?
A
- An AA leader who became a teacher after studying and decided to form his own institute in 1881 in Tuskegee, Alabama.
- He showed his leadership skills and great vision
- He recruited high quality teachers and provided the basic education necessary for AA
- In a speech in Atlanta in 1895 he argued that if whites could regard blacks as potential economic partners rather than dangerous political opponents, the race question will eventually be diffused
- And he emphasised that AA economic progression and to prove their value to society rather than directly challenging and confronting it
-Washington believed that economic empowerment and skill development would eventually lead to respect and integration into mainstream society - This became known as the Atlanta Compromise
12
Q
Why did Washington face criticism from the AA community ?
A
- They argued that he seemed to accept the idea of white supremacy and was making an attempt to challenge the lower social position of AA
- He even faced critics from Du Bois
13
Q
What was the springfield riot?
A
- 1908
- a racially motivated attack in Springfield, Illinois, that highlighted the racial tensions in the United States during the early 20th century
- Started because of an attack on a black community because there was allegations that a black man had raped a white women , and the police refused to hand over the arrested men to the rioters, and white residents took action by burning black communities
- Led to the Formation of the NAACP
14
Q
What was the NAACP?
A
- The National Association for the advancement of Colored People was formed by Du Bois in 1909
- Was a response to Springfield Riot
-primary mission was to fight racial injustice through legal action, public advocacy, and education. It focused on securing civil rights, ending lynching, and challenging Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation - Another Aim was to publicise the racism
- Impacted AA civil rights positively through the use of legal action to gain rights
15
Q
What did the NAACP lead to the development of?
A
- The Nation Urban League in 1911 to look after the welfare of AA in the north
