African American History 1

Jim Crow

🗓 Post-Reconstruction (late 1800s–1960s)
📌 Laws enacted in Southern states to enforce racial segregation and maintain African Americans' inferior status after the Civil War.
🏫 Affected schools, transportation, jobs, housing, and voting.
⚖ Supported by court rulings like Plessy v. Ferguson.

“Separate but Equal” Doctrine

🗓 1896
📌 Legal principle established in Plessy v. Ferguson allowing racial segregation if facilities were "equal."
🚫 In reality, facilities and services for Black Americans were vastly inferior.
⚖ Struck down in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

🗓 May 18, 1896
👤 Homer Plessy, of mixed race, was arrested for sitting in a whites-only train car in Louisiana.
⚖ Supreme Court upheld segregation laws with a 7–1 decision.
📌 Legalized the “separate but equal” doctrine and justified segregation in public life.
🧠 Dissent by Justice John Marshall Harlan: “The Constitution is color-blind.”

Williams v. Mississippi (1898)

🗓 1898
📌 Supreme Court upheld voting laws that allowed racial discrimination through:

• Poll taxes

• Literacy tests

• Residency requirements
  ⚠ Resulted in a steep decline in Black voter registration and legalized voter suppression.
  

A. Philip Randolph

🗓 1941
👔 Head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925)
📣 Proposed a March on Washington to protest job discrimination in defense industries.
💥 Met with President Roosevelt’s Cabinet and Eleanor Roosevelt.
✅ His protest led to Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in war-related industries.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

🗓 Founded in 1925
📌 First major African American labor union, led by A. Philip Randolph.
🚉 Represented Black railroad porters who faced poor pay and discrimination.
💥 Used labor activism to push for civil rights reforms.

March on Washington (1941)

Planned for Summer 1941
📣 Proposed by Randolph to protest:

• Racial discrimination in defense industry

• Military segregation
  📉 Canceled after Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, promising to investigate and stop workplace discrimination.

Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) – Executive Order 8802

🗓 June 25, 1941
📜 Issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
📌 Prohibited racial discrimination in defense industries and federal government jobs.
📋 Created the FEPC to investigate discrimination complaints.
⚠ First federal civil rights directive since Reconstruction, but it lacked legal enforcement power and wasn’t made permanent by Congress.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

🗓 Founded March 1942
📍Chicago
📌 Civil rights organization advocating nonviolent protest.
📢 Fought against segregation in public accommodations, housing, and employment.
🧭 Later played a major role in the Freedom Rides and voter registration efforts.

Smith v. Allwright (1944)

🗓 1944
📌 Supreme Court declared white primaries unconstitutional in Texas.
⚖ Major victory for Black voting rights, as it struck down a key method of voter exclusion in the South.

Shelley v. Kramer (1948)

🗓 1948
📌 Supreme Court ruled that racially restrictive housing covenants (contracts that barred selling homes to Blacks) were unconstitutional.
⚖ Landmark case that helped begin the desegregation of housing.

Double Victory (Double V) Campaign

🗓 Began during WWII (1942–1945)
📌 Black Americans' campaign for victory abroad in WWII and victory at home against racism.
📰 Originated in the Pittsburgh Courier, a leading Black newspaper.
💥 Reflected the irony of fighting for freedom overseas while being denied it at home.

Public Law 18

🗓 Early 1940s
📜 Congressional law that allowed creation of an air training school for Black pilots.
📌 Paved the way for the Tuskegee Airmen's formation.

Tuskegee Airmen

🗓 Established 1941
📍Tuskegee Institute, Alabama
👨🏾‍✈️ First Black military aviators in U.S. history.
📢 Trained by the War Department after political pressure from civil rights groups.
✈ Served with distinction in WWII, debunked myths about Black inferiority.