What impact did Civil Rights Organisations have?

Question 1

What does the acronym NAACP stand for?

Answer 1

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

Question 2

What did the NAACP focus on?

Answer 2

Fighting for civil rights in the courts.

Question 3

What was the LDF? Who set it up and when? What was it for?

Answer 3

Legal Defence Fund set up by the NAACP in 1940 to help wrongly-convicted black people appeal their convictions.

Question 4

How did the LDF lawyers decide to fight cases in the South? Why?

Answer 4

In 1950, LDF lawyers decided not to fight cases for equal but separate facilities in the South. They wanted to fight segregation in the law courts, not work within it.

Question 5

What did the LDF focus on in the South?

Answer 5

It focused on appeals against wrongful convictions or prosecuting white people who murdered black people. It also brought cases to enforce voter registration.

Question 6

What problem did the NAACP face that Southern states used to their advantage?

Answer 6

It faced the problem of Plessy v. Fergusson. This upheld Jim Crow Laws. Southern states could use Plessy to segregate facilities legally and oppose any attempts at desegregation.

Question 7

How did NAACP lawyers fight to desegregate schools and colleges?

Answer 7

They provided evidence that facilities were not equal. They argued that equal facilities were not the same as equal opportunity. They used psychological studies to show that school segregation gave even very young black children a sense of racial inferiority.

Question 8

How did NAACP lawyers select their cases?

Answer 8

Very carefully.

Question 9

How many cases did the NAACP win?

Answer 9

It won nearly every case it took to the Supreme Court in the 1950s.

Question 10

Why did winning a case not necessarily mean that it would change anything?

Answer 10

Winning a case was not the same as getting it enforced. The 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution had made black Americans full US citizens with the same rights as white Americans, but they did not have those rights in real life. Time and time again had black Americans won a legal right to desegregation only to find that local officials had found a way to block it.

Question 11

What does the acronym CORE stand for?

Answer 11

Congress Of Racial Equality

Question 12

Why was CORE unusual?

Answer 12

In its early years, most members were white and middle class.

Question 13

Where did CORE mainly operate?

Answer 13

In the North.

Question 14

Did CORE have a bigger or smaller membership than the NAACP?

Answer 14

CORE had a smaller membership than the NAACP.

Question 15

How did CORE campaign for desegregation?

Answer 15

It used non-violent direct action protests, such as boycotts and sit-ins in segregated places. These tactics had been used before, but often only by small groups of black people, which were usually ignored.

Question 16

How did CORE train its members?

Answer 16

CORE trained its members in non-violent methods such as not reacting if spat or sworn at. Members were also taught the best position to lie in if they were being physically attacked.

Question 17

How did CORE influence a lot of local groups despite its small membership?

Answer 17

Trained members trained local groups in CORE’s non-violent techniques. In this way, although CORE had a small membership, they managed to influence a lot of local groups all over the country.

Question 18

Why were black American churches important in black communities? How were they targets of white violence?

Answer 18

Black American churches were the centre of most black southern communities. They were often used for meetings and as gathering points for marches or protests. This made them a target for white violence on a regular basis.

Question 19

Who were black clergymen?

Answer 19

They were often community leaders and organisers, and were involved in the civil rights movements.

Question 20

Why were black clergymen involved in the civil rights movement?

Answer 20

• Most were paid by their church, so would not lose their jobs if they spoke out against white racism
• They were educated and effective speakers
• They could negotiate with the white community because of they status in the black community
• They had their own network of contacts so they could organise events
• They could gain support from black people of all ages and classes, depending on the location of the church.

Question 21

Why were some white people suspicious of black American church groups?

Answer 21

They thought they were too organised and that they could call on too much support. These white people were worried that church groups could become a threat. It was from this group of white people that the attacks on black churchmen and churches came.

Question 22

Why did some white people approve of the black American church organisations?

Answer 22

They urged non-violence and many of them also emphasised working within the segregated system.

Question 23

Why did many white political leaders favour meetings with black churchmen, if they had to have meetings with members of the black community at all?

Answer 23

Black churchmen were educated and polite, so the white politicians thought they were easy to send away with promises of future reforms.