African Americans

• What basic human rights did the Emancipation Proclamation (1865) give to African Americans?


  1. Plantation marriages legalised.

  2. Freedom of worship.

  2. Own property.

  3. Become educated.

  4. Travel freely.
• What did The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) do?


  Gave all freedmen citizenship and equal protection under the law.
• What did The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) do?


  Made the denial of the vote on the basis of race illegal.
• Positives of the 1866 Civil Rights Act


  Asserted that all races (with the exception of Native Americans) were full citizens of the United States.
• Limitations of the 1866 Civil Rights Act


  Didn't guarantee legal equality to African Americans because radical Republicans were worried the South already planned to undermine African American voters, therefore the whole act could be declared unconstitutional as it violated individual state rights. Had to be watered down to be passed at all.
• How far had African Americans gained political rights by the end of Reconstruction?


  1. 700,000 African American men enrolled to vote.

  2. Elected members to conventions set up by Congress.

  3. Possessed some political power, shared with scalawags and carpetbaggers.

  4. Real political power was limited as African Americans weren't elected in proportion to their numbers.
• How many African Americans were hired into the federal government in the 1870s?


  Congress - Twenty-two

  House of Representatives - Twenty

  The Senate - Two

  (Forty-Four in total)
• When and why was the Freedman's Bureau set up?


  Set up by the federal government in 1865 to support freed slaves in the short term, and provide a basis for their long term security.
• What were the literacy rates for African American children by 1890, compared to white children?


  65% of African American children unable to write, compared to only 15% of white children.
• What were the positives and negatives of the Freedman's Bureau?


  Positives:

  Helped to find homes and employment, providing food, education and medical care. Set up schools and hospitals.

  Negatives:

  Was intended to be short lived, and white resistance meant it didn't achieve everything it intended to. Closed in 1872.
• By 1870, how many African American children and adults attended schools set up by the Freedman's Bureau?

  250,000 people attended 4000 schools.
• What were the Black Codes?


  Laws passed by Southern States in 1865 and 1866 with the intent of restricting the freedom of African Americans.
• When and why were the KKK set up?


  Set up in 1865 to oppose attempts to persuade newly enfranchised African Americans to vote Republican.
• What did the Civil Rights Act of 1875 entail, and why was it a failure?


  Created in response to the violations of the civil rights of African Americans, motivated by a concern over moves to formalise segregation.

  It wasn't enforced, and in 1883 the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
• How did the Compromise of 1877 affect African American civil rights?


  Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was elected as President after making an agreement with the Democrats to withdraw remaining troops from the south. This ended Reconstruction.
• What civil rights had African Americans gained by the end of Reconstruction in 1877?


  1. Slavery abolished.

  2. Freedom of movement and freedom to marry.

  3. Briefly had the right to vote and some political power.

  4. Some educational opportunities.

  5. Freedom of worship.
• What still limited African Americans by the end of Reconstruction in 1877?


  1. Most still lacked land, capital or lucrative employment.

  2. By 1877, the majority of men found themselves barred from voting.

  3. Lived in fear of violence, in particular from the KKK.

  4. Formal segregation was beginning.
• What had caused the failure of Reconstruction and the loss of civil rights for black Americans?


  1. Weakness of southern Republicans in contrast to the south's raging racists.

  2. North lost interest in welfare of African Americans.

  3. Northerners aimed to reconcile northern and southern whites to avoid another civil war.

  4. Mentality of American freedom requiring minimal government intervention meant the government wouldn't intervene to give everyone in America freedom.
• What economic troubles did freedmen working as sharecroppers face working in the rural south?


  They failed to benefit from the diversification of southern farming, which also meant they suffered the most from the boll weevil reaching southern states in 1892 and damaging crops.
• By 1910, what percentage of African American farmers owned their land?


  25%.
• How far did African American businesses develop in the south?


  African American businesses had a guaranteed market and developed parallel to their white counterparts.

  By 1915, there were 30,000 black owned businesses in the south.
• How did Jim Crow laws develop?


  Developed most rapidly between 1887 and 1891, when eight southern states introduced formal segregation on trains.

  After 1891, segregation laws extended to cover public places of all kinds.
• What was social Darwinism?


  The application of Darwin's biological theory of evolution to sociology, arguing that the survival of the fittest can also be applied to races, thus asserting a racial hierarchy where white people were supposedly at the top.
• The Slaughterhouse Case (1873)


  When judging a case concerning a meat monopoly, the Supreme Court decided that the rights of citizens should remain under state control rather than federal control. It ruled that while the Fourteenth Amendment protected a citizen's individual rights, it did not protect their state rights.
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)


  Homer Plessy was denied a seat on an all-white railway carriage. In court, justices decided that segregation was constitutional. Established the "separate but equal" doctrine.
• Cumming v. Board of Education (1899)


  County's Board of Education decided to close the only high school for African Americans in the area. It was ruled that this didn't violate the 14th amendment, and the idea of "separate but equal" was expanded to schools.
• What measures were taken to remove African American voting rights?


  1. Poll Tax.

  2. Property qualifications.

  3. Literacy tests.

  4. Grandfather Clauses.
• Mississippi v. Williams (1898)


  Ruled the Mississippi poll tax and similar devices were constitutional, and did not violate the 15th amendment.
• During what period of time was the lynching campaign at a height?

  Between 1880 and 1910.
• How did Ida B. Wells oppose lynching?


  Spoke out against lynching, dispelling the myths that alleged rape was the most common cause of lynching and questioned the innocence of white women in some of the alleged rapes.

  Despite being received sympathetically by the atmosphere of the progressive era, the south still insisted that a federal anti-lynching law would interfere with individual state rights.
• How did Booker T. Washington establish his career?


  Formed the Tuskegee Institute in 1881.
• What was the importance of Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Speech in 1895?


  Washington's ideas became known as the Atlanta Compromise, asserting that African Americans should reach an accommodation with the white dominated south. Stated that African Americans should focus on education and economic opportunity, rather than social equality and particularly voting rights.
• What was the Niagara movement, and why wasn't it successful?

  Founded by W.E.B Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter in 1905, who denounced Washington's approach of accommodation.

  Their approach to civil rights could be seen as too academic, failing to relate to working class African Americans. From the start it lacked money and effective organisation.
• What was the Springfield Riot (1908)?


  A violent attack on the black community after an African American man was alleged to have attempted to rape a white woman. The police refused to hand over the accused man to the rioters, so some white residents decided to take revenge by burning black homes and businesses. Most African Americans fled the city.
• How was the NAACP formed?


  In 1909, as a direct response to the Springfield Riots, Du Bois met with other leading African American civil rights campaigners to form the first proper civil rights organisation; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• Guinn vs United States (1915)


  Grandfather clauses in the state constitutions of Maryland and Oklahoma outlawed.

  First time the Supreme Court ruled in favour of civil rights.
• What were the experiences of African Americans who went to war?


  Over 350,000 African Americans served in the First World War. They fought in segregated regiments, fighting with distinction alongside French colonial troops rather than with Americans.

  The experience stimulated campaigning for equality.
• Chicago race riots (1919)


  A teenage African American boy accidentally drifted towards the 'whites only' section of Lake Michigan beach. He was stoned, then drowned. Thirteen days of violence followed when Irish and Polish workers attacked the city's ghettos, leaving 23 black and 15 white people dead, and 1,000 black families homeless.
• Was life in the north better for African Americans?


  Disadvantages:

  1. Schools still segregated, but de facto rather than de jure.

  2. Much less money was spent on education for African American children.

  3. Severe discrimination in employment, especially clerical work.

  Advantages:

  1. Lynching was less common.

  2. If African Americans were on the voting register they could become jurors.

  
  

  In short, while segregation was de jure in the south, it was de facto in the north.
• Did movement north increase black consciousness?

  There was an outpouring of African American artists, and much of the talent discovered emerged from the poverty and squalor of areas such as Harlem. This movement became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

  During this time, a significant black middle class emerged, who had more educational opportunities, and as a result there were more black professionals and businesses than ever before.