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American History, 1955-1992 > Topic 2 - C1 - Civil Rights > Flashcards

Topic 2 - C1 - Civil Rights Flashcards

1
Q

What did the 1964 CRA do?

A

Gave legal power to end de jure segregation in the South. Racial discrimination no longer permitted by the law.

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2
Q

When did public transport, hospitals, privately owned theatres, libraries, restaurants, gas stations and hotels have to be desegragted by?

A

By 1965

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3
Q

What did the 1964 CRA also forbid?

A

Forbade discrimination in employment on grounds of race, religion and sex and established an Equal Employment Commission

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4
Q

Why was the 1964 CRA passed?

A
  • Activism of CR orgs like NAACP, SCLC, CORE and SNCC
  • Sympathetic response of Northern whites
  • Feeling that it would be a tribute to assassinated JFK
  • LBJ’s commitment to CR and persuasion of congress
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5
Q

How much progress towards degsegregation was made in southern schools from 1968-1973?

A

68% southern black school children still attended segregated schools in 1968. Approx 50% attended segregated schools in 1973.

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6
Q

Why was the Selma campaign established in March 1965 and why did it take place in Mississippi and Alabama?

A

White racists maintained even stricter control than in other southern states. Selma, Alabama had a population of 29,000 - half was black. Only 23 registered black voters.

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7
Q

Why did MLK want to provoke sheriff Jim Clark in the selma campaign?

A

Knew sheriff Jim Clark would react violently while protesters would be instructed to be non violent, aimed to expose white brutality to force voting rights legislation

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8
Q

How were protestors treated in the selma campaign?

A
  • White threw venomous snakes at blacks trying to vote
  • A trooper shot a youth trying to shield his mother from a beating
  • Sheriff Clark clubbed a black women
  • MLK jailed
  • Attacked with tear gas
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9
Q

What did the 1965 Voting Rights Act do?

A

Disallowed literacy and constitutional interpretation tests that Southern white registrars used to stop blacks voting.

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10
Q

By 1968, what impact had the VRA had?

A
  • 59% of Mississippi’s black population could vote

- Number of blacks elected to office increased by 6X between 1965-68

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11
Q

By 1980, what impact had the VRA had?

A
  • Number of black elected to office then doubled between 1969-1980
  • Charles Evers became first black man to be elected as mayor of Fayette in Mississippi in 1969
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12
Q

What were the problems in ghettos?

A
  • Poor housing, white prejudice made it hard for blacks to leave
  • Poor Q education made it hard to break out of poverty cycle.
  • Policemen tended to be white and racist
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13
Q

What inequalities existed in eduacation in the 1960s?

A

Early 1960s - 32% of black students graduated from high schools compared to 56% whites

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14
Q

What inequalities existed in unemployment in the 1960s?

A

Blacks contributed to 11% of US but 46% of unemployed

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15
Q

What were the Watts riots of 1965?

A
  • Black mobs crying ‘Long Live Malcolm X’ set fire to blocks of stores in Watts
  • MLK saw it as a class revolt between privileged and underprivileged
  • Defined freedom as economic equality
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16
Q

Why was the Chicago campaign set up in 1968?

A
  • De facto segregation continued in ghettos
  • Thought CRA wasn’t achieving quick results
  • Wanted to promote NVDA to prevent the turn to violence which would alienate whites
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17
Q

Why was Chicago chosen out of all areas with ghetto problems?

A

Chicago had population of 3 million - 700,000 blacks who suffered unemployment, housing and education problems in ghettos.

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18
Q

What did MLK do during the Chicago campaign?

A
  • MLK became a ghetto resident from July to Sept 1966 - found family relationship deteriorated
  • Drew attention to appalling conditions and led reporters into rat infested ghetto apartments
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19
Q

Where did MLK lead marches in the Chicago campaign and what impact did it have?

A
  • Led marches into white districts where blacks couldn’t buy homes but met with violence and abuse
  • After 2 months, Mayor Daley made an agreement with MLK but eventually went back on it once MLK left
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20
Q

Why did protesters struggle to get support from Northern whites in the Chicago campaign?

A

They sympathised with Chicago whites as they knew that if blacks moved there then schools would receive less funding and house prices would drop.

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21
Q

Why was helping ghettos seen as undesirable?

A

Helping ghettos seen as undesirable as it cost the taxpayer money

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22
Q

Why could the Chicago campaign be seen to lack significance?

A
  • Achieved little - alienated whites
  • Despite $4million grant for Chicago housing - blacks still felt hopeless
  • Many blacks turned to black power movement
  • 1968 MLK assassinated by a white racist
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23
Q

What are the praises for MLK?

A
  • Played key role in demise of de jure segregation in the south through protests, inspiration and organisation
  • Good rhetorical skills and ability to inspire helped ensure success at Montgomery
  • Willing to be led and could lead well
  • Successfully exploited white violence and exposed it through the media
  • Birmingham campaign and March on Washington in 1963 helped pass CRA
  • Selma campaign helped passage of VRA
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24
Q

What are the criticism of MLK?

A

SCLC poorly organised and ineffective at first, associated with taking too much credit and being involved in scandals like affairs and using prostitutes

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25
Q

What did NAACP leader Roy Wilkins think of MLK?

A

Felt that MLK took too much credit. MLK failed to achieve anything in Chicago. After 1965, Congress did little more to help CRM.

26
Q

What is an example of presidents like LBJ and RN supporting affirmative action to combat discrimination in employment and higher education?

A

Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan (1969) pressed companies to ensure non discriminatory employment practices

27
Q

What act was passed as a direct response to the assassination of MLK?

A

Fair Housing Act passed in 1968 - prohibited racial discrimination in the sale or rental of urban housing but white resistance made it difficult to enforce

28
Q

What happened to SNCC after MLK was assassinated?

A

SNCC lacked leadership without MLK but continued to work effectively at a local level

29
Q

What impact did MLK’s assassination have in 1968?

A

Provoked major riots in over 100 cities, 46 people died, 3000 injured and 27,000 arrested. $45 million worth of property damage, encouraged followers of Black Power

30
Q

What is Malcolm X’s background?

A
  • Born to struggling family in 1925
  • Told his ambition to be a lawyer was unrealistic because he was a ‘nigger’
  • Left school at 14 and became a drug dealer = put in prison 1946
  • Joined NOI in jail
31
Q

What do the beliefs of the Nation of Islam consist of?

A
  • Allah originally created people black
  • The evil scientist Yakub created other races
  • Whites would rule the world until Allah returned
32
Q

What did the NOI aim to achieve?

A
  • Wanted separation of blacks and whites
  • Black economic independence through growing food etc
  • Pride in black culture and history
  • Religious commitment without alcohol or extramarital sex
33
Q

How did Malcolm X gain national attention?

A

Malcolm became a minister of NOI and gained national attention through TV documentary ‘The Hate that Hate produced’ (1959)

34
Q

What impact did the NOI have?

A
  • Increased divisions between blacks and whites and among blacks as he attacked MLK’s willingness to live among whites
  • Contributed to the rise of the Black Power movement
35
Q

What methods did Malcolm X use to achieve his aims?

A
  • Used sermons, speeches and writings to advertise problems and encourage change
  • Generated fear among whites which may have helped passage of CRA
  • Drew early attention to Northern ghetto problems
  • Mocked non violence
36
Q

What is the significance of Malcolm X?

A
  • Malcolm never on the front line of protests like MLK
  • Contributed to black pride
  • Inspired black power
37
Q

What was Black Power?

A

Whites associated black power with violence but it meant social, political and economic independence and black pride. Developed due to poor housing, poverty, poor schools, discrimination and police brutality.

38
Q

What influenced Black Power?

A
  • Influence by Malcolm X
  • Thought NAACP and SCLC were too slow
  • SNCC and CORE became disillusioned by slow progress and by the lack of protection for the Mississippi Freedom Summer
39
Q

What was the Meredith March, 1966?

A

James Meredith - first black American to enter uni of Mississippi. 1966 - planned to march through Mississippi to encourage black voter registration - shot by a white man and hospitalised

40
Q

How did Carmichael’s SNCC and MLK’s SCLC resond to the hospitalisation of Meredith?

A

Carmichael’s SNCC and King’s SCLC took up the march - Carmichael arrested for putting up a tent in a field. SCLC chanted ‘Freedom Now’ SNCC chanted ‘Black Power’

41
Q

What did the Meredith march expose?

A

Drew national attentions to divisions in the CRM. Carmichael had insisted on the exclusion of whites from the march but MLK didn’t agree. Gave the phrase BP national prominence.

42
Q

What did Stokely Carmichael set out in his book Black Power (1967)?

A

The aims of BP movement. Stated that non violence was pointless and urged blacks to reject interracial protest. Envisaged eventual integration but only when they were equal.

43
Q

When did the Black Power movement gain publicity?

A

At the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Whilst the US national anthem was played, athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute.

44
Q

Who founded the Black Panther Party in 1966 and what did they represent?

A

Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale - called themselves ‘the heirs of Malcolm X’. Wanted full employment, decent housing, education that teaches true black history and an end to police brutality.

45
Q

What ghetto programmes did the Black Panthers set up?

A

40 clinics advising on health, welfare and legal rights. Ran breakfast programmes for poor black schoolchildren and raised awareness of sickle cell anaemia which disproportionately affected black people.

46
Q

What did the Black Panthers do to generate black pride?

A

1969 - Black Panthers set up their first liberation school for black children in Berkeley. Schools designed to generate knowledge and pride in black culture and history.

47
Q

How did the Black Panthers try to combat police brutality?

A

Stockpiled weapons for self defense and tailed police with the hope of exposing police brutality. 1967 - Black Panthers surrounded and entered the California state legislature to protest repressive legislation.

48
Q

How did police respond to the Black Panthers?

A

Their actions antagonised the white authorities and BPs were targeted by the police and the FBI.

49
Q

What was the case of the Chicago Eight after Black Panthers anatagonised white authorities?

A

Arrested for conspiring to incite a riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago 1968. Bobby Seale was jailed and left BPs once released in 1974. Newton fled to Cuba to avoid arrest

50
Q

What decreased the influence of the Black Panthers?

A
  • Opposition from the police and Nixon

- Seen as a temporary phenomenon

51
Q

What was the significance of the Black Panthers?

A
  • Popular in the black community.
  • Approval rating of NAACP among black population dropped from 80% in 1963 to 20% in 1969.
  • Helpful in their practical contributions of health clinics and breakfasts for the poor.
52
Q

Why did Black Power decline?

A
  • Poorly organised
  • Sexist and alienated female supporters
  • Lost white liberal funding that supported the SNCC and the CORE before their switch to radicalism
  • Attracted the hostility of white authorities
  • Leaders were divided over tactics, such as the use of violence. Controversial figures like serial rapist Eldridge Cleaver lost the party support.
  • By 1970 most of the leadership had been killed, imprisoned or in enforced exile like Cleaver. The party disbanded in 1977.
53
Q

What was the significance of black power?

A
  • Contributed to growing black pride
  • Encouraged college courses on black history and culture
  • Failed to solve ghetto problems
  • Whites perceive it to be violent
  • Inspired native Americans and women as well as hispanic Americans
54
Q

Why did Cesar Chavez become an activist?

A

1968 80% of Mexicans lived in urban ghettos = high unemployment, segregated schools, poor housing and police discrimination

55
Q

What is the significance of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)?

A
  • Didn’t gain that much support
  • Mexican Americans poorly educated, not US citizens so avoided organisations like LULAC and hoped for eventual return to Mexico
56
Q

What problems did Mexian Americans face?

A
  • Many illegal immigrants fearful of being sent back to Mexico and even greater poverty
  • California’s San Joaquin Valley - rich farming area where migrant Mexican American farmworkers earned the minimum wage or less for planting and harvesting the vegetables and fruits that fed America
  • Their health was jeopardized by the powerful disinfectants and had no legal protection and were not voters
57
Q

What action did the United Farm Workers get involved in?

A
  • 1965 Joined a strike started by Filipino farm workers against California’s San Joaquin Valley grape growers.
  • 1966 Non violent demonstrations - 300 mile march to the capital with banners showing pride in Aztec and Catholic culture
58
Q

What was the biggest protest the UFW took part in?

A
  • 1966 - white MC liberals such as Senator Robert Kennedy - UFW organised a national boycott of table grapes, supported at its peak by 17 million Americans
  • 1970 - grape growers agreed to sign union contracts - short lived triumph.
59
Q

Why did the UFW grape boycott have limited impact?

A

Grower opposition, mechanisation and rising immigration weakened the UFW so that by the late 1980s, members only harvest 10% of their grapes

60
Q

Why was Chavez seen as a hero and compared to MLK?

A
  • Contributed to the eventual passage of exceptionally worker friendly legislation in California
  • Helped galvanise Mexican Americans and immigrants into activism
  • Stimulated Mexican CR movement and gave them ethnic pride and purposefulness. Led to greater attention to Mexican American needs.

American History, 1955-1992 (16 decks)

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