civil rights - geog

What was the position of black Americans in 1850?

By 1850, there were around 3.2 million enslaved black Americans and approximately 400,000 free black Americans, with slavery concentrated in southern states.

What was the Atlantic slave trade?

The Atlantic slave trade forcibly transported black West Africans to the Americas to work as slaves.

What proportion of the US population were black Americans in 1790?

Around 700,000 black Americans made up approximately 19% of the US population.

Why was slavery called the “peculiar institution”?

It was referred to as the “peculiar institution” because it was unique to certain southern states.

Which states allowed slavery before the Civil War?

Slave states included Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Texas, as well as Washington DC.

What were free states?

Free states were those where slavery had been abolished between 1777 and 1850.

How did the US Constitution treat enslaved people?

Enslaved people were counted as three

What was the Three-Fifths Compromise?

• Southern states wanted enslaved people counted as full persons for representation — giving them more seats in Congress and therefore more political power

• Northern states argued enslaved people shouldn't be counted at all since they had no political rights

• The compromise split the difference — enslaved people would count as three-fifths of a person

What role did slavery play in the southern economy?

Slavery was central to agriculture, particularly in producing cotton, tobacco and rice.

Why was cotton important to the US economy?

Cotton was the most valuable crop and was exported to Britain for textile manufacturing.

• By 1860, cotton accounted for 60% of all American exports.

• Represented a net value of $2billion in 1860 currency.

• By 1860, Southern plantations supplied 75% of the world’s cotton.

How did the North differ economically from the South?

North: industrial, urban, diverse economy, wage labour

South: agricultural, rural, reliant on slavery, focused on cash crops

Key difference: North = industry; South = farming + slavery

By 1860, the North had 110,000 manufacturing establishments while the South only had 18,000

North also had 22,000 miles of railway, while the south only had 9,000 miles.

Why did northern workers oppose slavery?

Many saw enslaved labour as unfair competition in the labour market.

Enslaved labour drove down wages and working conditions for free workers.

If slavery moved to Northern/Western states, white workers wouldn’t be able to compete.

What was sectional conflict?

Tension between different regions (especially North vs South) over issues like slavery, economy, and power, leading to the American Civil War

What was the Missouri Compromise (1820)?

In the senate, there were 11 slave states and 11 free states - meant there was even distribution of senators who could vote on things.

Missouri says hi i want to join the Union as a slave state!
This would disrupt the balance - so, they admit Maine simultaneously as a non-slave state.

Solidified Northern / Southern divide between slave states and non-slave states.

Why was balance between free and slave states important?

Each state had two senators, so balance ensured equal political power.

If there were too many pro-slavery senators, they could veto anti-slavery bills.

What did the Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) introduce?

Introduced:

• Popular sovereignty → settlers decide if slavery is allowed

Senator Stephen Douglas repealed the Missouri Compromise through the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), replacing the 36°30' slavery boundary with "popular sovereignty" — allowing settlers to vote on slavery themselves — which triggered guerrilla warfare in Kansas, destroyed the Whig Party, and directly produced the Republican Party, making it arguably the single most important political catalyst for the Civil War.

What was the result of popular sovereignty in Kansas?

"Bleeding Kansas" Both pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers flooded into Kansas to influence the vote — producing years of guerrilla warfare and political violence:

• Pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" from Missouri crossed into Kansas to stuff ballot boxes

• Anti-slavery settlers established their own rival government

• John Brown massacred pro-slavery settlers at the Pottawatomie Massacre (1856)

• Around 55 people killed in political violence

Why was the Republican Party formed in 1854?

It was formed to oppose the expansion of slavery into western territories.

What happened in the 1860 presidential election?

Abraham Lincoln was elected president, prompting southern fears about the future of slavery.

Why did southern states secede?

They feared Lincoln would abolish slavery and believed they had the right to leave the Union.

What was the Confederacy?

The Confederate States of America was formed by 11 seceding southern states to preserve slavery.

How did the North view secession?

The North believed the Union was permanent and could not be dissolved.

What was the initial aim of the Civil War for the North?

The North initially fought to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.

When did abolition become a war aim?

From 1862 onwards, ending slavery became a key Union objective.

How did black Americans contribute to the Civil War?

Over 300,000 black Americans served in the Union army and many more worked as labourers - comprising 10% of the entire Union Army, fighting in approximately 450 battle actions.

More than 18,000 African American men and three women served in the US Navy, making up 20% of all sailors

How did the Confederacy treat black Union soldiers?

Captured black soldiers were often executed rather than treated as prisoners of war.

Threatened to re-enslave AA soldiers captured in battle.

Fort Pillow Massacre: killed AA soldiers who attempted to surrender.

Became a popular battle cry among AA union soldiers/

Why did most black Americans remain in the South by 1910?

High relocation costs and limited opportunities kept 89% in the South.

50% of AAs were trapped in sharecropping and debt peonage with no capital to fund migration ~1/5 of AA household heads owned their own homes.

Northern industrial labour demand only exploded during WW1

What was the Underground Railroad?

• Secret network of people, routes, and safe housing. Escaped AAs would travel at night. Routes ran through border states in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York

• ~100,000 enslaved people escaped via the railroad between 1830 and 1860.

What was the Fugitive Slave Act (1850)?

Law requiring all Northern citizens and official to assist in capturing enslaved people - making the North itself unsafe and pushing escaped people to continue onto Canada.

Which cities attracted black migrants in the late 19th century?

Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland.

What were push factors for the Slow Drift North

KKK violence: between 1882-1910 over 2,500 AAs were lynched.

The economic system was designed to prevent AA advancement.

Jim Crow Laws: legal segregation humiliated and restricted AA Southerners in every area of life.

Reedemer Governments after 1877

Disfranchisement

What were pull factors for migration?

Legal freedom: Northern states had no Jim Crow Laws

Industrial Employment: better paid than Southern sharecropping.

Already established AA communities: small, but growing - particularly in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

AA Newspapers: Chicago Defender, widely read across the South; promoted Northern Migration and published stories of AA success in Chicago

Education Opportunities: Northern public schools were better funded, which THEORETICALLY were open to AA children.

What was the First Great Migration (1915–45)?

Around 1.6 million black Americans moved from the South to northern cities.

• 454,000 moved during WW1 alone, 800,000 in the 1920s and 398,000 in the 1930s.

• NYs black population went from 152,000 to 328,000; Detroit’s grew from 41,000 in 1910 to 120,000 by 1920.

What was the boll weevil crisis?

A pest that devastated cotton crops.

• First crossed into Texas in ~1892; spread across the Southern cotton belt at ~60-100 miles/year. Reached Mississippi by 1907; Georgia by 1915; and the entire South by the early 1920s.

• Some counties’ cotton yields dropped by 50-75% overnight. Estimated to have cost the Southern economy ~$500million in damages.

How did World War I affect migration?

Labour shortage: stopped the stream of European immigrants to the US (previously 1million/year). Factories faced shortages as wartime production demands skyrocketed.

Draft: conscription removed white industrial workers into military service

Recruitment: Norther employers recruited Black Southerners for the first time - labour agents were sent offering Southerners train tickets and guaranteed employment, Chicago Defender published advertisements etc.

Service: 370,000 AAs served in WW1, experiencing life outside Jim Crow. When they returned, they were unwilling to accept Southern conditions.

What role did newspapers like the Chicago Defender play?

They encouraged migration by promoting northern opportunities.

• Founded in 1905 by Robert Abbott; became a daily newspaper in 1956.

• Reached 50,000 by 1916, and 125,000 in 1918.

• 2/3 sales outside Chicago.

Even set a specific date (May 15, 1917) for a “Great Northern Drive”, encouraging mass Black migration North.

How did wages compare between North and South?

Northern industrial wages were significantly higher than southern agricultural wages.

• During WW1 (a time where wages fell) industrial wages were $3-4/day

What impact did the 1920s economic boom have?

GDP grew by 40% between 1920 and 1929

• Sustained labour demand, as Northern factories could run at full capacity throughout the whole decade. 800,000 AAs migrated in the 1920s alone.

• Wages rose; AA workers in Northern factories earned significantly more than anything available in the South.

• Automobile industry grew: Henry Ford hired lots of AA workers to prevent unionisation, by creating a racially divided workforce.

• Immigration Act 1924: restricted European immigration - permanently removed labour competition.

What were some limitations of the 1920s economic boom?

Racial discrimination persisted: had the lowest paid and most dangerous jobs; were excluded from trade unions.

Housing discrimination: even if AAs earned money, it was difficult to find suitable housing, and AAs were confined to overcrowded ghettos with inflated rent.

Riots and violence: Chicago race riot of 1919; killed 38 people and left 1,000 AA families homeless.

KKK revival: while limited Northern membership, reached peak of 4-5million members nationally.

How did the Great Depression affect black Americans?

• AAs were first fired, meaning unemployment hit AA communities far harder than white.

• Migration slowed to 398,000 in the 1930s.

• Lots of migrants returned South

• New Deal was largely racially discriminatory

Why did discrimination persist despite New Deal programs?

Southern Democrats limited access and many unions excluded black workers.

How did World War II affect migration?

It created 17 million jobs and led to further migration north and west.

Similarities w WW1:

• Labour shortages

• Boll Weevil as a push

• Military service broadened horizons - produced a radicalised veteran population.

Differences:

• Larger scale; 1942-1970, 5 million AAs migrated (3x first Great Migration’s numbers).

• Extended to the West Coast: Los Angeles, Oakland, San Fran - Black Panthers founded in Oakland in 1966.

• Executive Order 8802: The March on Washington banned racial discrimination in defence industry hiring. AAs had legal federal protection that had not existed during WW1.

• Many AAs in the South had begun to live already urban jobs and had skills - they were able to take highly skilled, well paid jobs.

What was the ‘Double V campaign’?

• Launched by the Pittsburgh Courier - widely read AA newspaper.

• Double V stood for victory abroad against fascism and victory at home against racism.

• Turned into a widely reproduced symbol on badges, clothing and posters across AA spaces.

• “Should I sacrifice my life to live half American?"

• Pointed out the contradictory logic of American racism - rached around 400,000 people, and was connected to Randolph threatening to March on Washington.

What jobs were available in the West Coast?

Movement to the West Coast for jobs in shipbuilding and aircraft industries.

• Kaiser and Moore Dry Dock shipyards: Seattle shipyards employed 4,078 AA workers (7% of the workforce)

• Were less represented than white women in aircraft making - 6%, compared to 40%.

• Black women started to enter these industries.

What was the “Sun Belt”?

A region in the South and West with growing economic opportunities after WWII.

Why did black Americans return to the South after 1960?

Push:

• Deindustrialisation; lots of manufacturing moved overseas or was automated.

• Race riots: there were a series of urban race riots in the 1960s, stemming from deteriorating employment opportunities, discrimination and de fact segregation.

• Northern racism: present in housing and schools, police brutality was rampant, economic discrimination was rife.

• Nixon dismantled all of Johnson’s war on poverty programs.

Pull:

• Southern transformation: Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965) - dismantled legal segregation and Jim Crow laws.

• Economic growth: interstate highways, new industries - cities like Atlanta, Houston and Charlotte were major economic centres.

• Poverty rates: Southern black poverty went from 44% in 1969 to 26.8% - matched Northern rates.

• Deep cultural roots in the South.

Examples of HBCUs that gained popularity?

• Morehouse College (Atlanta Georgia): MLK attended

• Howard university (Washington D.C): Stokely Carmichael attended

• Alabama State university (Montgomery, Alabama): Rosa Parks attended.

What was the Rust Belt?

Northern industrial areas that declined economically after WWII.

• Illinois, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin

What was Harlem’s significance?

Harlem became a major black cultural and population centre in New York City.

• Harlem absorbed the majority of AAs during the 1st GM.

• 1920s: ~200,000 AAs

• Near to NAACP headquarters; Garvey held rallies there; first major AA trade union organised.

• Elected Adam Clayton Powell Jr. to congress in 1944; first Black Congressman from the North.

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

A cultural movement in the 1920s celebrating black art, literature and identity.

• Key figures such as Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Marcus Garvey.

• Created a new sense of Black pride and identity.

• Black culture influenced America culture.

WAs got involved - Cotton Club, white slummers involved in Harlem’s nightlife.

Who was Philip Payton?

A businessman who helped develop Harlem as a black residential area.

What problems did Harlem face?

Overcrowding: Massive influx of migrants led to high cost of living and low wages.

Unemployment: Double the general rate across New York.

Economic exploitation: white landlords charged inflated rents for deteriorating hosuing; majority businesses were white-owned.

Police Brutality.

Segregation: AAs not allowed in the Cotton Club where Duke Ellington performed.

What was the Red Summer (1919)?

A period of racial violence with 26 riots across the USA.

What caused the Chicago riot of 1919 and what was the result?

Eugene Williams: drowned in lake Michigan after being stoned by a group of white youths. Police refused to arrest the white man.

Population growth: 148% increase from 1910-1920

Labour competition: Black migrants competed with white ethnic groups (especially Irish labourers). Returning white veterans found black workers in jobs they had left.

Bombings: 20 bombings of black homes had previously occured as white residents tried to enforce ghetto confinement.

Police negligence.

result:

• 15 white and 23 AAs had been killed; more than 500 injured, and 1,000 black family homes were burnt down.

What was the Tulsa Race Massacre (1921)?

• Greenwood: affluent AA community with 10,000 residents. Successful - had its own schools, hospital, stores. “Black Wall Street”.

• Violent attacks by ~10,000 white Tulsans. 300 AAs killed/

• Looting and burning of 1,265 AA homes, including hospitals, schools and churches - destroyed 150 businesses.

• More than $200million of AA property (todays money) decimated.

What caused the Watts Riot (1965)?

• Police brutality and tensions with the LA police department: under police chief William H. Parker.

• Marquette Fry: pulled over for suspected drunk driving. Police arrested him and his family members, police hit Frye and his mother.

What were the results of the Watts Riot?

34 deaths, over 1,000 injuries, and $40 million in damage.

What caused the Newark Riot (1967)?

• Police brutality against John Smith - Black taxi driver. He died in custody,

• Led to 26 people killed and hundreds injured - massive property damage, increased racial tensions nationwide.

• Grew support for Black Power.

What was the Kerner Commission?

US gov report set up by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967.

• Investigated the causes of race riots

• Concluded that the US was moving towards two societies - one black, one white - separate and unequal.

• Recommended major spending on housing, jobs and education- - however, these weren’t fully implemented.

What was suburbanisation after WWII?

White Americans moved to suburbs, leaving black Americans in inner cities.

These inner cities became poorer, and more segregated.

What role did the FHA play in segregation?

It supported discriminatory housing policies excluding black Americans.

• Refused mortgages in “high-risk” areas, such as AA neighbourhoods.

• Redlined maps that marked AA areas as unsafe for loans - funded mainly white suburban housing developments.

What were Levittowns?

Large planned suburban housing estates built after WWII

• Built cheaply and quickly for returning white veterans

• Mass-produced houses

• Offered affordable home ownership suburbs

• Mainly excluded AA families

• Reinforced racial segregation between suburbs and cities.

What was the impact of suburbanisation?

Cities became racially divided between white suburbs and black inner cities.

Why was integration slow in the South?

White resistance and local segregation patterns delayed change.

Strong resistance from opposition groups eg. the Ku Klux Klan

Jim Crow laws enforced segregation inschools and transport.

“Massive resistance” policies - close schools instead of integrating them.

What was busing?

Transporting students to different schools to achieve racial integration.

• Used after brown v. Board to desegregate schools

• Met with strong resistance and sometimes violent protests.

How did black political representation change after 1965?

More black Americans were elected to office, including mayors in southern cities.

What was the “two societies” outcome?

A growing black middle class alongside continued poverty for many others.