American Gov Unit 5 Review

What are the reasons for the Civil War?

Lincoln’s Election in \`1860 - he was against slavery so people felt his being president was unfair since he was biased.

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South wanted to secede from the North - northern states wanted to abolish slavery

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State v. Federal Control - The South felt Lincoln was overstepping the national government's control over states.

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Economics - South’s economy was based on agriculture and relied on slave labor which is why they didn’t want to get rid of it.

What are some important figures in the Civil War and why were they important?

Abraham Lincoln - the 16th president of the United States, helped preserve the United States by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederacy.

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Jefferson Davis - American statesman and politician who was President of the Confederates for its entire history from 1861 to 1865.

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Robert E. Lee - Confederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force.

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Ulysses S. Grant - an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.

What was the aftermath of the Civil War?

* The Confederacy collapsed
* slavery was abolished
* four million enslaved black people were freed
* The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era

What were the results of the Civil War?

* The North wins after 5 years of fighting
* 650,000-800,000 people dead
* The Government tried to bring the South back into the Union

What was the Reconstruction Era?

(1865-1877) The period after the Civil War during which Northern leaders created plans for the governance of the South and a procedure for former Southern states to rejoin the Union; Southern resentment of this era lasted well into the twentieth century.

What were Black Codes?

Black Codes were laws passed in Some Southern States after the Civil War that restricted the rights of newly freed slaves.

What were Jim Crow Laws?

Laws that specifically dealt with the segregation of blacks from the rest of society.

What was the KKK and what did they do?

The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) was a white terrorist group that formed in the South during/after reconstruction. They used intimidation and violence to prevent African Americans from voting or acquiring Civil Rights and liberties.

What is lynching?

Lynching’s were violent public acts that white people used to terrorize and control Black people, particularly in the South.

What was the government doing during the Reconstruction Era?

They introduced 3 new amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th), established the South's first state-funded public school systems, gave less power to owners of plantation laborers, made taxation fairer, and outlawed racial discrimination in public transportation and accommodations.

What was the 13th amendment?

Officially freed slaves and made slavery illegal except as a punishment for a crime.

What was the 14th amendment?

Gave “equal protection under the law” to all citizens. States couldn’t take away right and former slaves were made citizens.

What was the 15th amendment?

Voting rights could not be taken away based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

What was Freedmen’s Bureau?

It was a Government agency set up to help freed slaves with food, education, and medical aid, but this wasn’t very effective.

What was sharecropping?

Freed slaves would live and work on a plot of land, often the same land they used to work on. In exchange, landowners would get a portion of profits from crops.

What was important about the election of 1876?

Before this election occurred, Northern troops were enforcing laws to protect black rights. 20 Electoral votes are in dispute but it is decided that Rutherford B. Hayes would be in office. Northern troops are forced to leave and things in the South end up going back to how things were pre Civil War.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott was sued for his freedom and was told by the court he didn’t have to right to sue since he wasn’t a citizen. The Supreme Court stated that Black people were not and could never be citizens. This is considered the **worst decision in Supreme Court history.** This set the precedent that black people didn’t have protection under the constitution until the 14th amendment was passed. (previously enslaved people were now citizens)

Plessy v. Ferguson

Homer Plessy was 1/8 black and refused to sit in the train car for black people. People were infuriated by this because they believed that even though blacks and whites were **separate, they were still equal** in the sense that they both had train cars designated for them. The issue was that the quality of the black ones was way worse than the train car for white people. The Supreme Court sided with Ferguson at first since they said segregation laws didn’t offend the Constitution. Plessy sued and this brought up a discussion on whether or not this was legal and the case was won 4 years later by Plessy.

Who was Charles Houston?

Charles Houston was an intelligent man and from a higher class black family. He attended Harvard and later became the dean of Howard University. He fought in WW1 after graduating. After seeing how things were in school and on the battlefield, he made it his mission to fight Jim Crow Laws.

What was the “Road to Brown” and who is associated with this movement?

The road to brown was a movement started by Charles Houston which fought for equal pay for teachers in all schools since white teachers were getting paid almost twice as much as black teachers.

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1875?

* It was made illegal for anyone to deny full and equal use of public facilities. (bathrooms, restaurants, theaters, trains, etc.)
* Black people were also allowed to serve as judges and be a part of the law system.

What’s the difference between De Facto and De Jure?

* **De Facto** segregation is segregation by law
* **De Jure** segregation is segregation not due to law, but because of the way things are in society.

Brown v. Board of Ed. (1954)

This was a major decisions in American History since this stated that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional since it opposed the 14th amendment. Although it seems like this is “separate, but equal,” schools with black children didn’t receive the same resources or material as white schools did.

Brown v. Board of Ed. (1955)

This was an important decision since it was decided that racial segregation and inequality in private schools was illegal.

“Wolf-Whistle Killing”

* Happened: August 28, 1955 - Mississippi
* Event: A young black boy from Chicago named Emmet Till was brutally beaten to death by two white men for allegedly whistling at a passing white woman. Emmet’s mother wanted his funeral to be an open casket so people could see what they did to him.
* Impact: This event brought people together since people generally care more when kids get involved.

Montgomery Bus Walk

* Happened: December 1, 1955-December 20, 1956 - Alabama
* Event: After Rosa Parks got arrested, there was a city-wide boycott of the Montgomery Bus System and this lasted 381 days. They were able to achieve this due to extremely efficient carpools and leadership from NAACP
* Impact: First successful non-violent protest. The bus system asked black people to come back since they were losing money.

Little Rock Nine

Happened: September 1957 - Arkansas

Event: A group of 9 black kids was the first to go to an all-white high school. They weren’t allowed in at first and the children tried to harass and keep them out of the school. MLK attended Ernest green’s graduation (the first black man to graduate from an all-white school).

Impact: First group of black students to graduate from all-white school.

Sandwich Counter Solidarity

Happened: February 1, 1960 - Philadelphia

Event: Black people sat at the counters at Woolworth and refused to get up when asked. Most protestors were college students and a mix of races. People would take turns sitting at the counters. The protesters endured a great deal of harassment (food was dumped on them and cigarette butts would be burned on them).

Impact: All Woolworth stores had integrated cafeterias.

The Freedom Riders

Happened: 1961 - Through the South

Event: White and Black activists rode on buses throughout the South protesting interstate bussing segregation. Group of 7 black people and 6 white. They went to New Orleans to commemorate Brown v. Board of Ed.

Impact: Made JFK look bad so he is forced to do more for Civil Rights Movement and get rid of interstate bussing segregation.

Kids March for Freedom

Happened: March 1963 - Throughout the South

Event: 300 children were arrested during this march and even adults joined the march. 600 children between the age of 6-16 were in prisons. Children were beat, spit on, hit by powerful water hoses, and attacked by dogs.

Impact: People wanted to take action since they saw kids getting involved.

Birmingham gets a visitor

Happened: April 2, 1963 - Alabama

Event: The desegregation campaign in Birmingham was launched and MLK’s conference SCLC joined Alabama’s existing movement(ACMHR). They fought against segregation in Birmingham.

Impact: MLK is leading the charge of the movement in Alabama.

The Right to Fight

Happened: April, 1963 - Alabama

Event: Protests featured sit-ins, meetings, marches on city hall, and boycotts. Most volatile campaign was a march on the county building to register minority to vote. MLK gets arrested on April 12th, 1963.

Impact: Forced more people to join the movement

I Have a Dream Speech

Happened: August 28, 1963 - Washington D.C.

Event: MLK wanted the rules of the Constitution to apply to all its citizens.

Impact: Civil Rights Movement spread and more people knows about it and want to join it.

What is the 24th amendment and why was it introduced?

24th amendment states that you don’t have to pay poll tax and this happened after LBJ was sworn as President on Nov 22, 1963, after JFK was assassinated.

Freedom Summer

Happened: Summer of 1965 - Mississippi

Event: Organized by SNCC and CORE. 17,000 people attempted to register to vote in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, only 12,000 were successful in registering. Two white men and one Black one were killed.

Impact: People were angry this was affecting everyone and not just black people.

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

It ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

What was the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

This outlawed literacy tests and said that if people were denied voting access at the local level, they could vote at a federal level. African American voter registration tripled between 1964-1968.

What was the SCLC?

An activist group started by MLK in Atlanta, Georgia. It focused on the nonviolent aspects of protesting.

What was CORE?

 interracial American organization established by James Farmer in 1942 to improve race relations and end discriminatory policies through direct-action projects.

What was SNCC?

founded in 1960 and was done so due to student-led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters across the South which became the startup of student participation in the civil rights movement.

Who are some important people in the Civil Rights Movement?

* Martin Luther King Jr - activist and leader of the civil rights movement.
* Medgar Evers - Director of the NAACP in MS and a lawyer for blacks. He was murdered by KKK.
* Malcolm X - Argued for separation, not integration. He changed his views but was assassinated in 1965.
* Fred Hampton - Deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party, was murdered by the FBI.

What were Literacy Tests?

They were tests of knowledge about the American Government and included general tests of reading and writing. Blacks never passed this test since most were former slaves and never taught to read or right. White people were also the ones grading them so they could choose who passed or not.

What were poll taxes?

They were taxes everyone had to pay to vote. Most blacks were poor and couldn’t afford the tax.

What was the grandfather Clause?

If your grandfather was able to vote prior to the Civil War, you can vote without paying the poll tax. This only helped whites get out of poll taxes since black people couldn’t vote before the Civil War.

What is affirmative Action?

To favor a group of people that suffer from racial discrimination, especially n relation to employment and education.

UC v. Bakke

Race quotas are unconstitutional. Race cannot be the sole factor in accepting or denying entrance, but it can be a factor in the admissions process.

Grutter v. Bollinger

Schools can use race in admissions decisions in order to obtain the educational benefits of having a diverse student body. The law school conducted very specific reviews of each applicant and no acceptance or rejection was based automatically on race.

Gratz v. Bollinger

The University of Michigan’s policy was unconstitutional. The automatic distribution of 20 points to every single under rep. minority applicant only because of race was too broad and unfair.

Fisher v. University of Texas

The University of Texas’s policy was unconstitutional. The automatic allowance for minority students to be reconsidered when they don’t meet the minimum requirements was found to not uphold to the Court’s standards.