African-Americans

Question 1

The Ku Klux Klan, 1868-1867

Answer 1

Spread rapidly
500,000 Klansmen in the South by 1870
Juries often reluctant to convict them
Congress enabled President Grant to take action - somewhat successful (Enforcement Acts)
1871 - membership of 40,000 in Tennessee alone
Suppressed by 1972

Question 2

Return of Democratic control in the South

Answer 2

Tennessee - 1869
N Carolina -1870
Texas - 1873
Georgia - 1871
Arkansas - 1874

Question 3

Jim Crow laws

Answer 3

Tennessee segregated rail travel in 1881
Louisiana had 13,000 AA voters in 1896 compared to 5,000 in 1900

Georgia - $2 tax on those who wanted to vote, many AAs could not afford this

Question 4

Plessy Vs. Ferguson

Answer 4

1896
doctrine of “separate but equal” established
Homer Plessy

Question 5

Lynchings

Answer 5

1890s - on average an AA was brutally killed every 2 days
Texas, 1893 - 10,000 white people gatehred to watch the lynching of an AA - Henry Smith
Continued until the 1950s
1889-1918 - 2558 AAs were lynched, nearly 100 a year
1900 - 90% of AAs lived in the South

Question 6

Gains made by AAs by 1913

Answer 6

Owned 550,000 homes
Owned 937,000 farms
70% literacy rate
1.7 million pupils in state schools

Question 7

Great Migration - black population by cities 1910-1930

Answer 7

Washington, DC: 94,000 - 132,000
Houston, TX: 24,000 - 63,000
Chicago, IL: 44,000 - 233,000
Los Angeles, CA: 7,500 - 38,000

Question 8

Motivations of the Great MIgration

Answer 8

Lynchings
Voting rights
AA communities formed in the North
Higher wages
Segregation

Question 9

Great Migration figures

Answer 9

6 million AAs moved from the South to the North, Midwest and West from 1916 to 1970
By the end of 1919, 1 millions AAs had left the South
New York grew by 66% (1910-1920)
Housing tensions grew between AAs and whites

Question 10

Red Summer race riots

Answer 10

April - November, 1919
Chicago
Washington, DC
Most in Georgia (7)
Montgomery, AL

Question 11

Great Depression

Answer 11

Cotton prices dropped 18% on the eve of the crash
Proportion of AAs living in urban areas rose by 44% in 1930 (sharecropping no longer sustainable)
By 1933 - 12,000 AA sharecroppers had lost their footing in Southern agriculture and moved toward cities
AA urban employment well over 50%

Question 12

New Deal

Answer 12

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) - gave loans to farmers. Because of sharecropping white farmers tended to receive the money
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - provided work experience, military camps, conservation projects. 10% of places reserved for AAs, some faced racial discrimination. E.g. Clarke County, Georgia had not one AA at the CCC camps. Camps eventually segregated too
National Recovery Administration - AAs faced discrimination under the NRA codes, given unskilled jobs, flat % pay increase - whites with higher paid jobs got better pay increases
Wagner Act - AAs underrepresented in trade unions
Redlining - helping white housing districts to build and buy new houses while ignoring AAs creating de facto segregation

Question 13

The March on Washington

Answer 13

4th March, 1963
250,000 demonstrators
Peaceful
“I have a dream”

Question 14

The Voting Rights Act, 1965

Answer 14

LBJ
Early 1960s - Mississippi had 45% AA population but only 5% of AAs were registered to vote
The Civil Rights Act, 1964 resulted from the Mississippi Freedom Summer - voter registration drive, protests and economic boycotts
Bill empowered the Attorney General to appoint federal registrars to monitor voter registration
Mississippi by had 60% AA voter registration within 3 years
1964 - 19% in Alabama registered to 61.3% by 1968

Question 15

Aims of Black Power

Answer 15

Total equality for African Americans
A separate state from White people
To create a pride in African American communities/culture/fashions

Question 16

Methods of Black Power

Answer 16

Violent protest - The Black Panthers Party for Self Defence would attack white racist police
The Nation of Islam - 30,000 members in 1963, discipline and racial pride
Events and individuals - e.g. Malcolm X, Mohammed Ali addressed 10,000 in 1959 criticising MLK in Washington DC

Question 17

The Impact of Black Power

Answer 17

Brought the issue of race to the attention of the USA and the world
Succeeded in bringing awareness of AA culture
Violent race riots in a number of cities - Black Panthers condemned
Criticised by followers of MLK as it isolated the Black community

Question 18

Achievements of the Black Panthers

Answer 18

Respect in ghettos
Set up clinics to advise on health, welfare and legal rights
Southern California had a free breakfast programme
Armed themselves and followed police cars in ghettos - some violent shout-outs

Question 19

End of the Black Panthers

Answer 19

Targeted by the FBI between 1967 and 1969
Most of the leadership was killed or imprisoned
1970 - 64% of AAs took pride in Black Panthers

Question 20

President Nixon and AA rights

Answer 20

Strong line against the Black Panthers
Continued affirmative action - e.g. Philadelphia Plan, increased AA workers from 1% to 12%
Affirmative action confirmed by the SCOTUS case Griggs Vs. Duke Power Company, 1971
Hand-ups better than hand-outs
Desegregation of schools via bussing
Supreme Court - Swann Vs. Board (1971), upheld bussing. White people simply moved to the suburbs

Question 21

Reagan and African Americans

Answer 21

Cuts to welfare disproportionately hurt AAs, 11% of unemployed population were AAs
Appointed Conservative Rehnquist to the Court and so civil rights legislation was interpreted more cautiously
Against quotas and affirmative action

Question 22

Jesse Jackson

Answer 22

Two attempts to be the Democratic nominee for President - 1984 and 1988
“Rainbow coalition”
Highlighted the importance of the AA vote - 12% of the electorate

Question 23

Radical Reconstruction

Answer 23

Civil Rights Act, 1866 - all persons born in the US to be citizens
First Reconstruction Act, 1867 - 5 military districts
14th Amendment, 1868
15th Amendment, 1870

Question 24

The Klu Klux Klan, 1915-1920s

Answer 24

Reborn following ‘The Birth of a Nation’ film
Anti-AA, Anti-Semitic, Anti-Catholic - more widespread less of an impact on AAs
6m members in 1924 to 30,000 in 1930
Slight resurgance

Question 25

AA rights under Eisenhower (1953-1961)

Answer 25

Supported desegregation of the army Only met with AA leaders once (King, Wlikins and Randolph) Thought AA issues got too much attention Brown Vs. Board Desegregated Washington DC Appointed Justices who were sympathetic to civil rights

Question 26

Little Rock, 1957

Answer 26

9 AA students tried to attend a "white" high school Federal troops sent in Argued that Eisenhower did not do enough

Question 27

MLK in the South

Answer 27

Sit-ins Freedom Rides Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 - Rosa Parks

Question 28

SCOTUS and Civil Rights

Answer 28

Plessy Vs. Ferguson, 1896 Brown Vs. Borrd, 1954 Thurgood Marshall appointed Boynton Vs. Virginia 1960 (segregation on interstate buses unconstitutional) Swann Vs. Board, 1971 (approved bussing plans) Griggs Vs. Duke Power Company, 1971 (protected against implicit discrimination (needing a diploma when not really needed))

Question 29

Progress in the 1960s

Answer 29

24th Amendment - right of citizens to vote should not be abridged by any taxes Civil Rights Act, 1964 - federal courts would hear cases involving discrimination in voting Voting Rights Act, 1965 Executive Order in 1965 barred discrimination in federal employment Immigration Act, 1965 - ended quota-based immigration based on nationality, race, religion and colour

Question 30

Situation in the 1990s

Answer 30

Economic inequality - 77% of whites graduated high school compared to 63% of AAs (1989) 21% of whites graduated college compared to 11% of AAs (1989) 1988 - unemployment 5% higher for AAs compared to whites (higher than in the 1950s) AA family income had doubled between 1950 and 1989 but the gap between AAs and white incomes increase from $7,000 to $12,000 in 1987 Average hourly wage $6.26 for AA men and $7.69 for white men

Question 31

Marcus Garvey, 1887-1940

Answer 31

Black nationalism 1912 - set up the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNAI) 4m members by 1920 Separatism

Question 32

Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915

Answer 32

Born a slave in 1856 AA self-help Worked with the white establishment - adviser to Roosevelt and Taft Tuskegee Institute to increase education of AAs Atlanta Compromise Speech

Question 33

1877 Corrupt Bargain

Answer 33

``` Rutherford Hayes (R) Samuel Tilden (D) Deal done with Southern Democrats in Congress Hayes agreed to withdraw federal troops Jim Crow laws introduced in the South ```

Question 34

President Grant

Answer 34

Took tough action against the KKK 1872 Amnesty Act for 150,000 ex-Confederates - their rights returned The Freedmen's Bureau collapsed, 1872 1875 Civil Rights Act - intended to prevent discrimination further but had virtually no impact (declare unconstitutional in 1883

Question 35

1890s for AAs

Answer 35

Loopholes in the interpretation of the 15th Amendment exploited - voting laws upheld in Mississippi Vs. Williams 1892 - Populist Party needed AA votes (brief resurgence) AAs and whites grew closer together - pushed for AAs to get the franchise in areas they had lost it Short-lived Populist Party died in 1896 1896 Plessy Vs. Ferguson - separate but equal

Question 36

1900 statistics

Answer 36

90% of AAs lived in the South 2.5m remained illiterate 88% of lynching victims were black (1909) South average wage - $509, compared to $1165 nationally 1.6% of the North was illiterate, 12% of the South was illiterate

Question 37

WEB Du Bois, 1868-1963

Answer 37

``` The Souls of Black Folk, 1903 More radical than Booker T Washington 'Talented Tenth' - AA elite who would lead Niagara Movement, 1905 and NAACP in 1909 Pan-Africanism ```

Question 38

Theodore Roosevelt

Answer 38

Against "hyphenated Americans" Worked with Booker T Washington Spoke out against lynchings Did not take much action however

Question 39

WWI

Answer 39

Expansion of the manufacturing industry - 500,000 AAs moved to the cities of NY, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Detroit Race riots in 1919 350,000+ AAs fought in WWI

Question 40

Jazz Age

Answer 40

``` Duke Ellington Louis Armstrong New York New Orleans 'Harlem Renaissance' ```

Question 41

Truman and AAs

Answer 41

Consistently supported legislation to abolish poll taxes and stop lynching in the Senate in the 1930s Privately still racist (from the South) Fair Employment Practice Committee - intended to help AAs find work during the war but didn't maintain the level of funding it needed Desegregated the army

Question 42

Eisenhower, 1953-1961

Answer 42

Born in the South Feared integration but called for equality of opportunity Only met black leaders (MLK, Wilkins and Randolph) once Brown Vs. Board Slow to act at Little Rock, 1957 but did eventually

Question 43

Sit-ins, 1960

Answer 43

``` 100 cities Involved nearly 50,000 people People had been refused service at a bus terminal Forced closure of a Woolworths TV coverage ```

Question 44

Ghettos

Answer 44

Only 32% of ghetto pupils finished high school compared with 56% of white children Early 1960s - 46% of unemployed Americans were black Some ghettos in Chicago had 50-70% youth unemployment Ghetto riots (1964-1968) - 234 Nixon gvae $28m to the National Urban League but it wasn't enough

Question 45

Jimmy Carter and civil rights

Answer 45

37 AA federal judges appointed (twice as many as ever before) 90% of the AA vote Poor economic position Lacked support to further civil rights much + unsympathetic SCOTUS

Question 46

Rodney King and 1992

Answer 46

Severely beaten by police for drunk driving All white jury acquitted the officers Protest erupted - 50 killed, 2,000 injured 14.2% AA unemployment in 1992 23% of AA men were in prison, on parole or on probation