Why was there so much racial inequality in the USA between 1930 and 1945?

Question 1

Segregation and the Jim Crow laws - South

Answer 1

• In the states of the Deep South, there was strict segregation which was imposed through the ‘Jim Crow’ laws.
• Black people were prevented from voting or had to pass a literacy or other test to do so.
• The Scottsboro trials of 1931 showed the injustice when 8 black boys were convicted of raping 2 white females on very circumstantial evidence.

Question 2

Segregation and the Jim Crow laws - North

Answer 2

• Northern states such as Michigan and New York did not have segregation laws but racism was still commonplace.
• During the 1920’s thousands of black workers migrated from the south to cities like Chicago and Detroit in search of work. It was known as the Great Migration. They were given low paid jobs and tended to live in ghettos.
• However there were improvements for some. Jazz brought fame to black singers and musicians such as Louis Armstrong. The black neighbourhood of Harlem in New York became centre of the Harlem Renaissance.

Question 3

The NAACP

Answer 3

• Formed in 1909 by William Du Bois, the NAACP was active in fighting against racial injustice throughout the 1930s and 1940s, mostly using the legal system.
• During the 1920s it had campaigned against lynching and was the main opponent of the KKK.
• During the war the NAACP pressured Roosevelt into ordering a non discriminatory policy in war related industries and federal employment.
• The NAACP employed the black lawyer Thurgood Marshall to fight against segregation in education; he secured equal salaries for teachers.

Question 4

The Ku Klux Klan

Answer 4

• Its members had to be WASPS (white, Anglo-Saxon, protestants) and they were anti-communist, anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic and against all foreigners.
• The Klan used terror and violence to intimidate anybody who supported equal rights - acts of intimidation included cross-burning, beatings, mutilations, castration, tar and feathering and lynching.
• The Klan was strong in the southern states and membership reached a peak of nearly 6 million in the mid 1920s. However, in 1929 there was a sharp fall in membership and by 1930, membership stood at 30,000.
• The Klan had a powerful grip on how many southern states were run - its members included police officers, lawyers and judges.

Question 5

The impact of the Depression

Answer 5

• Black people suffered badly, being the last to be hired, the first to be fired.
• By 1932, one third of all black males were jobless.
• 2 million black farmers and share-croppers had been forced off the land.
• Unemployment among blacks in the northern cities was 60%.

Question 6

The impact of the New Deal

Answer 6

• The New Deal provided 1 million jobs for black Americans and training for 500,000.
• The Public Works Administration allocated funds for the building of black hospitals, universities and housing projects.
• The Federal Emergency Relief Administration granted aid to 30% of all black American families.
• The number of black Americans employed by the government rose from 50,000 in 1933 to 200,000 in 1945.

Question 7

The Jim Crow Army

Answer 7

• In the army, there were black only units which formed the Jim Crow army.
• Before 1944, black soldiers were not allowed into combat in the Marines - they were only used to transport supplies or as cooks and labourers.
• The US air force would not accept black pilots until the formation of an African American 332nd fighter group known as the Tuskegee airmen; by the end of the war, there were 1000 black pilots.
• In 1948, as a direct consequence of the contributions of black Americans to the war effort, President Truman banned ‘separate but equal’ recruiting, training and service in the army, air force, navy and Marine Corps.

Question 8

Contribution to the war effort on the Home Front

Answer 8

• In 1941, fearing race riots, President Roosevelt set up a Fair Employment Practices Committee which banned discrimination against black Americans in those factories used by the government in the production of war goods.
• By 1944, nearly 2 million black people were working in war factories.
• Black Americans began a ‘Double V’ campaign - Victory over fascism abroad and victory over discrimination at home; membership of the NAACP rose from 50,000 to 450,000 during the war.

Question 9

The impact of the war on the civil rights issue

Answer 9

• In 1946, as part of his ‘Fair Deal’ programme, President Truman set up a civil rights committee. This proposed an anti-lynching bill and the abolition of the requirement that black Americans had to prove that they had paid tax in order to be able to vote.
• Due to opposition, Truman was unable to implement these recommendations.
• ## However, Truman support for civil rights gave encouragement to the NAACP which began to challenge the segregation laws in the courts in the 1950s.