USA African American Civil Rights Movement ; IB History TERMS FOR QUIZ

13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

The 13th Amendment ended slavery, the 14th Amendment established citizenship and equal protection to all people born in the US and naturalized people, and the 15th Amendment ensured that all men would have the right to vote.

Reconstruction

is the rebuilding of the former Confederate states after the Civil War. It put an end to the last Confederate secession, abolished slavery, and granted newly freed slaves the civil rights that three new Constitutional amendments ostensibly guaranteed. There were three visions of civil war memory: (1) the recincilationst vision (which rooted in dealing with death and the sadness the war brought), (2) white supremacist vision (that had segragation and traditional south standard) and (3) emacipationist vision (which wanted full freedoom, citizenship and constintutinal equality for African Americans).

Ku Klux Klan

is a white supremist politician organization with ties all the way back to the end of Civil War, when it was founded to combat the expectation of the newly freed slaves. The members wear white colored robes with hoods. They had, and still have today, a significant role in opposing the civil rights movement. They played a significant role in the civil rights movement of African Americans.

Disenfranchisement

were actions done by White racists to continue depriving or limiting the rights of Black Americans.
Examples are poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy test, citizenship test and violence. For example, the poll taxes. People have to pay a "poll tax" in order to vote. Most newly freed African Americans or Freedmen don't have any money so they can't pay the "poll tax" and as a consequence, can't vote. Or take the "grandfather clause", which says that if your grandfather voted, then you can vote. Black Americans, as newly freed slaves, were never allowed to vote so this meant they didn't have a grandfather who voted and as a consequence, can't vote.

Great Migration

This was when many African Americans migrated from the south to the north to escape rural poverty and social oppression. In addition to the continued oppression, in the south, African Americans ended up being sharecroppers or only getting the lowest jobs that no one else wanted and were paid less than Whites. African Americans may now be "free" and "equal" under the Constitution but their lives and treatment remained unchanged. African Americans then moved up north to industrial states, looking for change, better jobs and social prospects. The migration caused the population in Northern cities to rise in cities like Chicago and Philadelphia, whereas, the African American population in the south decreased.

Black Codes

are laws passed in southern states after the Civil War to limit African American freedom and rights, prevent them from owning property and force them to work in low paying jobs and be jailed if they were unemployed. It was intended to get around the rights of African Americans which the Constitution provided and the laws did interfere with the rights African Americans were granted by the Constitution. They played significant roles in continued efforts to restrict the rights of African Americans

de jure segregation

is legal segregation of the races like "separate but equal", Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, which was practiced mostly in southern states. The outcome of de jure and de facto segregation were the same result. Segregation is still segregation. The difference was how it was done - openly or quietly. However, the consequence of de facto segregation is that it is harder to prove as it is usually done quietly and through unwritten agreements.

Plessy v. Ferguson

was a significant case and very detrimental to the civil rights of African Americans after the Civil War. The Supreme Court upheld the idea of "separate but equal," which held that racial segregation laws are constitutional as long as they are accompanied by facilities that are of an equal standard for all races. The cause of this case, Homer Plessy had one grandparent with black heritage and 3 white grandparents. Homer Plessy looked white. Homer sat in a white train car, but when he was asked to move to a car for African Americans he argued he wasn't black. This was significant to the civil rights of African Americans because it was one of the first major looks into the meaning of the 14th Amendment's equal protection. This case proved that people really didn't have equal protection as required by the 14th Amendment. This case allowed the continuation of legal racism, discrimiation and segregation for another 50 years.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

was a supreme Court case in which the justices ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unequal. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the foundations of this social movement, and helped demonstrate this law that" separate but equal" schooling and different companies were not equal at all. Due to there being a lack of all-black primary schools, Linda Brown, Oliver Brown's daughter would walk a mile to a school for Black Americans everyday to just get an education when there was a school for White Americans next to her house. So Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown, filed for a lawsuit and in the end won, though winning the lawsuit did not automatically change overnight. The significance of the Brown case isn't about the quality of the schools themselves. The focus of the Brown case was that "the practice of separation established a 'psychology of inferiority independent of the physical condition of the schools' and contended that even if the schools were equally good in a material sense, this could still impact greatly on future learning and upon realization of potential in adulthood for the child." (Civil Rights in the US, 1956-65, Nature and Characteristics of Discrimination, p. 26.) For the first time, the spotlight shifted beyond the physical and visible consequence of discrimination to the to physiological and unseen consequence of discrimination.

Little Rock (1957)

On September 4, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard in an effort to stop nine African American students (known as "the Little Rock Nine") from integrating the high school. This brought attention to the desegregation attempt (by the NAACP and African Americans) of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Television and media reports show National Guardsmen blocking a school where children were trying to enter to get an education, causing the children not to be able to enter to get an education. The federal government got involved when President Eisenhower used his presidential power to federalise all 10,000 members of the Arkansa National Guard. This changed the command power of the Arkansas National Guard from the Governor or the State of Arkansas to the President or the federal government. This changed the purpose of the role of the National Guard. The National Guard went from preventing the children from entering the school to helping them successfully enter the school. However, the successful entry of the Little Rock Nine into Central High School caused pro-segregation people to look for other ways to continue segregation. The Governor of Arkansas, in his attempt to continue segregation, closed all public schools and tried to lease them to organizations or individuals who agreed to continue segregation. This case was significant because it was the first time the federal government got involved to help enforce the law and back the Supreme Court's decisions, which are supposed to be the final interpretation of the Constitution.

White Citizen Council (WCC)

Was established in 1954 in Indianola, Mississippi. Though things for African Americans rights were being changed, this was a response to what seemed as an attack on white privilege and the members of the group quickly grew in the deep South. Members were not secretive about who they were and tended to be more middle and upper class backgrounds than the KKK. They used tactics such as (1) economic retaliation, (2) violence, (3) political activism and (4) promotion of "council school" which are white-only schools created in school systems that have chosen to integrate.

Southern Manifesto

Declaration made by 19 Senators and 84 House of Representatives, which ended up being the Congressional members of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia, states which are considered "the deep south" or former states of the Confederacy. Southern Congressmen signed the Southern Manifesto of 1956, which disapproved the Brown decision and defended the right of southern states to continue segregation in accordance with the "separate but equal" idea. The resolution referred to the ruling as "a misuse of judicial power" and encouraged governments to resist carrying out its demands. The Supreme Court re-examined the Brown ruling in 1958 in response to Southern criticism, maintaining that its reading of the Constitution was the "supreme law of the land."

Jim Crow Laws

laws were anti-African American laws that were passed in southern states which were designed to keep the conditions of slavery in place after slavery had been abolished. This law didn't allow African Americans to use public facilities like theaters, hotels, swimming pools and restaurants. It also created segregation based on the color of a person's skin. Both laws were intended to get around the rights of African Americans which the Constitution provided. Both laws interfered with the rights African Americans were granted by the Constitution. Both laws played significant roles in continued efforts to restrict the rights of African Americans

Defacto Segregation

segregation is racial segregation that existed in fact or in actuality and are unwritten agreements such as between real estate dealers, local businesses, school officials, local politician, etc., which was practiced more in northern states. The outcome of de jure and de facto segregation were the same result. Segregation is still segregation. The difference was how it was done - openly or quietly. However, the consequence of de facto segregation is that it is harder to prove as it is usually done quietly and through unwritten agreements.