Racism Flashcards
1954 Brown vs. Board of education Supreme Court decision?
Segregation of public schools found unconstitutional
1909 Lincoln’s 100th birthday banquet held at the Illinois State Arsenal, who attended/invited?
Whites only
1908 Springfield race riot?
White woman accused black man of breaking into her home and raping her.
Sparked race riot.
Preston Jackson sculpture outside Abe Lincoln Museum to commemorate.
Woman later admitted she was not attacked by him.
Causes of lynching/race riots? (5)
economic competition for jobs,
yellow journalism—exaggerated stories,
jealousy—blacks are getting out of “their place” by being too successful,
reports of black men assaulting white women,
targets are often successful blacks who are leaders—sends a message
How did the Tulsa race riot of 1921 start?
Black man (Dick Rowland) accused of raping a young white woman elevator operator (Sarah Page).
He was arrested and rumors spread that a white mob was going to lynch him.
Armed black men went to the police station to stop the mob, but there was not a mob.
Shots were fired between blacks and whites which caused mobs to break out all over the city.
Results of the Tulsa race riot? (6)
Green tags had to be worn by the men and signed by employers,
Reported number of dead (30) vs. actual death toll (300),
Use of WWI type airplanes and machine guns,
Newspaper articles cut out of the archives- that way it no longer existed,
Tent city- blacks had to live in tents after their homes were destroyed,
Attempts to pass laws to prevent blacks from rebuilding or having to use fireproof expensive building materials- insurance did not cover riots so they could not afford to rebuild
Request for reparations after Tulsa race riots? How was Greenwood ultimately destroyed?
Insurance companies denied all requests from blacks.
Blacks tried to sue the city/state for damages but all claims were blocked or denied.
Desegregation gave blacks the opportunity to spend money outside their own neighborhood for the first time, and the chance to live in areas previously off limits to them, so they slowly but steadily moved away from the area, and the businesses left with them.
Freeway was built through the middle of Greenwood.
What are Sundown Towns?
Towns where blacks are allowed to come and shop, eat, etc. during the day but must be gone by sundown
How were the first Arkansas graduate students who integrated universities treated?
They were forced to sit behind a partition in the back so they were still separate from the white students.
They were never called on by teachers.
Emmett Till, 14 yr old Chicago teen, killed in Mississippi. Why?
He was thought to be flirting with a white woman by saying “bye, baby”, so her husband and his friend tracked him down.
How was Emmett Till’s death/funeral significant?
His casket was bolted shut, but his mother demanded it be opened.
When she was what the white men did to him, she made his funeral an open-casket funeral so people could see the horrible way blacks are treated in the South.
His head was crushed and his eye gouged out.
