Presidential Activism

• When did FDR become president?


  1933
• When FDR became president, what did his New Deal proposals aim to do?


  Lift the nation out of the economic depression and ameliorate suffering.
• What did the New Deal do for black Americans?


  No radical changes, but black Americans could now be included in government.
• About how many black Americans served in various branches of the Roosevelt administration?


  50 (Known as the 'black cabinet')
• From 1933 to 1945, how much did the number of black Americans employed in government rise from and to?


  50,000 to 200,000
• Overall, how many jobs did the New Deal provide for black Americans?


  1 million jobs
• How many black Americans received training, as a result of the New Deal?


  500,000
• What percentage of black families were given aid by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and other relief agencies?


  30%
• What did Roosevelt do little to eliminate?


  Unfair hiring practices and discriminatory job conditions and failed to support anti-lynching bills. For instance, some government agencies, like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) often refused to hire black workers.
• When was Executive Order 8802 passed?


  1941
• Executive Order 8802


  Stopped discrimination in industrial and government jobs, along with setting up the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).
• What could the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) do?


  Not force companies to employ black people, but encourage them to do so via threatening the withdrawal of government contracts.
• When did Truman set up a commission to advise him of civil rights?


  1946
• When did Truman's commission, to advise him on civil rights, report back?


  1947
• What did Truman's commission, to advise him on civil rights, report back with?


  A demand of urgent action
• Due to the outcome of the commission to advise him on civil rights, when did Truman send recommendations to congress?


  February 1948
• Due to the outcome of the commission to advise him on civil rights, what were the recommendations that Truman sent to congress?

  - An end to segregation in interstate travel

  - A law to make lynching a federal crime

  - A permanent FEPC
• Due to the outcome of the commission to advise him on civil rights, what were the outcome, of the recommendations that Truman sent to congress?

  No new legislation, however executive orders 9980 and 9981 were issued.
• Executive Order 9980 and 9981


  Ended racial discrimination in federal employment, and ordered desegregation in the armed forces.
• What did Eisenhower initially oppose when the outcome of Brown v. Topeka occurred?

  Federal action to enforce it.
• When was Eisenhower forced to intervene, to enforce Brown v. Topeka?

  September 1957
• Why was Eisenhower forced to intervene, to enforce Brown v. Topeka?

  Mob violence and intimidation threatened the desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.
• How many army paratroopers did Eisenhower order into Little Rock?

  1100
• When was the first Civil Rights Act passed in Congress?

  1957
• Outcome of the 1957 Civil Rights Act

  Too weak;

  - Not a single African American voter had been added to the voting register in the south, by 1959.
• What percentage of African American votes went to JFK?

  70%
• Prior to becoming president, what civil rights action did JFK oppose?

  - 1957 Civil Rights Act

  - Eisenhower sending troops into Little Rock
• When JFK first became president, what issue was he more interested in than civil rights?

  Foreign policy
• What event caused JFK's focus to shift to civil rights?

  Birmingham march
• Police response to Birmingham march


  - 2000 demonstrators arrested, as well as nearly 1300 children

  - Men had been allowed to set dogs on protestors, and the fire department to use powerful water hoses.
• How did JFK react to the Birmingham march?


  Brought in the civil rights bill
• When was JFK assassinated?


  22 November 1963
• Which president pushed Kennedy's Civil Rights Bill through congress?


  Lyndon Johnson
• Why could Lyndon Johnson push the 1964 Civil Rights Act?


  - Had the support of southern Republicans and Democrats, due to being a southerner himself.

  - Was able to exploit the national mood of shock, following the death of JFK
• What did the 1964 Civil Rights Act state?


  .- Any form of racial discrimination was now unlawful.

  - No public facilities could exclude on the basis of race.

  - Desegregation of schools was to be sped up by giving the Attorney-General the power to file lawsuits and take any authorities who were slow, or refusing, to court.

  - FEPC was now set up on a permanent legal basis to tackle racial discrimination in employment.

  - No federal money was to go to any State, organisation or project that practised racial discrimination.

  - Nullified state and local laws that enforced racial discrimination.
• What was the significance of the 1964 Civil Rights Act?


  - Most far-reaching and comprehensive civil rights legislation yet passed.

  - No longer were black American citizens second-class in the eyes.

  - Would be enforced at state level.

  - Showed the importance of presidential activism

  - Showed white southern resistance could be broken and overcome.
• What were the limitations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act?


  - Did little to facilitate black voting in the Deep South.

  - Did not focus on the socio-economic concerns.
• How was the lack of voting provisions in the 1964 Civil Rights Act addressed?

  1965 Voting Rights Act
• What did the 1965 Voting Rights Act state?


  - Declared that voter registration based on demonstration of educational achievement, knowledge of any subject, answer to any particular questions, proof of moral character or whether they paid the poll tax was now illegal.

  - Federal registrars would now supervise voter registration and enforce the new legislation.
• What was the significance of the 1965 Voting Rights Act?


  - In 1965, only around 100 black people held elected office, none in the south; by 1989, there were nearly 5000 office-holders in the south and over 7000 nationwide.

  - Transformed southern politics, black voters could now remove white and segregationist officials, and white politicians now had to appeal to black voters.