African Americans: 1952-60

Question 1

What were the conditions in the North for African Americans?

Answer 1

• De-facto segregation in both work and housing
• Cities divided into white and black areas- real estate agents and landlords prevented black people from moving to the ‘white suburbs’
• Access to a car was needed to travel to cheaper shopping, most AAs lacked this
• There were 4 AAs in the House but none in the Senate
• Groups worked to improve conditions for black Americans from the National Urban League (NUL) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to the Nation of Islam- gained notoriety through the ‘Hate that Hate Produced’ TV show (1959)

Question 2

What were the conditions in the South for African Americans?

Answer 2

• Segregation was challenged during this period
• Spread of TV helped this challenge
• Media gave a wider audience to Civil Rights leaders such as MLK Jr and covered key events such as Brown v. the Board of Education that tore down Plessy v. Ferguson
• Lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi (1955) for allegedly flirting with a white girl; those accused of his murder were acquitted despite admitting to kidnapping him

Question 3

What was Brown v. the Board of Education?

Answer 3

• 1954- Oliver Brown challenged that in Kansas he couldn’t send his daughter to an all-white school 5 blocks away and instead had to travel 20 blocks
• NAACP’s legal team headed by Thurgood Marshall brought the case to the Supreme Court
• The verdict was unanimous but the decision failed to set a time frame for de-segregation leading to the need for Brown II (1955) which called for ‘all deliberate speed’

Question 4

Was school desegregation in the South successful?

Answer 4

• Border states (DE, KT, MD, MI, OK, WV), with 70% desegregated in a year
• In the Deep South segregation remained and there was a backlash from the white population
• The KKK grew as did White Citizens Councils
• Southern Manifesto was signed by 101 southern congressmen calling for ‘all lawful means’ to be used in opposing the Supreme Court decision

Question 5

How many members of the White Citizens Council were there in 1956?

Answer 5

250,000

Question 6

What happened during the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Answer 6

1955-56
- The boycott followed the arrest of Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat in the white-only section of the bus
- It lasted 381 days with African Americans walking or carpooling to avoid using the busses.
- It was during this campaign MLK Jr emerged as a Civil Rights leader
- The boycott cut off 80% of the bus companies revenue
- Browder v. Gayle- SC ruled segregation on busses was unconstitutional
- Montgomery Citizens Council tried to intimidate leaders of the boycott
- Montgomery busses were desegregated but not all busses in Alabama
- The events in Montgomery showed the power of both mass and peaceful protests and the use of the courts