African Americans

• What was the fourteenth amendment?


  no state could deny any American citizen rights
• What was the fifteenth amendment?


  rights could not be denied on account of race
• What was sharecropping?

  former slaves would rent a small plot of land in return for giving landowners crops, provided autonomy, caused debt and poverty, suffered violence
• Name three measures passed during reconstruction.


  - Freedmen's Bureau - helped freed slaves with provision of food, education

  - 14th and 15th Amendment

  -First Enforcement Act - banned discrimination based on race or colour
• Who were Radical Republicans?

  congressmen who were active opponents of slavery - e.g. Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner
• What was the Hayes- Tilden Compromise?


  formal end to reconstruction
• What were the black codes?


  southern states laws in an attempt to try and control freed slaves e.g restrictions on work, forced labour
• Who were the KKK?

  terrorist organisation who advocated for white supremacy
• When did the KKK return?

  1915, by mid 1920s - 2.5 million membership, victims expanded to include Catholics, Jews, Trade Union members - though allegations of corruption depleted members
• What was de facto segregation?


  non lawful but still exists, found in north
• What was the Gilded Age?

  1875-1890s - period of economic growth
• How were African American voting rights impacted in the Gilded Age?

  - poll tax

  - property qualifications

  - literacy tests

  - grandfather clauses
• What was Mississippi vs Williams?


  ruled poll tax was constitutional
• What were the Jim Crow laws?


  segreation laws - in waiting rooms, parks, shops, pools, sports, cinemas
• What was Plessy v Fergueson?


  Supreme court ruling that allowed segregation if it was "separate but equal".
• How many African Americans could read by 1895?

  1/2
• How many African American professionals were there in 1900?

  47,000
• What percentage of African Americans lived in the South still in the Gilded Age?

  90%
• Were black people barred from trade unions in the Gilded Age?

  Yes
• What was a positive consequence of segregation?

  parallel markets developed e.g. hairdressing, so there was a growing middle class
• How many African Americans fought in WW1?

  385,000
• What was the impact of WW1?


  - fought in segregated troops

  - realisation they were fighting for democracy when they didnt have it themselves
• What was the Harlem Renaissance?

  A literary and artistic movement celebrating African-American culture.
• They didn't experience the Harlem Renaissance fully because...

  - income fell below $200

  - black people were unable to perform to black audiences

  - music and poetry inspired by racial experience

  - death rate 42% higher among African Americans

  - return of KKK
• What happened in the Chicago Riots?

  Eugene Williams entered a whites only beach and was attacked, led to five days of riots - 38 deaths, 537 injured, 1000 black families made homeless
• What was the Red Summer?

  1919, 26 race riots across the USA
• What was the Tulsa Race Riot?

  Dick Rowland accused of assaulting a white girl, 2,000 white Americans surrounded prison and attempted to lynch him, some black people came to support him. 200/300 people died, 1,000 black homes and businesses burned
• What were alphabet agencies?

  Agencies created by the New Deal to deal with problems from the Great Depression.
• Give three examples of New Deal agencies?

  - CCC - gave jobs for young men

  - WPA - provided jobs and education programmes, racial quotas

  - AAA - agricultural protections
• How many did the CCC house?

  by 1933, 275,000 young men housed in 13,000 CCC camps
• How much did someone on a CCC earn?

  $30 a month, $25 sent home
• How many jobs did the WPA provide?

  1936-40 350,000 jobs a year, $52 a week
• How many were taught to read and write under the WPA?

  250,000
• Who headed the FERA?

  Harry Hopkins - sympathethci to black plight
• What was discriminatory about the FERA relief checks?

  $32.66 a month for white people, $19.29 for black people
• What did the Roosevelt's do during the New Deal Era?

  publicly denounced and spoke out against lynching - though Roosevelt was wary of alienating white voters
• What was the Social Security Act?

  funding for pensions, excluded domestic servants and agricultural workers - common black industry, unemployment benefits $18/week for 16 weeks max. first national system of benefits
• What was the impact of the New Deal on black poverty?

  - policies were racially inclusive, not equal

  - aid didn't always reach African Americans

  - agricultural workers typically excluded

  - high amount of African Americans on relief
• What are some arguments against progress post ww2?

  - army segregation

  - NAACP faced times of illegality (radical activity questioned with cold war)

  - voter registration drives were met with resistance
• How did public spending compare for a white vs black child post ww2?

  Claredon County, South Carolina spent average $179 on a white child but only $43 on a black child