USA unit 2

• 13th amendment - 1865 - abolished slavery
• 14th amendment - 1868 - made all people born in USA, including ex-slaves, citizens
• 15th amendment - 1870 - declared all US citizens had the same voting rights
• The Dred Scott Case 1857:

  • S.C ruled black people weren’t considered citizens
  • even free black people weren’t citizens → couldn’t claim rights of citizens
  • solidified B.A status as an underclass
  • 14th amendment overturned this ruling
• Plessy v Furguson 1896:

  • S.C stated as long as separate facilities were equal, they didn’t violate the 14th amendment.
  • allowed racial segregation to persist for decades until it was overturned by brown v board 1954
• Truman's association with the KKK

  • Truman’s friends advised him to join the KKK - he paid the 10 dollar membership fee and a meeting with a Klan officer was arranged
  • he was inducted but never an active member
  • was pressured to pledge not to hire any Jews or Catholics if re-elected - Truman refused and demanded return of membership fee
• • Southern whites kept B.A from voting thru an expensive poll tax and literacy tests
  • B.A in south mostly employed in the auto, meat packing and steel and iron industries
• Life in south and Jim Crow Laws

  • in south - J.C segregated every aspect of life legally from 1865
  • economically, legally, socially and politically inferior despite 14th and 15th amendments
  • eg: where to sit on bus, where to live, schools
  • separate public facilities and workspaces
  • reaction from south to slaves being freed - much of southern economy dependent on agriculture
  • in south, ex-slaves found themselves in a cycle of endless debt due to sharecropping so many were forced to stay on the land owners land
• Lynching and the KKK

  • ‘Uppity’ B.A who challenged white authority, faced the threat of being lynched by white mobs
  • some whites believe B.A needed terrorising into obedience
  • 1915 - 1930 - lynchings of 65 white and 579 black men
  • southern lynchings often advertised before hand
  • photographs of crowds of men and women grinning happily beside corpses - seen as family event
  • 1955 - lynching of Emmett Till
  • KKK was a white supremacist organisation - 1915 - created an anti-black environment - saw themselves as defenders of white civilisation
• • 1925 - estimated membership 3-8m, dominated legislatures in several states
  • south - KKK more likely to include people with social and political power
• Federal Government Intervention

  • 1896 - S.C Plessy v Ferguson used to support many cases of segregation
  • Wilson had no problem with segregation, Harding spoke out against lynching and was broadly in favour of civil rights
  • Harding addressed 30,000 people at uni of Alambama on evils of segregation but he and Coolidge were laissez-faire → could express opinion and try to influence behaviour but would not enforce it by legislation
  • 1929 Depression was main political focus - civil rights issues slid out of sight
• Life in North

  • life still a struggle in North - many Black communities were dilapidated + very poor, property requirements, still racism
  • Northern segregation was in form of ghettos in poorer parts of cities - discrimination, limited educational and employment opportunities meant it was heard to escape the ghetto
  • Depression hit B.A hard - many lost jobs
  • typical migrant had low paid job, crowded, rundown part of town
  • rent was higher for B.A than for W.A
  • 1880 - 1910 - 500,000 B.A left south
• The Great Migration

  • 1910 - 1970 - 6m people from rural south migrated to cities of North, Midwest and West
  • 1910 - 90% of B.A lived in South, 1940 - 77%, 1970 - 52%
  • Most migrated as found better paid jobs, could vote, unlikely to be lynched
  • migration began due to US entering WW1 - rising need for workers in munitions factories
  • factory owners advertised in southern newspapers for workers - offered free housing, free transport north and good wages
  • B.A paid 0.75 per day in south compared to 5 dollars a day in the north
• Impact of Migration North

  • populations of cities in north rose sharply
  • in cities where black migrants settled that coincided with voting wards eg: Chicago, B.A had significant political influence
  • clear that the black vote could keep a major in power - were listened to more in north
  • however, in cities where black population more evenly spread eg: New York, B.A didn’t gain political power but lived in smaller segregated groups all over city with own businesses, schools and churches
  • churches became bases for organising civil rights protests
• Impact of Migration in South

  • labour force shrank - farming areas struggled
  • poorest farmers suffered most - most black
  • southerners saw black people ‘voting with their feet’ over Jim Crow laws
  • white southerners worried too many B.A leaving as southern economy heavily relied on black labour
  • some white southerners bribed newspapers to tell bad stories abt life in North and some beat B.A for leaving
• Impact of the New Deal:

  • Change in Voting Style + FDR
  • 1930s - black voters shifted from mainly voting R (abolished slavery) to voting D - sig. part of FDR's landslide
  • FDR appointed some black advisers but needed support of many anti-equal-rights people so did little to advance civil rights
  • By 1936 B.A who could vote overwhelmingly voted D
  • issued exec order banning racial discrimination in defence industry to get as many people into war-work as possible
• New Deal measures + B.A:

  • Sig. proportion of poor were black - 1m B.A got jobs thru new deal
  • measures supposedly ‘colour blind’ but B.A constantly moved off projects to make way for W
  • thousands of black farm workers sacked during agricultural reforms to make way for white workers
  • social security provisions of N.D didn’t apply to farm or domestic workers - most black
  • Black officials in gov persuaded NRA to set minimum wage for B + W same
  • W.A working in local level gov prevented B.A access to fed gov programs
• Protesting against New Deal:

  • BA protested abt their treatment during N.D
  • B.A had support from communist and other left-wing groups
  • communists in north demanded relief funds shld be allocated equally btwn B + W
  • Black officials in gov protested + advised but often ignored
  • black churches set up support systems during depression
  • boycotts in stores in black districts that didn’t hire black workers
• Due to FDR’s dependence on southern democrat support in congress it would have been political suicide to significantly help B.A → he didn’t support a number of anti-lynching bills
• WW2 Positive impact:

  • 100,000 all black march on washington unless FDR banned discrimination in army - led to FDR passing an exec order for non-discrimination in defence work which stopped march
  • FDR’s exec order didn’t deal with military segregation but as war went on, military and factories needed more people so B.A could push for equality
  • The US fight against Nazi Germany inspired more B.A to campaign against their own lack of freedom and equality - black leaders pointed out the evils of Nazism were replicated in south - many whites recognised the justice of this claim
• • B+W worked side by ide - saw B.A could do skilled work, think and be friends
  • 1942 - 3% defence workers black, 1944 - 8%
• WW2Negative Impact:

  • didn’t benefit much from war-induced boom that began in 1939 as white workers given preference
  • influx of black workers resented - outbreaks of racist violence and strikes from W.A
  • 1943 - 250 hate strikes and race riots in US cities
  • W+B working together affected W.A reactions to post war civil rights efforts but survey at end of war showed many W.A still supported segregated housing and job preference to W
  • American forces remained segregated during war
  • Many trade unions continued to exclude B.A who were usually assigned low level jobs
• • 1946 - Truman set up president's committee on civil rights - called for equal opportunities in employment and housing + strong fed support for civil rights
  • Truman was on B.A side to push for greater equality but his cold war focus meant he focused more on fighting communism
  • some black organisations that had communist links eg: national Negro Congress ended up on the gov list of suspect organisations
  • 1948 - Truman issued exec orders desegregating military and all work done by businesses for the gov
  • Used exec powers to give equal employment opportunities in the federal bureaucracy
• Impact of Truman

  • Determined to stand up against communism and realised that racism had the potential to discredit the USA as stood for freedom, democracy and equality - segregation was the weak point in its moral armoury
  • supported civil rights - proposed anti-lynching, anti-segregation and fair employment laws in 1954 but failed to push them thru congress
  • civil rights measures almost always blocked by southern and weak northern delegates
• • Trumans actions could be limited - aimed at winning the black northern vote but he did increase public awareness for the need of change
• United Nations and Civil Rights

  • set up in 1945 to build a better world, delegates from the NAACP invited to its first meeting
  • supported decolonisation and human rights and that white supremacy was wrong
  • UN had to tone down its judgements on these issues in face of opposition from member countries eg: S.A
  • NAACP continued to petition the UN to involve itself in the struggle of B.A for civil rights
• Fighting for civil rights - 1917-55

  • used variety of tactics which depended on time, place, circumstance, beliefs + support
  • protestors used non-violent protests, boycotts, sit-ins, picketing to draw public attention
  • also went to the law to try and get rights enforced
  • organising was needed for protests so NAACP and the National Urban League founded
  • smaller, local church organisations often based around church groups eg: MLK was a churchman
  • NAACP membership 9000 in 1917 to 90,000 in 1919 to 600,000 in 1946
• • also separatist movement - said B.A were never going to achieve true equality so they should stop fighting for it - they shld embrace segregation and fight for equal conditions within it
  • meant black children could grow up without feeling inferior, instead proud
  • separatist Marcus Garvey suggested answer was just to do what the white racists were telling them - go back to Africa
• Thurgood Marshall

  • first B.A ever to serve on S.C
  • trained lawyer, worked for NAACP and became its chief in 1940
  • he argued the Brown v Board case in 1954
  • 1940s-50s he took 32 segregation cases to S.C and won 29
  • Kennedy and Johnson appointed him to important legal positions eg: US court of appeals, solicitor general, S.C
• Legal Challenges

  • NAACP aim: to get B.A legal rights - campaigned against lynching - published pamphlets + held marches + petitioned congress
  • laws lynching brought to congress but blocked by southern politicians
  • NAACP took segregation cases to court - their tactic was to argue the separate provision wasn’t equal so it couldn’t be overruled by S.C ruling
  • NAACP also provided lawyers to defend black people on trial who were unjustly accused
• • some schools desegregated within the year, others esp in south took vague phase to mean not for many years
  • 10 years after Brown v Board, only 1 black child in every 100 in south was in an integrated school
  • ruling spurred formation of White Citizens Council in 1954 to fight desegregation and civil rights - 1956 had 250,000 members
  • legal challenges were getting legal support but were useless unless they worked in practice
• Success of Legal Challenges

  • NAACP won some cases in 1930s + 40s and every case in 50s
  • Eg: S.C’s decision in Smith v Allwright 1944 made it easier for B.A to vote in the south
  • NAACP increased black awareness and its range of methods set an important example for the civil rights groups that developed post 1955
  • however, S.C didn’t enforce its rulings and weakened force of rulings by not setting time limits for desegregation or using vague phases eg: ‘with all deliberate speed’ (Brown v Board)
• Formation of White Citizens Council in 1954 to fight desegregation and civil rights - had 250,000 members by 1956
• NAACP targeted housing after integrating schools, setting up National Committee against discrimination in housing in 1950
• Direct Action:

  • NAACP membership growth in 40s and 50s led to increased direct action
  • Local protests influenced by Gandhi's peaceful resistance, targeting segregation and challenging 'illegal' state legislation
  • Boycotts and picketing of shops that refused to serve Black Americans
  • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) formed in 1942, using more militant methods than NAACP, including sit-ins in Northern cities like Chicago
  • Thousands of Black Americans took initiative to move into all-white housing blocks, putting themselves in danger
• Rules of non-violent protest:

  • Demonstrators dressed well, were not loud or abusive, and did not fight back if attacked
  • Demonstrated support for the government and sought government support through petitions to local and federal representatives
  • Aimed to show the evils of segregation and persuade White Americans to change their views and fight for change
• Montgomery Bus Boycott:

  • Lasted from 1955-1956 against segregation on buses in Montgomery
  • Over 75% of bus users were Black, with 90% boycotting the bus for 380 days
  • Martin Luther King Jr. followed rules of non-violent protest and kept the media informed
  • Women's Political Council (WPC) helped organize the boycott
  • NAACP took Rosa Parks' arrest case to court
  • Montgomery Improvement Association, led by MLK, organized the boycott and publicized the events
• Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957:

  • 9 Black children selected to attend an all-white school faced opposition from the state governor and a mob
  • Eisenhower intervened by sending federal troops to guard the children
  • Showed that federal government could overrule states in matters of desegregation
• Greensboro Sit-ins in 1960:

  • Against segregated lunch counters
  • Started by 4 Black students at a department store, later joined by 30 students
  • Trained by CORE and SCLC in non-violent tactics
  • Grew to 50,000 protestors, attracting media attention
• Freedom Rides in 1961:

  • Aimed to test desegregation laws on buses in the South
  • CORE activists rode buses from North to South, facing violence and firebombing
  • Ended after federal government promised to enforce desegregation