The USA: Civil Rights Flashcards
What treatments did black Americans face?
- racial segregation
- discrimination
- Jim Crow Laws enforced segregation in public parks, cinemas, restaurants, schools, universities, and on public transport
What were attitudes like in ‘The Deep South’?
- states in the USA’s south-east with a history of slavery
- formed the Confederacy during the Civil war.
- held very traditional and conservative views
Why do many laws vary between states?
The US has a federal system of government. This means that while the constitution gives federal government (president, Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court) some powers, it also gives states the right to pass many of their own laws.
What was the KKK?
-a group that persecuted Jews, Catholics, communists, and anyone who was not white, especially African Americans. They put burning crosses in front of houses, blew up homes, and murdered people. Many policemen and judges in the South were members or sympathetic to the organisation.
How many black Americans could vote in the South?
Before the war 3% could vote, while in 1956 about 20% were registered to vote
Why were so few black Americans registered to vote?
white people could stop black people from voting using a variety of official and unofficial methods:
- employers threatening to sack black employees
- white gangs gathered outside registration and voting places
- black campaigners and the lawyers and activists who went to court to defend the right to vote frequently faces beatings or murder
- unfair voting registration tests, including literacy tests that would be biased towards white people
What factors contributed to the growth of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s?
- better education for black people, especially in the North, lead to more black professionals.
- migration meant that many poor black people moved North and liberal whites moved South
- Southern towns grew, giving black people new job opportunities in industry
- Cold War made the US gov. sensitive to international criticism
- in WW2 many white people worked with black people and black Americans saw integration abroad
- television brought events into the living room - racism could not be ignored across the USA
What nationwide civil rights organisations were there in the 1950’s?
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
What groups campaigned for rights in the South?
- local groups, often church based - often had more success in the South
- some local groups did not oppose segregation but wanted equal standards. These groups were important in helping develop tactics of non-violent direct action
How did the NAACP campaign for civil rights?
Focused on campaigning through the courts
What was Plessy v. Ferguson?
a decision by the US supreme court in 1896 that declared segregation was allowed under the constitution, as it was ‘separate but equal’ . This allowed for Jim Crow laws
How did CORE campaign against segregation?
CORE campaigns used non-violent direct action protests such as boycotts, pickets and sit-ins of segregated places (eg. lunch counters, public transport)
How did church organisation campaign for civil rights?
Black American churches were important centres of most black communities in the South. Black clergymen were often community leaders and organisers, and were involved in the civil rights movement because:
- most were paid by the church so would not lose their jobs if they spoke out against white racism
- they were educated and good public speakers
- they were good negotiators
- they had their own network of contacts in the black community
- they could persuade and gain support
- they sometimes used non-violent direct action, but stressed forgiving opponents
What opposition did the civil rights movement face in the South?
-violent opposition from the KKK as well as from white Southern churches who used the bible to justify segregation
When and where was Emmett Till murdered?
-14 yr old from Chicago was murdered in August 1955 in Mississippi
What happened to Till’s killers?
the trial was reported across the country. The jury cleared the defendants after about an hour. The defendants later sold their story (admitting the murder) to a newspaper for $3, 500.
What was the impact of Till’s murder?
Till’s mother insisted on an open casket with an open viewing of her son’s battered body in the funeral home. This led to huge publicity.
Who were the Dixiecrats?
The Democrats were the dominant political party of the South. Many politicians opposed integration. The most significant opponents were nicknamed ‘Dixiecrats’ after southern Democrats who had formed their own breakaway party
What was the Brown v. Topeka case 1954?
the NAACP took the case of Linda Brown to the Supreme Court as she could not go the the white school near her house. The Supreme Court ruled that the Plessy ruling should no longer apply so that ‘separate but equal’ could no longer be used to justify segregated education.
What was the impact of this case?
- it reversed Plessy, sparking off many more desegregation campaigns
- The Supreme Court set no timetable for desegregation, but in 1955 another Supreme Court case ruled that desegregation should be carried out by states ‘with all deliberate speed’ . A vague statement that gave southern states flexibility.
- In the Deep south progress was slower. Governors of some states, such as Kansas and Mississippi did not accept desegregation
- a white backlash began as can be seen from the Southern Manifesto, a declaration signed by 11 southern states that claimed desegregation was against the US constitution
What happened at Little Rock High School in 1957?
Little Rock, Arkansas, was desegregating Central High School in 1957. Due to threats and discrimination only nine students were willing to go at the start of the school year. Governor Orval Faubus sent 250 state troopers to ‘keep the peace’ by stopping the black students from entering on the first day of school. On the second day, Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine students, was shouted at by a mob of white people as she walked into school
What was the significance of Little Rock?
- photographs of Eckford and the white mob were in the newspapers worldwide with the Little Rock Nine becoming famous. The federal government became embarrassed by the publicity. As a result:
- Eisenhower, who did not initially agree with legally enforcing integration, sent in 1000 federal troops to force Kansas to obey the law
- Faubus’ state troops were put under federal control using a presidential order
- Eisenhower explained his actions on TV saying how states had to respect the law
- Faubus closed every Little Rock school for the next school year in order to avoid integration
- parents forced schools to re-open as integrated in September 1959
What were the WCC?
- White Citizens Council, set up after the Brown ruling, grew rapidly in the late 1950’s
- campaigned against desegregation
- carried out threats and violent actions against black families and civil rights activists
How did civil rights organisations cope with opposition to desegregation in schools?
NAACP and CORE sent representatives to work with families of children involved in school desegregation. CORE produced a leaflet advising how students should behave during integration and warning them about the hostility they would face
Who was secretary of Montgomery NAACP and leader of it’s youth council?
Rosa Parks
Why did she become the figurehead of the bus boycott of 1955-6?
- respectable, middle aged, married woman who was well regarded in the black community
- nothing disreputable about her that opponents could use to make her look bad
What action was taken due to Park’s arrest?
The WPC called for a one-day bus boycott on 5th December 1955. 90% of black passengers boycotted the bus company
Who was Montgomery’s mayor?
Mayor Gayle
What were the aims of the MIA?
- Montgomery Improvement Association - set up on 5th December 1955
- aimed to support the bus boycott and to campaign for improvements demanded by the WPC
Who was the leader of the MIA?
MLK
When did the Montgomery Bus Boycott take place?
5th December 1955 to 20th December 1956
How did the authorities respond?
- many white people in Montgomery opposed the boycott
- WCC membership rose sharply and even Mayor Gayle joined
- white officials harassed MIA officials and arrested them on minor charges such as speeding. On 22nd Feb 89 MIA members were arrested for disrupting lawful business. Their trial increased publicity although King was found guilty and made to pay a $500 fine.
What system was introduced to help the boycott?
-MIA met with church groups and organisations to set up car pools, which began on 12th December
Why was the boycott successful?
a combination of organisation, commitment, publicity and the leadership of King and E.D Nixon (NAACP member helped organise the boycott and went on fundraising tours)
Why was the boycott important?
- showed black people could organise mass resistance
- attracted widespread support and publicity
- made King a well known figure
- showed how non-violent direct action could work
What happened after the boycott?
-while buses were desegregated the day after the boycott ended on 21st December 1956 there was still a white backlash.
Multiple black churches were firebombed including the homes of MIA leaders + MLK.
-Bus services had to be suspended for multiple weeks as shots were fired at black people.
-Bus stops and other facilities remained segregated for years after
How did the federal government respond to the boycott?
Eisenhower introduced the 1957 Civil Rights Act
What was the SCLC?
- Southern Christian Leadership Council - set up in Jan. 1956 with King as leader
- wanted to end all segregation
- campaigned to increase black voter registration by using non-violent direct action, publicity and nationwide protests
What does ‘filibuster’ mean?
- a tactic used by politicians to stop a bill being voted on by talking so long that the time limit of the debate expires.
- used by Strom Thurmond, a Dixiecrat, to stop the first vote on the 1957 Civil Rights Act
How effective was the 1957 civil rights act?
- a struggle to pass as Dixiecrats opposed the bill.
- when it eventually passed on 9th September 1957, it allowed the federal government to prosecute states that did not respect black voting rights. However, the trials had to take place in the states themselves and all white juries were unlikely to do anything.
