Civil rights

• What was ‘de facto’ segregation?

  ‘in reality’ - there aren’t laws enforcing segregation but the reality of life is segregation
• What is ‘de jure’ segregation?

  ‘by law’ - characterized by Jim Crow laws in the south
• Separate but equal (unequal in practice)
• Plessy vs Ferguson Supreme Court decision 1896 - facilities for black people could be separate, in 1899 the ruling was extended to education
• Democrats being popular in the south meant that Truman had support from some people in the south, however Dixiecrats disagreed and formed their own party and Truman has to appeal to these to remain president
• Trumans home state of Missouri (legacy of slavery) meant helping African Americans would lose him support in his home state. He was also raised in a racist environment meaning he may have some attitudes himself, but as president may want to rise above this.
• The Cold War/Truman doctrine was his priority and wants it to end, however to win the Cold War there needs to be unity and cohesion in US society. Communism claims equality so if Truman doesnt help African Americans he would be a hypocrite, if USA claims to be better, he has to help.
• WW2 was when Truman came to power and with black people being in the war it showed they were capable and needed to be rewarded, however WW2 and dealing with economic legacy was his priority
• Truman wanted to make a good impression and follow FDRs legacy and become more popular with African Americans. This makes him less popular against southern whites and he has to act cautiously to have broad appeal.
• Truman paid membership fees to this organization as a young politician in Missouri. He eventually got his money back when he insisted on the right to appoint Catholics as well as protestants to Office, something they didn’t like.

  Ku Klux Klan
• Truman consistently supported African-Americans rights (despite privately still using racist language) whilst he performed this political role in the late 1930s.


  Senator
• Truman wanted Congress to continue to fund this after the second world war ended, but they refused. it had been set up during the war to alleviate workplace tension and disputes between blacks and whites.


  FEPC
• What was the name of the black New York politician who described Bess Truman as the ‘last lady of the land’ In 1945. Harry Truman responded furiously to this criticism of his wife and his racist language to criticize him.

  Adam Clayton Powell
• What was the name of a returning black soldier who was beaten up on arrival back in South Carolina in 1946 after the world. And others beating appalled Harry Truman.

  Isaac Woodard
• What was the name of the report that Truman‘s liberal civil rights committee gave to Truman in 1947. It said that the USA could not claim to lead the free world while blacks were not equal. It recommended a raft of changes, including anti-lynching legislation and an end to discrimination in interstate travel.

  To Secure These Rights
• Who did Truman address at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC in June 1947. He stated that all Americans were entitled to full civil rights and freedom. Doing so recognize this group is growing important in the campaign for African-American civil rights.

  NAACP
• Truman supported the Supreme Court case which ruled against restrictive housing covenants that we used to stop purchasing homes in white areas. The ruling proved in effective despite Truman’s efforts.

  Shelley versus Kraemer
• What was the name of the southern Democrats who ran against Truman in the 1948 presidential election in protest at the 1947 report of Truman liberal civil rights committee which recommended a raft of changes to help African American.

  Dixiecrats
• Truman became the first president ever two campaign in this black district of Manhattan, New York. As well as campaigning in frequently racist Texas, where he was booed, help him win 2/3 of the black vote in the 1948 election and played a big role in helping him win

  Harlem
• Truman issued EO 9981 which desegregated this in 1948

  Armed forces
• Truman set this up in 1948 to give minorities equal treatment in federal hiring, but it was handicapped by a shortage of funds and conservative employees

  FEB (fair employment board)
• Truman appointed a black governor to this place as a symbolic gesture to African-Americans

  Virgin Isles
• Truman used EA 10308 in December 1951 to establish this which was designed to stop federal defense contracts being given to companies that discriminated against minorities. It could only recommend and not enforce change so was quite ineffective.

  Committee on Government Contract Compliance (CGCC)
• Why did the Second World War encourage the mass migration of many southern blacks?

  the explosion of industrial production and need for workers meant new job opportunities - the north offered more economic freedom
• Provide evidence to justify the so called ‘Great Migration‘ of African-Americans in the 1930’s and 40’s


  Estimated that 1.6 million African Americans migrated
• How did the mass migration give blacks greater safety?

  large number of blacks moving north, congregated in certain areas of towns/cities, were less vulnerable - safety in numbers
• How did this mass migration also lead to de facto segregation in northern cities?

  Congregation of blacks in some areas of northern cities meant that they did not integrate into white areas - almost assumed de facto (difficult to live in white areas)
• How did migration caused by increased industrial production lead to tension between blacks and whites?

  discrimination with regards to pay and working conditions still existed despite increased opportunity - had to work closely with each other
• Give 2 reasons why there was a riot at the Atlanta Dry Dock Company in Mobile on 25th May 1943

  • Growing competition for jobs
  • white males didn’t like black males working alongside white females
• How did the end of the Second World War pose a problem for black industrial workers

  Returning white servicemen would often take back jobs that blacks had taken
• To what extent did the governments 1942 Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) deal effectively with workplace discrimination?

  2/3 of 8000 job discrimination complaints dismissed and in the south 1/5 received were resolved successfully
• What 3 things prevented African Americans from registering the vote in the south

  • Rigged/impossible examinations
  • english tests to plain ignorance of the law from racist state officials
  • would lose jobs if were brave enough to attempt to register
• Why was the black vote important to Truman?

  The blacks voted as a block and were geographically concentrated in pivotal/closely contested electoral states
• Who broke away from Democratic Party 1948 as considered Truman’s approach to African Americans too radical?

  Dixiecrats / Strom Thurmond
• How had the Supreme Court begun to help the African Americans to vote in the south?

  Deemed exclusion of blacks from local state primary elections to be unconstitutional in 1944 Smith Vs Allwright case
• Give three problems, African-Americans, faced with housing and living conditions in major towns and cities

  • House shortages in most major towns/cities
  • Houses were crowded, unsafe, and unsanitary ghettos
  • The living conditions were squalid
• How did the government exacerbate problems with African-American housing?

  Black housing (Washington DC) was destroyed to make government buildings - gentrification
• What does gentrification mean?

  Urban renewal.
• Why was the second World War a time of social awakening for African-Americans?

  Having seen operational service in more open and racially tolerant places like Britain it helped to erode the traditional values of the southern sharecropper farmer
• Name at least two things that demonstrate the social awakening amongst African-Americans due to ww2?

  • Membership of the NAACP increased from 50,000 to 450,000 between 1940 and 1945
  • CORE was set up in 1942