‘In search of the American dream’ USA Topic: Unit 2, The Quest For Civil Rights, 1917-1980

The Constitutional amendments shown are the 13th amendment, (Russed 31st Jun 1865) Which abolished Slavery; 14 amendment (Passed 9th July 1868) which made all People born ornaturalised in the USA to become US citizens and included past Slaves, 15th amendment (3rd Feb 1870) which declared that all US citizens had the Same voting rights

2. I think the reality of this was that these amendments, although fasted through the constitution, didn't Sit right with many dd immigrants and made minorities , for example, not be allowed to vote.

3. We can learn that the civil rights campaigns allowed black people and other minorities to earn the freedom they wanted as well as equality, the trouble's they went through to earn this equality and the disserent protests they Conducted,

4. Other civil rights movements ran alongside black Americans notorious movement. Such as Native Americans and Hispanic Americans due to them both being deprived of rights.

Why fight for Civil Rights

• After the end of WW1, black Americans found that they still had to struggle. for equality. They faced discrimination, Segregation and Violence

• These were more extreme in the South (usually Deep South) but even in the North and West black Americans were unofficially segregated and discriminated against. They were expected to live in their own part of town which was the worst part, living, shopping and Schooling their children there

• In most places, they were last hired, first fired and were expected to do the lowest paid jobs

• This Segregation was helped by the fact that having the worst jobs and being less well paid automatically pushed people into the poorest parts of tours, These were exceptions, but discrimination reached to the very top of government in some cases.

• In 1913, President wilson introduced sexregation in government offices.
  and the White House-

• In 1914, around 25 anti-black roots, often set off by police injustice, took place and hundreds were killed. The worst was the 'Red Summer riots
  in Chicago

Life in the South

- In 1917, was hard sor black Americans Since they faced legal restrictions at every turn

- Booker T Washington was a famous black American who advocated accepting Segregation. He had a significant following, the majority being better-off black Americans, but also had white Support Since they felt of he saw how Southern whitel feared black Americans gaining equality

- Under segregation, black Americans were educated in black Schools and colleges. Black teachers were paid less and schools were often dilapidated and poorly equiffed.

- However, black children did learn and became doctors, lawyers and teachers, proving black people were as intelligent as whites but Southerners denied.

Impact of the Jim Crow Laws

- Southerners felt less in control and so created laws on Segregation as a different form of control against blacks

- By 1917, they created the Tim claw Laws and was called 'the permanent system or the final Settlement

- These laws told you were to drink, Sit, love, be taught and where you were allowed to work in your workplace

- States introduced discrimination against black people more subtly. Voters had to pass a literary qualification to vote and some places have blacks harder Passages

- In many states, voters had to be home owners but most black's weren't. Some States held all-white elections to select candidates for the election

Who were the KKK?

The Ku Klux Klan was set up in the 1860’s by soldiers who had fought in the American Civil War.

Its aim was to terrorise black Americans newly freed from slavery.

However, it died out in the years after 1870 when a federal Grand Jury determined that the Klan was a ‘terrorist organisation.’

It was revived after the release of a film The Birth of a Nation in 1915 which showed the Klan saving white families from gangs of blacks intent on looting and raping.

Three Waves of the KKK

Americans have witnessed three distinct waves of prominence for the Ku Klux Klan in the nation's history.

Decommissioned Confederate soldiers originally established the Klan as a fraternal social club in 1865.

Although it began to dissolve by the early 1870s, the organisation would return to prominence twice more in the 20th century: first in 1915 after the release of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation

And the second following the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 concluding that "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. . ."

Why did the situation in the North encourage migration?

POLITICALLY:

• Northern states such as Illinois, Michigan, New York did not have segregation laws as they had not been slave-owning in the past.

• However racism was commonplace and still black people did not have the vote there. Black people were the last to be given a job, it would be the lowest paid and the most menial work.

ECONOMY:

• Industrial expansion after World War One had opened up new job opportunities for black American in many industrial northern states.

• They could earn higher wages on a production line than from agricultural work.

SOCIALLY:

• Thousands of black families moved to cities such as Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York and Philadelphia.

• By 1940, 22% of blacks lived in the North. Many were forced to live in certain areas of these cities in poor, cheap, cramped housing, referred to as ghettos.

What was the impact of moving North, 1917-1932?

• From 1917-1932, there was a wave of black migration from the South to the North and East, mainly to the cities, which became known as the Great Migration
  

• By 1920, almost 40% of African Americans lived the north lived in Cities such af Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnate and Columbus.

• The Eastern Cities with the biggest population growth were New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. They were mostly Endustrial towns and black Americans were drawn there for work and to escape the South
  

• Segregation varied from City to City, but migrants generally found a level. of Segregation that they might not have expected, especialy Later in that period
  

• Once they arrived, migrants lived a similar pattern of finding Somewhere to live and work, their job being low paid and usually the ones that replaced white workers who pushed for the ther wages and lived in the most crowded and run down part of the City where rent would be higher is you weren't white 

• Not all landlords exploited migrants and not all black people lived in the worst parts. of the city. Some black professionals lived in their own black communities; some poorer black Americans lived in their own area of rich white suburbs, within reach of families that needed nannies and domestic servants
  

• Black People could vote and black people were elected to local and federal government
  

• Not all black people had low pay jobs but most of the migrants were foor and even skilled migrants had to take unskilled jobs.

• Populations of those cities rose sharply with cities where black migrants settled in, coincided with voting wards showing black people having signisicant political influence.

• Once it became dear, as it did in the mayoral elections in Chicayo 1919, that the black vote could keep a mayor in power, black people were listened to more and a fowerful business-orientated black elite grew up that had a vested interest in segregation

• Segregation made it more likely that they could try for positions in politics, since a black American campaigning in a black ward was very likely to sweep the whole black vote.
  

• In Cities such as New York, where the black population was more evenly distributed and white politicians had a tight hold on the politics of the city, black Americans didn't gain political power and influence but they still tended to live in Smaller segregated groups all over the city or just parts of it, with their own businesses, schools and churches.
  

• The churches were to become significant bases for organising civil rights, protests and many Cater black American leaders of the love rights movement were preachers

• Black migrants disloyed white workers, especially those who were members of unions and pushinhg for better conditions

The emergence of Civil Rights Organisations

Booker & Washington-How did he want black Americans to overcome their Position in buiety?

He advocated for accepting segregation, with Support from better-off black Americans and white Americans since they felt he saw how many whites feared. black Americans faining equality

He believed that segregation was a reality, instead of fighting they should educate and learn from each other so they could have equality

Roosevelt

To advance Civil Rights, FDR issued Executive order 8802 which banned  racial discrimination in the defence industry in order to get as many people into war work as possible, regardless of colour

The New Deal affected Black Americans since they were constantly moved off projects to make way for white! Since it was based on merit". Black farm workers were Sacked in their thousands during agricultural reforms and black workers were often. Sacked for white workers

3. Black Americans protested the about their treatment during the New Deal by joining the NAACP and or other organisations, and, with the support of the Left-wing groups like the communists.

Truman

1. To advance Civil Rights, Truman propose (but sailed to push through) anti-lynching, anti Segregation and fair employment laws in 1954

Set up the President's Committee on Civil Rights in 1946, which called for equal opportunities in work and housing; it was also urging for strong federal support for Civil Rights.

In 1948, Truman issued executive orders desegregating the military. and all work done by businesses for the yovernment.

2. Truman faced opposition from Congress due to the Southem delegates disagree -ing and the lukewarm support from Northern delegates on Civil Right Measures

Tuskegee Airrmen

• They were young men who volunteered in the fight against the Axis and became America's first Black military airmen

• The Airmen were notorious for their successful attacks and defending when escorting bombers during WW2 - having one of the lowest loss records of all the escort fighter groups.

Actions and advances of individuals and groups toward Civil rights in the 1940s and 1950's

In May 1941, A. Phillip Randolph (who had led a successful protest by railway workers) threatened a 100,000+ Strong all-black march on Washington unless Roosevelt banned discrimination in the army and in defence factories. The march Stopped as FDR issued executive order 8882 and a Fair Employment Practises Committee.

UNIA

Full name: Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association

Led by: Marcus Garvey

Aims:

- Advocated black power.

- Garvey said that blacks should have pride in their colour, their culture & history.

- Garvey hoped to establish close links with Africa and called on American blacks to use their skills, knowledge and education to make Africa strong and powerful in the world.

Membership: Over a million members in 1921.

Major Campaigns:

- Garvey pioneered a REPATRIATION 'back to Africa' movement where he encouraged blacks to return to their original homeland and develop it to escape racism.

- UNIA set up the Black Star steamship line to carry migrants and pressed League of Nations to hand over former colonies to a new African republic, of which Garvey would be president.

NAACP

Full Name: National Association for the Advancement of to Coloured People

Led by: WEB. DuBois

Aims:

- 'Equal rights and opportunities for all.'

- The NAACP wanted to challenge white supremacy, end the segregation laws and make blacks aware of their civil rights, including the right to vote.

Membership: 90,000 members in 300 branches in 1919.

Major Campaigns:

- carrying out investigations into the practice of lynching in the South, proving it was unjustified and sadistic. It failed to get a law against lynching passed but it caused public outcry which significantly reduced the number of lynching's taking place.

FDR and the impact of the New Deal

A special woman's division was created within FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Act), with Ellen Woodhead appointed to head a team with individuals in each state devoted full-time to tackling the issue of women's unemployment

At its peak, the WPA (Works Progress Administration) employed 460,000 women in 1936

The Fair Labor Relations Act led to more than 800,000 women joining unions by the end of the 1930s

John Collier's appointment as Commissioner of Indian Affairs led to the introduction of the 'Indian New Deal', allowed tribes greater autonomy over their own affairs as well as providing greater funding

From 1935, more attention was given to removing racial discrimination within the New Deal; the WPA taught 250,000 black Americans to read and write, and Mary McLeod Bethune was appointed as Director of Negro Affairs within the NYA (National Youth Administration).

Sectors where women and black Americans were employed in high proportions, such as secretarial, domestic work and agriculture, were often left outside the reach of legislation such as the Fair Labour Standards Act (1938) or the Social Security measures introduced from 1935 onwards

Cuts in employment at federal, state and city level to achieve budget savings disproportionately hit the employment of women, such as teachers

Legislation such as the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act) enshrined pay inequalities suffered by both women and racial minorities

The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) barred black Americans from higher-paying construction and management work

The number of black Americans enrolling in the CCC (civilian conservation corps) was limited prior to 1936.

Black Americans in WW2

The NAACP & Direct Action

Legal Challenges

Successes of Legal Challenges

Direct Action

Legal Challenges

- Their aim was to gain black Americans their legal rights in 1910. They began by mounting a campaign against lynching since they felt many had no idea of its scale, especially in the South,

- They published pamphlets about lynching, held marches and petioned. Congress Laws against lynching were being brought to Congress but were blocked by southern Politicians

-They book cases of segregation to court but they were tough fight's due to Plessy VS Ferguson making segregation permissable.

Successes of Legal Challenges

•The NAACP won cases in the 1930's and 40's and then every case in the Soy

•However, the Supreme Court didn't enforce it's rulings and weakened them by not Setting time limits for desegregation or by using vaque Phrases such as "with all deliberate speed"

This led to Schools in the Deep South to take this quote to mean "not for many years yet”

Due to the success of sorming intergrated schools, many families had difficulties letting their child to to School Since they still were in segregated schools, and so the NAACP set up the National Committee Affainst Discrimination in Housing in 1950

Direct Action

-March of 10,000 people in New York, 20th June 1917, Sibent Protest Parade, in response to lynching

-There were more local protests that happened move often due to influence of passive Peaceful protests of Ghandi and also boycotts and picketing shops that didn't sewe black people

-The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) held sit in in Northern cities of Chicago (1942), St Louis (1949) and Baltimore (152) to desegregate public facilities In 1947, CORE members and another group called the fellowship for Reconciliation went on the Journey of Reconciliations riding inter-State buses through Southern States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky to desegregate them.

Rules of non-vident protests!:

- Dress as well as you land weren't loud or abusive

•Tried to show that they supported the Government

Why was 1954 a turning point in the fight for civil rights:

• Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka. Oliver Brown of Topeka, kanjal, sued the city school bourd for not letting he's 8 year old black daughter attend a nearby white School.
  

• This was brought to the Supreme Court by the NAACP presented by a black lawyer called Thurgood Marshall
  

• Marshall won and the Supreme Court decided that Seyrexated education deprived Children of "the equal Protection of the laws quaranteed by the 14th amendment
  

• The following year, the court ordered that all States with segregated education to intergrate their schools by allowing black and white children to attend the same Schools.

CORE

• Full name: Congress of Racial Equality

• Led by: James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser, James R. Robinson, Samuel E. Riley, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn •

• Aims: To apply the principles of nonviolence as a tactic against segregation. The group's inspiration was Mahatma Gandhi's teachings of non-violence resistance & civil disobedience. By the 1960's the group had shifted its focus towards the political ideology of black nationalism and separatism.
  

• Membership: By 1961 CORE had 53 chapters throughout the United States
  

• Major Campaigns: the Freedom Rides, aimed at desegregating public facilities, the Freedom Summer voter registration project and the historic 1963 March on Washington.

Little Rock 9

What Happened?

- 9 Black Students were selected to learn at Little Rock High School

- Mobs and protests accured for those black students with many physically abusing the National Guard Police and the students

- For the entire year students (black) were escorted to and from School

Caused By?

- Schools being desegrated

- Students being selected and Sent

- Southern States finding ways to desegregate the students

- Eisenhower Sending federal troops to protect the black students and enforce
Brown VS Board

Response?

- Riots from White Students

- 101st Airborne division were sent by Eisenhower to disperse the crowds

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

What Happened?

- Rosa Parks resused to give up her seat to a white man and was arrested

- 26-year old Bartist Pastor, Martin
Luther King, organised a boycott of the Company

- Black People (75% of the business) refused to use the buses and walked or drove

- Boycott lasted a year, Supreme Court gave in

Caused By?

- Rose Park not giving her seat

- MLK organising a boycott against the bus company

Response?

- Boycott lasted a year, Supreme Court giving in and declared it against the constitution

- Black People (75% of the business) refused to use the buses and walked or drove

Greensboro Sit-In (1960)

What Happened?

- 1st Feb 1960, 4 black students went to a Greensboro department stove, bought supplies and went to the segrestanded lunth counter to be served waiting till the store Shut

- Next day, 30 more students joined with them and day after wearly all were billed with black students and white youths heckied and harassed them

Caused By?

- 4 black student's sitting at a segregated Lunch Counter

- To then being the whole counter being filled with black Students waiting

Response?

-White youths heckling, harrassing, bullying and spewing racial sluts at the black Students protesting

- The media taking Photos of the Protests, making nation and worldwide news to be served

Freedom Rides (1961)

What Happened?

-In 1961, CORE and SNCC carried out a series of Freedom rides in the South, testing whether bus restroom facilities had been desegregated after they should have been after a 1967 Supreme Court ruling

-First 2 buses were attacked and riders, black and white, were beaten at several stores with another bus also being firebombed after being chased by 50 cars

Caused By?

- CORE and SNCC finding out if the South followed the Supreme Court ruling of desegregation

Response?

- Attacks from Southern people

- Firebombs being detonated

Birmingham, Alabama (1963)

What Happened?

- In 1963, MLK and the SCLC led a push to desegregate the whole town of Birmingham, with king knowing it would provoke violence

- Campaign begun on 3rd April with tactics including to be arrested and fill jails

- Children were trained in protestt tactics but while marching the racist Chief of Police ordered that high-pressure hoses and dogs to attack should be used

Caused By?

- MLK and the SCLC wanting to protest the town of Birmingham due to their known firebombing of black owned homes, businesses and churches

Response?

- Children and other protesters being attacked by dogs and high pressure hoses

- JFK sending federal troops to restore calm, on 12th May, due to him feeling ashamed

- Birmingham became desegregated

Freedom Summer

What Happened?

- In 1964, the SNCC decided on a push for voter registration, Sending large numbers of volunteers to the South to encourage black people to register and train them to pass voter registration tests

- They sent 45 white, young affluent men to Missisipi with SNCC volunteers teaming up with local organisations

- 20th June, volunteers set out but the next day disappeared (2 white and 1 black) and were found dead weeks later

Caused By?

- SNCC wannting black people to vote

Response?

- By the end of the summer there was a total of 6 murders, 35 shooting incidents and countless beatings

- 17,000 tried to register but only 1,600 were accepted