AA CR

Abolitionist

A member of the movement which saw slavery as immoral and socially and economically backwards.

William Joseph Simmons

He set up the second Klan, but Hiram Evans took over in 1922.

Freedmen

People released from enslavement.

1861

Outbreak of the American Civil War which was mainly about Slavery - the South feared that the new President Lincoln was about to end slavery.

Ku Klux Klan

They were a secret society formed in Tennessee by confederate (southern) veterans after the civil war.

1955

Emmett Till was a 14 year African America, from Chicago, who apparently spoke disrespectfully or whistled at a white woman. He was murdered by 2 men in Mississippi. After an hour’s deliberation by an all-white jury, Till’s killer were acquitted. This shocked the USA, and furthermore Till’s mother held an open casket funeral and encouraged people to take pictures to demonstrate the seriousness of racism in the South.

Black Power

A movement determined by African Americans to gain power for themselves.

1787

Date of the Constitution, which was based on democratic principles and federalism

Separatism

Washington, Garvey and Malcolm X

Identity in an African world

Garvey, (Du Bois)

Civil rights by any means necessary

Malcolm X

Integration and work within the system

Du Bois, Randolf and King

1886

Civil Rights Act: all people born in the USA had rights as citizens.

1868

14th Amendment: no state could deny any person full rights as an American person.

1870

15th Amendment: every citizen should be able to vote

1871

Third Enforcement Act aka KKK act, made it an offense for 2 or more persons to conspire to deprive citizens of their rights to equal protection of the laws.

1875

Civil Rights Act: all citizens were entitled to “full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages … or other places of public amusement.”

1883

United States v. Harris the 1875 Civil Rights Act was declared unconstitutional, because private discrimination did not fall under federal jurisdiction.

1896

Plessy v. Fergusson led to ideas about “separate but equal” being enshrined in legal ruling.

1898

Williams v. Mississippi the Court declared that discriminatory voter registration laws were not unconstitutional.

1944

Smith v. Allwright led to a ruling that it was unconstitutional for black voters to be excluded from party primary voting.

1954

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruled that segregation was illegal. Linda Brown (aged 11) would have had to travel 20 blocks to school when the nearest was only 7 blocks away. The district court ruled against them quoting Plessy v. Fergusson, but the NAACP lawyer, Thurgood Marshall took the case to the Supreme Court.

1960

Boynton v. Virginia confirmed that segregation on interstate bus transportation was unconstitutional, giving rise to the freedom rights.

1964

Civil Rights Act (submitted under Kennedy but passed with Johnson), meant that federal courts would hear cases involving discrimination in in public, this prevented local juries segregating and enforcing their own biases. It banned discrimination and voting restrictions (this part was unsuccessful) and enforced the desegregation of schools.

1965

Civil Rights Act passed the Fifteenth Amendment into law prohibited racial discrimination in voting

1965

Immigration Act ended immigration quotas

1972

Act which extended equal employment legislation to all federal, state and local governments

1988

Civil Rights Act went against the Grove College v Bell ruling and stated that all aspects of civil rights legislations are compiled before funding was given (demonstrates the more liberal approach of Congress compared to the President or SC)

1982

Voting Rights Act was renewed and Congress strengthened it with stricter laws concerning discrimination

1983

Congress made Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday a public holiday

1988

Congress strengthened the 1986 Fair Housing Act and the same year passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act over Reagan’s veto.

1991

Civil Rights Act (Employment) meant businesses had to show that any discrimination in employment did not spring from racial discrimination, but was based in genuine requirements of the company.

1965

US v Mississippi overturned a Mississippi law discriminating against African American voter registration

1969

Alexander v Holmes County - insisted on more rapid desegregation of schools

1971

Swann v Charlotte Mecklenberg Board of Education approved plans for enforced desegregation by busing children from white suburbs into inner-city areas with more black children. This policy meant to do well to reduce inequality, but the fact that it was forced, made (white) parents angry about the fact that they couldn’t chose where their children went to school. This policy was met with resistance so it was quickly removed.

1971

Griggs v Duke Power Company the court protected African Americans from implicit discrimination by firms who insisted on high-school diploma qualifications, but were capable of doing the work, so these African Americans were losing higher paid jobs to white workers.

1974

Milliken v Bradley meant that busing declined

1978

Bakke v Regents of the University of California the SC upheld a complaint about the quota system, but still supported affirmative action.

1984

Grove College v Bell Reagan tried to reverse limits on anti-discrimination laws and the Supreme court ruled that organisations which received federal funding only had to be in compliance with the area of civil rights legislation for which they had received the money

Booker T Washington

(1865 - 1915) believed in the betterment of black people through education and responsibility. He was an accommodationist, often criticised by more radical activists.

W E B Du Bois

(1868 - 1963) believed in direct challenge and the Talented Tenth

Marcus Garvey

(1887 - 1940) believed in radical pan-Africanism and economic betterment. His glorification of Africanism, in some ways prefigured Black Power but he was imprisoned for fraud, and his economic plans (including plans to take African Americans to Liberia) came to nothing

Philip Randolph

(1890 - 1979) believed in non-violent integrationist policies e.g. union activity. HE WAS SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE HE LINKED THE ASPIRATIONS OF PREVIOUS LEADERS TO PUT EFFECTIVE PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT.

Martin Luther King Jr

(1929 - 1968) believed in moral power and the power of the media. Unlike other leaders, he took a major role in marches and demonstrations and was arrested 29 times. He was criticised for his inconsistent and hesitant leadership and even though his efforts led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he soon realised that constitutional rights did not dissolve socio-economic factors in America.

Malcolm X

(1925 - 1965) believed in violent revolution (any means necessary), seperratism and pan-Africanism

NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

Association made up of mostly white people also Du Bois and Ida Wells. 6000 members by 1915. They worked for Suffrage rights, equal justice, equality before law, legal campaigns to challenge Jim Crow laws, education and employment. Involvement in Smith v. Allwright, Brown v. Topeka, 1955 Bus Boycott, LR9, and the March on Washington (but little after this)

CORE - Congress of Racial Equality

They were founded in 1942. They began the Freedom Rides in 1947 and again in 1961 (to test the 1960 SC case about bus transport - Bull Connor). They generally focused on pacifism and worked within the system e.g. with Kennedy to desegregate interstate bus travel. Note this was integrationist but became increasingly separatist.

SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference

This was founded in 1957 with MLK as a figurehead. Focussed on increasing voter registration. It won support from Southern organised religion, 1963 - Birmingham Campaign with Bull Connor, 1963 March on Washington

SNCC - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

This was founded in April 1960 and worked with the SCLC (developed from them). Gave younger black people a greater voice in the civil rights movement, became increasingly divided from MLK and the SCLC as there was an increasing focus on black power and using violence as a legitimate means of self-defence.

UNIA - Universal Negro Improvement Agency

Started by Marcus Garvey in 1912. Black-based organisation, focused on the economic power of modern capitalism. 1920: parades in New York may have reached 1 million supporters, but difficult to define. They were significant because they inspired other activists e.g. Malcolm X’s father.

NOI - Nation of Islam

This was expanded hugely under Malcolm X (400 in 1952 to 40,000 in 1960). Its ideology was much stronger than that of other organisations. It had a spiritually intense attitude where voter registration and political rights were not priorities.

Black Panthers

Led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. They armed black defence groups, they didn’t want to include white people in their protests. Groups were formed against police brutality. They focused on separatism through self-reliance.

Old South

This was a term referring to Southern slave states of the period before the Civil War and became a term of nostalgia suggesting harmony between slaves and their owners.

1863

Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln said that slavery in America (and any place controlled by America) would end, but this didn’t end slavery because Lincoln had no authority to ban slavery in the South. It could be argued that this was just a way for Lincoln to avoid having to hand the former enslaved people back over to the South after they joined the Northern army.

February 1865

Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal, however it was still able to be used as a punishment - loopholes in the 13th Am. meant that freed black individuals could still be treated as slaves.

April 1865

The surrender of the confederate states which meant that the Civil War was over and all people in the South became free

Sharecropping

This was seen as a practical solution to concerns about what to do about freedmen. They worked as farmers to white landowners, often dealing with extreme violence, economic manipulation through landlords and interest rates, and laws benefitting white landowners.

1867-77

Congressional Reconstruction: after surrendering, the Southern States were under military control so a more radical Congress was able to pass many pieces of pro-civil rights legislation.

March 1865

Radical Republicans in Congress (e.g. Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens) established the Freedmen’s Bureau to help emancipated slaves.

1877

Hayes Agreement: in order to secure votes in the upcoming Presidential election, Hayes agreed to let Southern states e.g. Louisiana control their own affairs. From this point, they were allowed to deprive black Americans of their rights.

1933

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided work for unemployed people regardless of their skin colour. However, this was not the original decision of the administration, but actions taken in response to demands made by a black congressman, Oscar De Priest

November 1940 Executive Order

Roosevelt passed this to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, colour or creed in federal agencies.

June 1941 Executive Order

This was passed to prevent discrimination in the defence industries, but this was not done to promote civil rights - Roosevelt was threatened by Randolph’s March on Washington of 100,000.

Late 1945

Armed forces began to be desegregated.

1948 Executive Order

Truman signed this against segregation in the military.

1955 Executive Order

Here, Eisenhower stated the principle of equal opportunity in federal employment.

1957

A Civil Rights Act became law so African Americans’ rights to vote was set down in law; the justice department now had a Civil Rights Department; the attorney general was given powers to intervene where rights were threatened. However, in the South there were still there were still cases where African Americans rights were infringed, and local juries did not enforce the law. This act did not add substantial numbers of African American voters. By 1960, only 28% of Southern African Americans of voting age were registered to vote.

1881

Tennessee became the first state to legalise segregation: rail travel was segregated.

Jim Crow Laws

These were a set of laws passed after the Hayes Agreement enforcing racial segregation.

1890s

In this decade an African American was killed every two days because of intense racist violence.

1957

Little Rock Nine - following the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision, NAACP enrolled 9 African American school children into Little Rock High School, Arkansas. The students were harassed and abused and denied entry until Eisenhower sent federal forces.

July 1963

Murder of Medgar Evers - this exemplified the prevalence of racist violence into national politics.

August 1963

March on Washington: 250,000 gathered and even more watched from home. It was organised by Randolph but is known for MLK’s “I have a dream” speech.

November 1963

JFK’s assassination: this encouraged the continuation of legislation in favour of civil rights.

1965 Executive Order

Johnson called for affirmative action to end under-representation of racial minorities in the workplace.

1969 Executive Order

Nixon required all employers with federal contracts to draft affirmative action policies.

8%

This was the number of black children attending segregated schools by the end of Ford’s presidency (1974-77) compared to 68% at the beginning.

Reagan (1981-89)

This president proposed the cutting back of programmes to support affirmative action and he was frequently forced to accept change because of a more liberal Congress. He could delay change but not stop it. He had one black member of staff (Samuel Pierce) and always forgot his name.

1991

Clarence Thomas (a black conservative) was nominated by Bush as the second black Supreme Court justice - this was done to support conservative views under the guise of progress.

1991

Rodney King - a black taxi driver - was detained using excessive force and this was videotaped and broadcasted. It led to the re-emergence of Race Riots in Los Angeles in 1992 (previously occurred in 1965).

1992

Re-emergence of Race Riots in Los Angeles (previously occurred in 1965)

Over $1

This was the difference in hourly wages between white and black men in the 1990s.

1881

Booker T Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute

$600,000

Bonds given to Washington by millionaire Andrew Carnegie.

1901

Washington was invited to the White House and eventually became an informal advisor to both Taft and Roosevelt.

1903

Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk

1905

Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement (led the foundation for the NAACP)

1917

Du Bois organised a Silent March of about 10,000 people to protest against ongoing violence in the North.

1912

Garvey set up the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) [which apparently had 4 million members at its height] and a shipping company called the Black Star Line to trade with Africans worldwide.

$10 million

Garvey collected this much after setting himself up as the President of the Republic of Africa

1955

Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott: MLK and the NAACP supported Rosa Parks which lasted over 1 year (but the NAACP were banned from Alabama so this demonstrates the limitations and led to the Montgomery Improvement Association led by MLK).

1867

General Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first Grand Wizard (or leader) of the KKK.

2000

The KKK were responsible for huge amounts of violence: there were this many deaths and injuries in Louisiana in the run-up to the 1868 presidential election

1915

D.W. Griffiths’ The Birth of a Nation led to the revival of the KKK

4 million

By 1924 there were this many members of the second KKK.

1922

Marcus Garvey had a secret meeting with the Imperial Wizard, Edward Y. Clarke, after which he expressed that no-one could stop them, so people should try to work with the Klan.

1925

A turning point, when the Grand Dragon of Indiana, David Stephenson, and 4 other members were convicted of rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer. Membership dropped from 5 million in 1925 to barely 30,000 in 1930.

Actions of police chief “Bull” Connor

In 1961 he allowed Klan members to attack the Freedom Riders for 15 minutes before taking action (Birmingham, Alabama)

1981

This was a turning point in racial violence when Henry Hays, a white KKK member was the first white man to be executed for racial murder since the 1870s.

13,000

The number of black American voters in Louisianan in 1896 compared to just 5000 in 1900.