truman african american

What percentage of the population did African Americans make up in 1945?

10% of the population.

What was the "Great Migration" and how many African Americans participated in it between 1910 and 1970?

A massive internal migration where 6 million African Americans moved from the rural South to northern and western cities.

Which major civil rights organization was formed in 1942 to join the older NAACP in pushing for equality?

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality).

What policy did the Red Cross practice regarding blood donations between 1942 and 1948?

They strictly segregated blood by race, just as black soldiers were segregated in the military during WWII.

How many African Americans migrated north during the decade of the 1940s alone?

1.4 million African Americans.

What economic discrimination tool prevented many suburban houses in the North from being sold to black buyers?

Restrictive covenants (which affected 80% of properties in Chicago and Los Angeles).

Which two prominent African American politicians were elected to the House of Representatives from northern inner cities in the 1940s?

William Dawson (Chicago) and Adam Clayton Powell (Harlem).

Who was sentenced to 8-10 years for burglary in 1946, joined the Nation of Islam while in prison, and renamed himself?

Malcolm Little, who renamed himself Malcolm X.

Who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 and became the league's Most Valuable Player by 1949?

Jackie Robinson, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

What borderline illegal method did Arkansas use between 1891 and 1964 to prevent African Americans from voting?

Poll taxes.

What name was given to the southern discriminatory laws that legally enforced racial segregation and lesser facilities?

"Jim Crow" laws.

How did Kentucky increase the penalties for miscegenation (interracial marriage/relations) during this era?

They raised the penalty to a $1,000 fine and 5 years in prison.

Why was Robert Mailard lynched by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Georgia in 1948?

Because he exercised his right to vote in a Democratic primary election.

What major technological shift in southern agriculture in 1944 caused rural black workers to grow even poorer?

Mechanization, demonstrated by the Hopson Planting Company growing the first cotton crop entirely by machine.

What committee did Truman form in 1946 to improve equality, and why did it fail to pass legislation?

The President's Committee on Civil Rights; its goals were completely blocked by southern Democrats in Congress.

What did President Truman's Executive Order 9981 achieve in 1948?

It officially desegregated the United States Armed Forces.

Who did President Truman appoint as the first African American federal judge in 1949?

William Hastie.

What recommendation did Truman submit in 1952 that later supported the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case?

An "amicus curiae" (friend of the court) brief supporting the desegregation of schools.

What nickname was given to the segregationist southern Democrats who actively blocked civil rights legislation?

Dixiecrats.

What procedural tactic did Dixiecrats use in Congress to kill civil rights bills by talking indefinitely?

Filibustering (which they successfully protected by blocking a reform to stop it in 1949).

Which South Carolina Governor formed the States' Rights Democratic Party to challenge Truman in the 1948 presidential election?

Strom Thurmond, who successfully won Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina.

Which Mississippi Governor led his state's delegation in walking out of the 1948 Democratic National Convention?

Fielding Wright, protesting the party's official adoption of a civil rights policy.

Which Georgia Governor actively refused to investigate the brutal 1948 lynching of Robert Mailard?

Herman Talmadge.

What was CORE's 1947 "Journey of Reconciliation"?

A two-week protest where eight white and eight black men rode buses together through segregated southern states to challenge transport segregation.

Who was the brilliant NAACP lawyer who spearheaded the courtroom campaign to overturn the "separate but equal" doctrine?

Thurgood Marshall.

What was established by the Supreme Court's 1946 ruling in Morgan v. Virginia?

It ruled that racial segregation on interstate buses was completely illegal.

What did the Supreme Court order in the 1950 McLaurin v. Oklahoma State case?

It forced the university to allow black student George McLaurin to study for his PhD, though the school kept him physically segregated.

How large did the NAACP's membership grow by 1953 following its string of legal victories?

It grew to one million members.