USA: Civil Rights Stuff Flashcards
Position of black americans in early 1950
Jim Crow laws - enforced segregation that covered all aspects of life
Plessy v Ferguson vase in 1896 which upheld Jim Crow laws - said that segreagtion laws was acceptable if the facilities were equal
NAACP and CORE set up
Only 20% of black people voted because of the threats of whites
What was the progress of education
Brown vs Topeka case - forcing his daughter to attend a black school a long way . NAACP supported the case and 4 others. 1954 supreme court declared that segregated schools were ILLEGAL
Little Rock - 9 black students tried to enrol in arkansas
- many hate
- eisenhower send federal tropps to escort them and protect them
what was the Montgomery bus boycott
Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give her seat on a bus to a white man
. Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Improvement Association organised a boycott of the buses which lasted for a year until the bus company gave in.
In 1956 the Supreme Court said that segregation on buses was also illegal.
what was the first civil rights act
In 1957 Eisenhower introduced the first Civil Rights Act since 1875. It set up a commission to prosecute anybody who tried to deny American citizens their rights.
what were the oppositions to the first civil rights movement
The KKK and were involved in violent attacks
The murders of George Lee, Lamar Smith and Emmet Till (14 year old boy) got a lot of coverage across the country
Dixiecrats – southern democrats that formed a breakaway party after 1948 Civil Rights Bill
Southern state governors – most state officials favoured segregation so opposed and moves towards Civil Rights
White Citizens’ Council set up in Mississippi to oppose desegregation
Southern churches
Claimed the bible said that integration was a sin (many KKK members were also members of these churches)
what included progress during 1960 - 62
Greensboro sit-in
The James Meredith case.
The Freedom Riders.
what was the Greensboro sit-in
The first was at Woolworth’s in Greensboro North Carolina, where students demanded to be served at a whites-only counter. When they were refused they organised a sit-in.
Altogether 70,000 took part in sit-ins across the south and 3,600 went to jail.
When whites turned violent there was widespread television coverage and support for Civil Rights.
Student protests organised by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
what was the James Meredith case.
James Meredith, a black student, was rejected from Mississippi university and the NAACP challenged his rejection.
The Supreme Court ordered the university to admit him but officials still stopped him. In 1962 Kennedy sent the National Guard and federal troops soldiers into Mississippi to make sure that he could take his place at a university.
But when rioting followed, 23,000 troops were needed to keep order
what was the Freedom Riders
CORE campaigners rode buses to highlight that desegregation had not happened
The KKK and WCC vowed to stop them
In 1961 the KKK firebombed a bus in Aniston, and buses were also attacked in Montgomery with little police protection, some riders arrested e.g. in Jackson, Mississipi
Freedom rides continued throughout 1961 - government said that they would send federal troops if states did not desegregate bus facilities
what were the peaceful protests
Birmingham, Alabama April 1963
March on Washington 1963
Freedom Summer 1964
Mississippi murders 1964
what happened in Birmingham, Alabama April 1963
SNCC, SCLC & ACMHR (Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights) began Campaign ‘C’ (for confrontation).
They targeted Birmingham
notoriously racist Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor was the chief of police and it was believed that he could be easily provoked into using violence against peaceful protesters.
Arrests, water cannon, dogs and baton charges were used to disperse the marchers. Arrests reached 500 a day, but it was all shown on television and many were sickened by the violence
what was the March on Washington 1963
Immediately after events in Birmingham, 250,000 people (including 40,000 whites) took part Despite fears, the march was peaceful.
Significance of the March - Size, TV broadcast around the world, King’s emotive speech, black and white crowd with famous people involved too (e.g. Bob Dylan)
what was Freedom Summer 1964
1000 volunteers went to Mississippi to work with local campaigners. Many white college students involved: Freedom Schools set up, helped many to pass voter registration tests.
Significant white opposition - Reaction of many white Mississippians, many blacks lost jobs, beatings and violence common, only 1600 of 17000 successfully registered to vote
what were the Mississippi murders 1964
3 CORE workers (two white ,Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, and one black, James Chaney) were murdered by the KKK in June 1964, although their bodies were not discovered until August. Other bodies of black CORE workers were also discovered in the search. Another scandal that gained much media coverage
what did kennedy and johnson do to the civil rights
JFK - Appointed blacks to high level jobs, pressed for changes to laws, not afraid to intervene in south with executive orders eg James Meredith case.
LBJ - Appointed blacks to high level jobs, Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, Escorted marchers from Selma to Montgomery
JFK was assassinated before he could achieve what he wanted.
Both Presidents also still needed the support of voters and members of Congress that opposed Civil Rights (eg Dixiecrats) so this limited what they could do.
