AA civil rights key events Flashcards
(40 cards)
What were the main time periods of AA civil rights?
Reconstruction 1865-77
Gilded age 1877-96
Early 20th century 1900-33
New deal 1933-45
WW2 1945-1948
Civil rights Movement 1945-65
Black Power 1965-92
What are the key considerations when studying this group?
-Actions of the US (federal) government
-Actions of individuals and groups
-The consequences of division and disunity within the groups
-the role of opposition to the civil rights of these group
what was the 13th amendment and when was it?
1865, slavery outlawed in USA
what was the 14th amendment and when was it?
1868 meant no state could deny anyone full rights as an American citizen and all were equal in the eyes of the law
what was the 15th amendment and when?
1870 gave the right to vote for all men of an colour/race
what was the KKK and when did it form?
1865 as a reaction to slaves being freed, the group formed to terrorise African Americans violently and attacked newly freed men and women
what were the black codes and when did they come about?
1865, they were discriminatory laws that restricted the freedom of freedmen
what was the Freedmen’s Bureau?
1865, it helped slaves when they were freed to get jobs, learn to read and get a home but it’s agents were targeted by the KKK and it wasn’t reliable
What were the Jim crow laws and when did they come about?
1877 and were the “separate but equal” laws that segregated society by colour
what was the compromise of 1877 and what did it do?
agreement made to with President-to-be Rutherford Hayes in order to win the election that aimed to withdraw northern troops occupying the south which made it easier for white southerners to dominate black people
what was disenfranchisement and how did it affect African Americans?
this was the prevention of African Americans from voting it included literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses it meant that very few african americans were aloud to vote and in South Carolina, 60% of the population was black but only 1% could vote
What was lynching and what was its highest point?
Lynching was when a mob of white people would attack and murder African Americans. It reached its peak in the 1890s when there were 2 murdered each week
what did white people claim was the reason for lynchings?
Protecting white women from sexual assault of African-Americans men but this was found to be untrue as in 2/3 lynchings, sexual assault wasnt even alleged
what was the case of Plessy V Ferguson and what was its effect?
1896, segregation incident on a train (Homer Plessy) led to a court case which ended with the decision that segregation is legal as long as the facilities were equal which led to “seperate but equal” this was upheld by the supreme court and enforced immediately by many states however since states make their own laws they got to decide what was equal and often the facilities were not equal.
what were some of the positives of segregation?
created jobs for black teachers, ministers and doctors as well as allowing for the creation of a black middle-class and positive black role models
what was Booker T Washingtons ideology and why was it popular among white people?
he wanted AAs to “cast down their buckets” and focus on economic advancement rather than civil rights so they could become independent. White people liked this idea because it was non-confrontational and kept AAs seperate from whites
what was sharecropping and how did it affect AAs?
it meant that AA’s working on the land of white people had to give unfair amounts of their profit to the owners which kept them in financial disadvantage
What was peonage and how did it keep AA’s enslaved even after the 13th amendment?
it was slaves being tied to the land they worked on in order to “pay off debt” and meant they’d still be enslaved just under a different name. The time they had to work for would be continuously prolonged so they could never escape from work.
what progress was made by AAs in the gilded age?
Tuskeegee college in alabama by Booker T Washington, seven black universities and prosperous + self sufficient African American towns came about
W.E.B du bois book
1903, souls of black people believed in pan-african state and global unity among african americans
NAACP
1909, National Association for the Advancement of Coloured people, published stories of violence and discrimination and challenged segregation laws in the supreme court with its own lawyers
Marcus Garvey
1916, believed in independence of africans and a pan-african state and his ideas were used in the black power movement
new deal
didnt help african americans that were unemployed or working in agriculture, never introducedto supreme court because of southern oppostion
executive orders
1940-41, roosevelt in order to prohibit racial discrimiation in the army due to pressure from A Philip Randolph
