Civil Rights- African Americans

Question 1

what was sharecropping?

Answer 1

white landowners allowed former slaves to work their land in return for a share of what was produced

Question 2

what were Black Codes?

Answer 2

restricted the rights of AAs to compete for work, gave states the rights to punish vagrants and unemployed slaves by putting them to forced labour

Question 3

what was the freedmen’s bureau?

Answer 3

set up in March 1865 to help provide former slaves with food, shelter, hospitals and education

Question 4

what was the 15th amendment?

Answer 4

the rights of citizens could not be denied based on race

Question 5

what was the 1875 civil rights act?

Answer 5

all citizens were entitled to the full use of accommodation, privileges and public conveyances

Question 6

why were federal changes not overly effective?

Answer 6

Congress did not defend any of the changes, presidents during this period generally did not support civil rights and the supreme courts/state govts opposed improvements

Question 7

when was the hayes-tilden compromise?

Answer 7

1877

Question 8

what were jim crow laws?

Answer 8

discriminatory measures against AAs, like segregation and voter discrimination

Question 9

what were some examples of discriminatory voter restrictions?

Answer 9

grandfather clauses and literacy tests

Question 10

how often did lynching occur in the 1890s?

Answer 10

one AA was killed every two days

Question 11

explain US v Harris

Answer 11

1883- private discrimination did not fall under federal jurisdiction

Question 12

explain Williams v Mississippi

Answer 12

1898- voter qualifications which discriminated against AAs were constitutional

Question 13

explain Plessy v Ferguson

Answer 13

1896- enshrined the ‘separate but equal doctrine’ into law

Question 14

explain Smith v Allwright

Answer 14

1944- allowed AAs to vote in party primaries

Question 15

explain Brown v Board

Answer 15

1954- ruled that segregation is illegal

Question 16

explain Boynton v Virginia

Answer 16

1960- segregation on bus transportation is illegal

Question 17

explain Griggs v Duke Power Company

Answer 17

1971- protected AAs against discrimination in employment

Question 18

how did the CCC benefit AAs

Answer 18

it provided work for unemployed people, however it was not purely for AAs

Question 19

why was the New Deal limited in benefitting AAs?

Answer 19

no explicit legislation designed to help them alone and neglected agricultural and domestic services- of which AAs made up a significant proportion of workers

Question 20

did the war help desegregation efforts?

Answer 20

no because they fought in segregated units until Truman’s executive order in 1948

Question 21

why was their such limited progress post-war?

Answer 21

issues of civil rights were peripheral to the Cold War, Southern Democrats in the Senate posed opposition, limited electoral support, racism was firmly established in the south

Question 22

what happened in 1957?

Answer 22

the little rock 9 incident- students were denied entry into a newly desegregated school until Eisenhower sent in troops

Question 23

what did the 1964 civil rights act do?

Answer 23

prevented votes from being denied on the basis of race

Question 24

when was the voting rights act?

Answer 24

1965

Question 25

how did Nixon help AAs?

Answer 25

supported affirmative action to promote equal economic rights for AAs

Question 26

what was the situation like for AAs in the 1990s?

Answer 26

high unemployment, poverty, poor schools/housing, race riots (Rodney King) and economic inequality

Question 27

did Booker T Washington help AAs?

Answer 27

Yes- he was able to obtain an influential position as advisor to Roosevelt No- he told AAs to accept white supremacy

Question 28

did WEB DuBois help promote AA rights?

Answer 28

an influential member of the NAACP, and the Niagara Movement before that, he also organised numerous marches (notably New York in 1919

Question 29

what did Garvey attempt to promote?

Answer 29

pan-Africanism and economic equality

Question 30

why was Garvey limited in his improvements to civil rights?

Answer 30

his economic ventures failed, he was viewed as isolated/bizarre and he was imprisoned for fraud

Question 31

how did Randolph help promote AA civil rights?

Answer 31

used economic power of organised labour through the BSCP and applied considerable pressure on Truman to desegregate the armed forces

Question 32

how did Martin Luther King Jr promote civil rights?

Answer 32

King united other groups (like the boycotts on the buses), his march on washington in 1963 and the scale of his movement forced legislation to be passed as a matter of urgency

Question 33

what did Malcolm X aim to promote?

Answer 33

influence on the Black Power movement, promoted African pride and identity that didn't depend upon integration or white acceptance

Question 34

when was the KKK revival?

Answer 34

1915, but started originally in 1865

Question 35

what were some methods of the KKK

Answer 35

intimidation (white hoods, oaths etc), physical violence (beatings and lynching), spreading myths about black people and attacked AAs to stop them attending desegregated schools

Question 36

what did the NAACP do to help AA civil rights?

Answer 36

set up in 1909- campaigned for equal suffrage, education and employment opportunities

Question 37

what was CORE?

Answer 37

Congress of Racial Equality set up in 1942- it spread awareness for segregation, particularly through buses with the Freedom Rides

Question 38

what did the Nation of Islam achieve?

Answer 38

gave the civil rights movement a religious strength, matters of political rights were not a priority and promoted the superiority of the black race

Question 39

what did the Black Panthers aim to do?

Answer 39

economic equality, end to capitalist exploitation, compensation for housing/land and separate juries for black people to protect from police intimidation