Survey

• Civil Rights in the USA 1945-1968

  The position of African Americans at the start of the period, including the impact of World War II on their circumstances and the extent of racial segregation and various forms of discrimination
• The position of African Americans in the 1920s

  • Continued discrimination, including hostility from whites towards black migrants to the North, strengthening of 'Jim Crow Laws', and widespread violence and lynchings.
• African Americans and the Great Depression

  • Their plight was always worse, with higher unemployment rates and continued injustice, particularly in the South.
• Impact of World War II on African Americans

  It was a catalyst for civil rights change, affecting them in the military and on the home front.
• Impact on African Americans in the military in WWII

  Strict segregation at first, restricted to non-combat roles, eventually taking on combat roles, treated with more respect overseas than at home, military desegregated in 1948.
• Impact on the African American Home Front during World War II

  Economic boom and demand for labour led to internal migration, African Americans demanded end to discrimination in defence work, some legal gains but continued violent opposition, growth in black consciousness and civil rights movement.
• By the mid-1940s, the American South had become an almost totally segregated society
• For African Americans living in the 'Deep South', discrimination, prejudice and segregation were a way of life
• Jim Crow Laws


  Laws aimed at separating blacks and whites, and keeping African Americans "in their place"
• Rutherford B Hayes came into office, Reconstruction came to an end and federal troops departed the South


  1877
• By 1900, a whole range of laws had been introduced into the southern states which were aimed at separating blacks and whites, and more importantly keeping African Americans "in their place"
• The Jim Crow laws limited any gains from Reconstruction and ensured continuing inequality and humiliation
• Supreme Court


  Can overturn laws considered against the American Constitution
• Civil Rights cases in 1883

  Supreme Court decided that the Federal Government could not interfere in the law-making of southern states
• Plessy versus Ferguson case in 1896


  Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment guaranteed legal, but not social equality and that states were entitled to enforce segregation, as long as black people were provided with 'equal' facilities
• Facilities for whites were always superior to those for blacks
• Segregation in the American South by the mid-1940s

  • Blacks and white lived in separate areas
  • Schooling was segregated
  • There were separate public facilities for blacks and whites
  • Public parks might be designated for blacks only or whites only
  • Seating in theatres was often segregated
  • Textbooks for white schools could not be stored in the same place as those for black schools
  • Restaurants were designated for blacks or whites only
  • Seating on trains was strictly segregated
  • Trams and buses were segregated
• 14th Amendment


  Gave African Americans citizenship and equality under the law
• 15th Amendment


  Stated that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
• There were worthy attempts to enfranchise African Americans, but in reality it would be a century before proper voting rights were accorded African Americans
• Provisions used to neutralise the impact of the 14th and 15th Amendments


  • Literacy tests
  • Grandfather clauses
  • Poll taxes
• The position of African Americans in the northern and western states was not as bad as it was in the South, but they still faced discrimination and attempts at segregation
• African Americans who made it to the north were herded into ghettos, segregated in most public places, fobbed off with inferior schooling, cold-shouldered by labor unions and consigned to the most menial and ill-paid jobs
• White workers often resented the presence of black workers as they feared that this would depress wages
• Employers sometimes used black workers as strike breakers in some of the more serious industrial disputes
• As the demand for housing increased, African Americans found it more difficult to obtain decent housing
• During World War 11, when land was needed for the construction of the Defence Department complex, The Pentagon, and for the extension of the Arlington National Cemetery, hundreds of black Americans' homes were demolished
• Extent of Racial Segregation Discussion Questions

  1. Explain why the Jim Crow laws were introduced.<|>2. How did segregation restrict African Americans' participation in society?<|>3. How were voting rights restricted for African Americans?