African Americans

• In 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that stated black people could no longer be owned as property and slaves started to leave their plantations
• In 1865, 5 days after the end of the Civil War, Lincoln was assassinated and was succeeded by Andrew Johnson, a former slave owner and racist. His 'Presidential Reconstruction' allowed states to pass Black Codes which restored slavery in all but name
• Congress put Johnson on trial and tried to impeach him, this weakened him politically and in 1868 Republicans ushered in Radical Reconstruction
• Although some radical Republicans really believed in equal civil rights, some were driven by their hatred of the South for starting the Civil War and so gave blacks the right to vote to make sure Republicans stayed the dominant party
• Over 700,000 African Americans registered to vote during Reconstruction, 1870 15% of public officeholders were black
• the Colfax Massacre in Louisiana 1873 where 150 African Americans were killed
• The 13th Amendment freed African Americans from slavery, the Freedman's Bureau provided food, housing and medical care, sharecropping was better than slavery because families could stay together and the Great Migration allowed blacks to get jobs up north
• However, promises by the Freedman's Bureau that African Americans would receive 40 acres of land was never fulfilled because of Johnson, sharecropping increasingly worked against African Americans because it forced them to grow crops which the white landlords made a profit off of and they cheated financial records to keep African Americans in debt, and the abolition of the Freedman's Bureau in 1872 ended Federal government support for African American welfare
• The 1866 Civil Rights Act and 1868 14th Amendment established citizenship for black people, but President Johnson tried to overrule it
• The 1870 15th Amendment stated the vote could not be denied on account of race
• The 1875 Civil Rights Act allowed all races to access public spaces like theatres and parks, but this was purely symbolic and never enforced. It would be the last Civil Rights Act until 1957
• The Freedman's Bureau 1865-72 supported freed slaves in the short term by helping them find homes, employment, education and medical care, and supported black self-help groups which provided education for black children and trained scientists and teachers. However, by 1890 65% of black children were illiterate compared to 15% of white kids, plus with the decline of radical republicanism it closed down in 1872, lasting only 7 years it couldn't have had as much of an impact as it liked
• The 1867 Military Reconstruction Act ruled that Southern states would be ruled by military commanders and prevent states from sending representatives to Congress, and in order to rejoin the union they had to allow blacks to vote and accept the 14th Amendment
• White southerners refused to accept former slaves as their equals and did everything they could including violence and intimidation to restore white supremacy, and they could do so because although blacks had equality de jure, de facto could be warped
• The Compromise of 1877 was a deal where the Democrats agreed to recognise the Republican president Hayes in return for troops being removed from Southern states, which marked the end of Reconstruction because Federal troops had been the only protection for African Americans. Now state governments had the power to create systems of discrimination
• Reconstruction ended because of: Southern whites refusing African American equality, increasing Northern indifference to African American civil rights, the rise of wanting a united America over African American equality and the tradition of states' rights and the dislike of Federal intervention
• In the Cruikshank & Civil Rights cases in 1876 and 1883, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could only protect African Americans from racist violence by the state, not individuals, which undermined Congress' 1875 Civil Rights Act and 14th Amendment
• The Ku Klux Klan spread to almost every Southern state by 1870 and became a violent opposition to the Republican Party's Reconstruction policies. Its campaign of intimidation and violence targeted African American leaders and voters
• Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb the Klan, the organization saw its primary goal - the reestablishment of white supremacy - fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s
• Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine, spawning the Jim Crow laws and light-skinned African Americans were refused service and forced to use separate facilities
• Slavery under another name - Sharecropping, convict leasing, and "negro-stealing" - Bearing black people became criminalized and so were treated worse than when they were slaves because the law no longer saw them as a commodity, they were unreliable, public property
• Disfranchisement - Georgia in 1877 and the following later, introduced the poll tax, literacy tests and the grandfather clause. Many states in the South had adopted literacy tests and the grandfather clause but would be challenged by the NAACP. By 1906, only 3% of the voting population in South Carolina was African American, down from 60% in 1876
• Lynching - There were over 500 lynchings 1882-1927. Lynching peaked in the 1800s but still happened in the 1920s, like the lynching of Jesse Washington, a handicapped black youth who was accused without trial of killing his employer's wife in 1916
• Ida B. Wells showed that the claim of rape or assault on a white woman by a black man was not alleged in 2/3 cases, let alone proved in 1900
• William Du Bois was a critic of Washington. In 1909, he helped to set up the NAACP, which campaigned for complete civil rights. By 1917, there were 43,000 members in branches all over the USA. Many women joined because they saw the link between civil rights and equality for women
• Martin Luther king - He was highly intelligent and very well educated, having received a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955. This gave him an advantage over the often limited opponents of integration in the South. He was a powerful and charismatic speaker. He refused to use violence, thus depriving his opponents of the means of attacking him. His moderation attracted widespread white support. He was able to use the media very effectively to publicise the brutality of life in the South and to gain support from the white majority in the North.
• Rosa Parks Montgomery bus boycott was a protest campaign against racial segregation on the public transit system in Montgomery Dec. 1, 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. The next day King proposed a citywide boycott of public transportation at a church meeting, it was a year long campaign that ended up with the supreme court deeming bus segregation unconstitutional.
• Malcolm X - A belief that blacks should distance themselves from white society and not attempt the integration advocated by Martin Luther King and his followers. He believed that blacks should develop their own organisations and self-help completely separate from those of white society. These ideas of segregation were derived from Marcus Garvey whop Malcolm X's parents had admired. A belief that non-violence in the face of white aggression was not an appropriate response. He argued that when blacks were faced with white oppression then armed self-defence was justifiable.
• Ida B Wells campaigned during the same time and contrasts Washington saying each AA should have a gun in self defence, that they should stand up and not roll over in the face of injustice
• March on Washington 1963, 250,000 people in the capitol, iconic speech
• 1963, the Birmingham campaign was reated by the SCLC to end discriminatory economic policies in Alabama. Some of the protests included boycotting certain businesses that hired only white people or that had segregated restrooms. When businesses refused to change their policies, protesters held sit-ins and marches, with the aim of getting arrested. King encouraged these nonviolent tactics so that the city's jails would overflow. Police used high-pressure water hoses and dogs to control protesters, some of whom were children which put public opinion on their side. By the end of the campaign, many segregation signs at Birmingham businesses came down, and public places became more open to all races.
• Selma 1965 - SCLC and MLK organized 3 marches from Selma to the capitol, Montgomery. Mob and police violence caused the march to be aborted on that "bloody Sunday." When film footage of the police brutality was broadcast around the country, it sparked widespread public outrage and helped to boost support for the civil rights movement.
• Chicago Campaign 1966 - MLK wanted to focus more on the North and so decided to tackle housing problems and discrimination in Chicago, Illinois. there was a series of marches but it received far less media attention and didn't achieve its objective of putting a stop to housing discrimination. It was also just white resident that caused violence, less so state guards. It's been said that the SCLC was spread too thin and MLK didn't understand the politics of the north. However the Fair Housing Act 1968 was said to have been inspired by this campaign.
• NAACP Established 1909, wanted to overturn racist legislation through legal means, chair was Thurgood Marshall and main successes consist of Brown Vs Board of education, Little Rock and March on waahington
• SCLC Founded in 1956 after the Montgomery Bus boycott 1955-6, it was church dominated and set p to tackle racism and segregation in the south, chaired by MLK and successes consist of Albany, Birmingham, March on Washington, Selma, and March against fear
• CORE Founded in 1942 but became more radical under the influence of black power in 1968, their tactics were inspired by Gandhi and pacifism but in 1968 expelled whites despite never being violent. Successes consist of Freedom rides, march on Washington and Mississippi Freedom Summer
• SNCC SNCC, founded in 1960 but again became more radical with black power. It was student dominated, in 1966 it dropped non-violence and expelled whites. Its chair was Joh Lewis during its more moderate phase and Stokely Carmichael during its radical era. Successes are march on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, Selma and March against fear
• Black Panther party Founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. it excluded whites and was willing to use violence to achieve it's aims. Communist, wanted the release of all black prisoners, no war etc. Black Nationalists but also wanted economic stability and independence so they set up programs like Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren, free health clinics testing for diseases and Liberations schools which taught about black history