History: Civil rights - African Americans

• When did Plessy vs. Ferguson occur?

  1896
• What did Plessy vs Ferguson lead to?

  Jim Crow laws
• what dates were Jim Crow Laws enacted

  1877-1964
• What were grandfather clauses?


  if your grandfather could vote then you could vote(before 1877) (blacks grandparents were slaves - no voting rights)
• What happened in 1881 in Tennessee?

  Tennessee railway segregation which so me African Americans apporved of.
• What was Plessy vs Ferguson?


  Separate but equal - legalised segregation and opposed 14th ammendment
• When did the last African American congressmen retire? (GA)

  1901 - left no AA representation
• How many people were lynched form 1882 - 1968?

  4747
• What werre black codes?

  used to limit African Americans in terms of jobs, how lon gthey worked, for not allowed to marry white people.
• What percentag of people lynched were African American?

  72%
• From 1890 to 1910 how many African Americans were lynched?


  175
• When was the KKK formed?

  1865
• How did literacy improve in the gilded age?

  In 1865 only 1 in 20 African Americans could read but by 1895 it was 1 in 2
• How did things improve socially?

  There was a rise in religious organisations and banks owned by African Americans
• By 1900 how many African American proffessionals were there?

  47000 - doctors, lawyers, teachers at 8 million Americans
• How did segregation effect areas where people lived?

  There were a lot of black towns or black areas like some parts of Chicago and Harlem in New york which was stricly a black area
• What happened during the reconstruction era?

  14th Ammendment which meant people couldn't deny equal protection under law for anyone and the 15th ammendment - no racial discrimination. There was a rise in congressmen, AA proffesionals/ However they were short lived and they soon entered the Jim Crow era
• did all African Americans want the same thing?

  No.
• New deal


  New deal
• What was Roosevelts goal for the new deal?

  To build up the economy and help people get jobs, African American Americans fell under that category as they were poor.
• What percentage of African Americans were on releif?

  By 1953, 30 percent of black families were on relief compared to the 10% of white ones which showed their poverty but also the fairness of the policy towards thm.
• How many African Americans were given relief during the new deal?

  Over a quarter of a million
• What did Eleanor Roosevelt do?

  She supported AA organisations and didn't support segregation
• How did the new deal help farmers?

  Farmer security administratprs helped southern AA when they were affected by food and raw materials prices rising.
• What were some negatives about the new deal for AA?

  Many sharecroppers couldn't pay the rent and little was done for the 200,00 evicted.

  There was unemployment

  NRA which was made for better pay was ingnored.

  No voting rights

  AA were constantly being igiven worse pays

  Education inequalities

  fear of lynching
• What was Brown vs Topeka?


  It was in 1954 - the end of legal segregation, in schools etc
• What acts did President Johnson pass in the 60s?

  The Civil rights Act 1964 - prohibiting discrimination n the basis of race, colour, religion etc.) made universal and enforced it in areas that were against these rights such as the deep south.

  
  

  The voting rights Act in 1965 - allowed African Amercians to vote as it allowd all races and genders to vote
• What was the issue with the Voting rights Act?

  Although the Voting Rights Act passed, state and local enforcement of the law was weak, and it often was ignored outright, mainly in the South and in areas where the proportion of Black people in the population was high and their vote threatened the political status quo.
• How did the Voting rights Act improve rights for African Americans?


  Still, the Voting Rights Act gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among Black people increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969.
• Who were some influential African American figures?

  Booker T Washington, Malcolm X, MArtin Luther King.
• What was black power?

  a movement in support of rights and political power for black people, celebrating black culter, advocating for eonomic rights
• What were Malcolm X's beliefs?

  Black people were the original people of the world.

  He advocated fighting back instead of staying non violent

  People were swayed more by his ideas than him himself

  His belief changed a lot - seperatism

  He want to Mecca and saw that Islam was the route he wanted to go down

  He was muslim but was kicked out, because he changed his ideas from seperation to peace and living together

  He spoke out against the Islam leader.

  Went to mecca and saw all colours mixing together

  From seperatism based on state to seperatism based on religion

  He wants more of an Islam state then a Black state

  6/10 significance
• How did black power inspire African Americans?

  More cultural gains and social gains, they didn't focus on politcal and economically gains.

  Powerful, teaching them about they're history. Community level, small change

  Mainy changed by the acts put in plae

  Helping in terms of identity.
• What did Martin Luther King do?

  Speeches, important

  Pushes for the Civil rights act of 1964 and the Voting rights act of 1965

  He changes the tactics to non-violent direct action

  He's the leader for the MIA which pushed for the Montgomery Bus Boycott

  SCLS - more confrontational than the NAACP

  Marches/tactics - very influential and significant
• What did Booker T washington do?

  He was an African American who had been enslaved. He fought for equal rights through training and education of African Americans and founded the Tuskegee Institute college.

  Tuskegee institute - from 1881 focused on education for African Americans

  Atlanta speech 1895 - focused on economic, he wanted black people to be regarded as potential economic partners. Not very significant, it doesn't do anything to challenge anything the system, only works for middle class African Americans, which is a small amount of people, so it doesn't benefit the vast majority of African Americans.
• What did the black power movement achieve?

  There was a greater interest in African American history, music, distinctive dress and appearance.

  Courses were run on African American culture in schools and universities.

  There were powerful new ideas of aesthetics - the term 'black is beautiful' became linked to 'afro' hairstyles and a move away from trying to copy white Americans' dress and appearance.

  There was greater publicity for social grievances and inequalities and considerable publicity for a new confidence in African American identity.

  In 1968 at the Mexico City Olympics, two African American athletes gave the Black Power salute of a raised fist.

  Conventions happened to urge reform

  The shift from conventional politics to 'identity politics' introduced a new type of democratic discussion, which impacted on a range of other issues such as gay rights and second-wave feminism.
• What were some limitations for the black power movement?

  The division between white and African Americans increased and led to fears and repression, which weakened the impact of the movement and its ability to make changes.

  The association of civil rights with separatism, violence and radicalism alienated moderate opinion and weakened support for further extension of civil rights.

  In 1967 Martin Luther King was critical of the movement's failure to see that progress depends on interracial co-operation.

  The power of the US state was too great and a considerable amount of police repression was used against the radical leaders.
• How did Martin Luther King push for the civil rights act?

  In 1963 King helped organize the March on Washington, an assembly of more than 200,000 people at which he made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The march influenced the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace.
• Examples of Boycotts and riots

  Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-56 where AA refused to ride city buses which badly effected their buisness. They ended up being integrated. MLK led it.

  Still segregation and racism.
• Little rocks


  1957 - desegregation of the little rocks school, president personally sent securtiy to accompany the AA into the school