African Americans in the North and South Under Truman

Question 1

How was racism prominent in WW2?

Answer 1

• Army units were segregated and black units had white officers
• The Red Cross maintained separate blood banks for whites and blacks

Question 2

How did the Second World War impact the NAACP?

Answer 2

Membership grew from 50,000 to 450,000 during the war

Question 3

What organisation to defend civil rights was set up in WW2?

Answer 3

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)

Question 4

How was the North better than the South for civil rights?

Answer 4

• Jim Crow laws werent followed as much
• Adam Clayton Powell becomes the first black Congressman and represents Harlem for over 25 years

Question 5

Who was Jackie Robinson?

Answer 5

The first black baseball player to ever play in the MLB (1947)

Question 6

How did housing become a large area of discrimination?

Answer 6

• Some real estate agents wouldnt sell houses to black people in white areas
• Many african Americans lived in low quality tenement housing which didnt have proper public services such as bin collections

Question 7

How was the Church a unifying force?

Answer 7

Black preaches were respected more than ordinary African Americans whilst at Church, still treated as inferior outside of church

Question 8

What was the NAACP?

Answer 8

-National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
- Set up im 1910, it massively grew in membership during ww2

Question 9

How did the NAACP seek advancements in Civil Rights?

Answer 9

They focused on litigation (key word) where they would find legal routes to chip away at Jim Crow laws and the Plessy vs ferguson ruling

Question 10

What was the Plessy v Ferguson case?

Answer 10

In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled that a black man had not been discriminated against when told to sit in a black carriage of a train. They created a “separate but equal” ruling that added to discrimination against African Americans

Question 11

What was Executive Order 9981?

Answer 11

It was passed in 1948 and it desegregated the armed forces

Question 12

What was To Secure These Rights?

Answer 12

It was a report published in 1947 from a committee set up by Truman to assess Civil Rights and it found aspects of discrimination everywhere in American life, most evidently in voting rights, public facilities and housing

Question 13

What was the Double V campaign trying to promote?

Answer 13

“Victory Abroad and Victory at Home”
Tried to link the success of WW2 with an improvement of civil rights in America

Question 14

What was the Great Migration and when did it take place?

Answer 14

A mass movement of African Americans from the South of America to the North. Happened in 1940s and 50s
1.4 million citizens moved in the 40s and another 1.1 in the 1950s

Question 15

What was the Journey of Reconciliation?

Answer 15

CORE organised a group of 8 white men and 8 black men to go on a two week bus trip through several states to try and end segregation in travel. They got arrested and jailed multiple times but still got a lot of media attention on the issue

Question 16

What did the NAACP establish in 1939?

Answer 16

Legal Defense Fund to hire the best black lawyers

Question 17

Who was Thurgood Marhsall?

Answer 17

A lawyer for the NAACP who won many key cases such as in 1954 where he won a case that desegregated public schools

Question 18

Who was Adam Clayton Powell?

Answer 18

A politician who represented Harlem from 1945-1971. He was a spokesperson for civil rights in the North

Question 19

What did Executive Order 9835 do?

Answer 19

It was known as the “loyalty order” and designed to root out communismt influence in the US federal government and Truman wanting to prove he wasn’t “soft on communism”

Question 20

What international issues were arising with American civil rights

Answer 20

Truman became aware how segregation and violence in the South looked overseas as more African states were independent and had seats at the UN

Question 21

What is ghettoisation?

Answer 21

The process by which certain areas of cities become dominated by one ethnic group as others move out. It often leads due a decline in facilities and prejudice against people of that area

Question 22

What does “De Jure” mean?

Answer 22

A latin term meaning “in law”, legally.
Racist actions that were legal were called this

Question 23

Who was A. Phillip Randolph

Answer 23

Leading figure in the civil rights movement
He used his influence to push Truman to desegregate the military
Co-organised the 1963 March on Washington

Question 24

What was the Nation of Islam?

Answer 24

It was led by Elijah Muhammed and believed that the first men were black and preached self respect and self reliance. After Malcolm X’s death the movement declined but still active today

Question 25

Who was Jackie Robinson?

Answer 25

First ever black baseball player in Major League Baseball in 1947

Question 26

What does “de facto” mean?

Answer 26

Latin term for “in reality”. It is used to describe any racist actions that were illegal but nothing was done about it

Question 27

How did the reception of black soldiers in Europe change perspectives?

Answer 27

Army units were largely segregated but Europeans saw the Americans as liberators regardless of colour. Their status improved from the supplies, music and culture brought with them

Question 28

What was the Ku Klux Klan?

Answer 28

The KKK was a secret society that flourished in the 1950s and believed in an ideology of racial purity. They were often violent towards black people and were responsible for several murders and countless acts of intimidation in the South

Question 29

How many black Americans were there in 1945?

Answer 29

14 million - 10% of population

Question 30

How many Hispanic Americans were there in 1945?

Answer 30

1.2 million

Question 31

When was CORE Set up?

Answer 31

1942

Question 32

What was the Great Migration?

Answer 32

Movement of African Americans in the 1940s and 50s from the South which was prone to de jure segregation from Jim Crow laws to the North eg Detroit and West Coast eg Oakland and Los Angeles. In the North, they had greater political power and community conciousness

Question 33

When was the GI Bill of Rights passes?

Answer 33

1944

Question 34

How did the GI Bill of Rights support African Americans?

Answer 34

Many black veterans gained increased opportunities such as thousands were able to attend college

Question 35

Which Supreme Court victories were the NAACP able to achieve under Truman?

Answer 35

1950 against segregation on railroad dining cars (Henderson v US)
1950 against segregated universities
(Sweatt vs Painter)

Question 36

What was the government response to the report of To Secure These Rights?

Answer 36

Truman responded by giving a radical civil rights speech to Congress in 1948 asking Congress to support measures including federal protection against lynching. But the presence of Dixiecrat senators like Strom Thurmond meant they were never fully implemented

Question 37

How had Truman faced some success in civil rights?

Answer 37

By 1952, only 5 states retained the poll tax, 11 states and 20 cities had fair emplyment laws and 19 states had legislation against some form of racial discrimination.
It was the Deep South that reamined adamantly opposed to civil rights improvements