The Quest for Civil Rights - Topic 2.1

Question 1

How did black Americans’ lives improve during the ‘Reconstruction’?

1865-1877

Answer 1

During Reconstruction, black people took on leadership roles (e.g., public office) and sought legislative changes for equality and the right to vote.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gave black people equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment granted black American men the right to vote. Many white Americans, especially those in the South, were unhappy that people they’d once enslaved were now equal to them.

Question 2

What were ‘Jim Crow’ laws?

1865-1968

Answer 2

Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. They were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education, or other opportunities.

Question 3

Why did the Great Migration happen?

What factors caused black Americans to move North?

1917-32

Answer 3

• Sharecroppers moved as a decline in the agricultural industry
• Jim Crow Laws restricting and segregating blacks
• Rise of the KKK in the South, which caused a rise in popularity in the North too

Question 4

What progress was seen for black Americans post-WWI and WWII

What happened and how did this improve black Americans’ lives?

1918-1945

Answer 4

• 2 million black Americans move to cities
• LA and Detroit see military contractors in the area building up their regional industry
• The war economy gave many black people jobs
• FEPC (Fair Employment Protection Commission - Protection of minorities in the Defence Industry
• 1 million Black-Americans are in the armed forces
• NAACP membership went from 18,000 before the war to nearly 500,000 after its end
• Black soldiers that went to Britain saw that life there was different, and the beginning of the “Double V Campaign”
• Executive Order 9981 - Desegregation of the US Army under Truman

Question 5

Legal change

Examples of important cases:

1945-54

Answer 5

Morgan v Virginia (1946):

• Desegregated buses and trains that were inter-state

Shelley v Kraemer (1948):

• Bans the barring of Black people from being able to buy a house in any area in any state

Sweatt v Painter (1950):

• Desegregated graduate and professional schools in Texas

McLaurin v Oklahoma (1950):

• Desegregated graduate and professional schools in Oklahoma

Question 6

Economic and Political Change

Examples of important statistics and orders:

1917-54

Answer 6

1941-46/7:

• 2 million black Americans moved to Northern cities to work in factories for the war effort, leaving their agricultural past behind
• The war economy provided semi-skilled jobs to Black Americans, providing income and subsequently a living in the North.

Truman (1948):

• Desegregation of the Army
• Abolition of the Poll Tax
• Abolition of the Grandfather Clause
• Abolition of the Literacy Act

Democratic National Convention (1948):

• Support a strong civil rights plank

Question 7

Social Change

Examples of important social change:

1917-54

Answer 7

Berlin Olympics (1936):

• Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals for the US, becoming the most decorated

NAACP (1940s):

• Boycotted and picketed shops that didn’t serve Black people
• Membership grew from 18,00 to nearly 500,000 by the end of the war
• Demonstration in Houston, TX. All members involved dressed smartly to look respectable

Rustin (FOR) and Houser (CORE) (1947):

• Journey of Reconciliation

Timmie Rogers (1949):

• First prime-time, all-Black television show on CBS

Reverend T. J. Jemison (1953):

• First-ever black Bus Boycott in Baton Rouge

Question 8

How much did black Americans’ lives improve?

1917-54

Answer 8

Try to fight the system by using the system

• NAACP legal cases
• Fight de jure segregation (Jim Crow Laws)
• More success in the courts after WWII (1944-54) - ‘Double V’ Campaign

Mostly limited change

• No mass action, no mass change, no radical change

Question 9

Why was Brown v the Board of Education (I) a landmark case?

1954

Answer 9

Builds upon the Plessy v Ferguson case (1896)

• “Separate but equal” clause

Brown’s elementary school was not seen as equal to the White-only elementary school just next to her home. The Black-only school didn’t provide the same quality of education, facilities etc.

• If the state provides education, transportation, water, electricity etc., doesn’t mean it is inherently equal and therefore doesn’t fit the 14th Amendment.

Question 10

What did Brown v the Board of Education (II) improve upon the first case?

Answer 10

Set a time scale to enact B v BofE (I) and when it was going to be enforced. This leads to the Little Rock Nine and other school/uni-based cases

Limited improvement from No.1 to No.2 over the year