African Americans

New Deal - positives

FDR appointed 45 AA to positions of importance - 50,000 AAs employed in FG in 1933, increased to 200,000 in 1946 - Social Security Act 1933, set a minimum wage - NIRA 1933 launched Public Work Programmes, 2 million employed, congress gave $3.3 billion to finance this - unemployment fell from 25% in 1932 to 10% in 1941 - FEPC 1941, tackled racist employment

New Deal - negatives

FEPC only happened because of pressure from Randolph - FEPC refused to support anti-lynching legislation - 30% of AAs on relief compared to 10% of whites - AAA led to less jobs, 200,000 AAs sacked - Social Security Act did not apply to 64% of working AA women were were Domestic Servants

Guilded Age - political positives

14th Amendment 1868 (citizenship) - 15th Amendment 1870 (right to vote) - 700,000 AA registered to vote in early 1870s - 8 AAs in Congress in 1875, 2000 in office

Guilded Age - political negatives

Southern states ignore 15th Amendment and bring in voting qualifications - 9% voting in 1898 compared to 71% in 1874 - formation of Rifle Clubs, Red Shirts and White League

Guilded Age - economic positives

Freedman’s Bureau 1865 (financial support) - Homestead Act 1866, 44 million acres of land claimed by 4000 - parallel businesses, 30,000 by 1915 - Tuskegee set up by BTW

Guilded Age - economic negatives

Freedman’s Bureau only 5 years - Homestead Act came with bad land - 89% of AA trapped in poverty cycle in 1910 - parallel business vulnerable to white supremacists

Guilded Age - social positives

Great Migration north between 1880-1900, Chicago’s population increased from 6,500 to 30,000 - AA illiteracy fell from 90% in 1860 to 45% in 1900 - NAACP set up by WEB in 1909, membership 90,000 in 1919

Guilded Age - social negatives

Black Codes, goes against 14th Amendment - Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896, ‘equal but separate’ - 3320 lynching from 1880-1930, often public - mass violence against AA - divisions between AA leaders, separatist vs. accommodationist

Middle Period - protests

CORE 1942, Freedom Riots, sit ins to challenge segregation - AA angry at seeing integrated British troops from WW2 - NAACP membership increased from 50,000 to 450,000 during WW2

Middle Period - March on Washington

1941 - led by Randolph - wanted mass protest on discrimination - FEPC brought in in 1941 - 937,000 unemployed in 1941 to 151,000 in 1945 - railroad companies still refused to employ blacks

Black Power - Brown Ruling

1945 - aim to desegregate schools - NAACP successful - White Citizens Council set up in 1956 wit 25,000 members - KKK returned in 1956

Black Power - Montgomery Bus Boycott

1955-56 - aimed to integrate state travel - pushed by Rosa Parks and MLK - bus company lost $1 million - largest form of mass opposition - White Citizens Council membership doubled - MLK arrested and house bombed - KKK march through town

Black Power - Little Rock

1965 - aim to desegregate public schools - 9 black students chosen to go to white high school - governor Faubus had to maintain political popularity and brings in national guard - removes national guard causing white violence - Eisenhower not interested in Civil Rights but forced to intervene

Black Power - Sit-Ins

aimed to desegregate lunch counters - pushed by NAACP and students - 70,000 people took part - peaceful protest - businesses lost 20% of profits - by 1961 110 towns had desegregated public services - mass mob violence

Black Power - Freedom Rides

1961 - aimed to desegregate interstate bus travel - pushed by CORE and MLK - attacked in Birmingham - JFK helped showing government support

Black Power - Birmingham

1963 - aimed to challenge public segregation - SCLC - Birmingham very racist, MLK arrested - 2,500 arrested - white response of dogs and water hoses, MLK’s house firebombed, police brutality

Black Power - March on Washington

1963 - aimed to get legislation to desegregate the south - 250,000 black and white people marched peacefully - ‘I have a dream’ speech - bill passed in 1964

Black Power - Selma

aimed to stop voting qualifications - LBJ held off due to events in Vietnam - MLK arrested - Malcom X steps in representing black power through ‘any means necessary’ - 100 white spectators and 1 death at first march, broadcast live - 70 million saw, forced LBJ to pass act

Black Power - Black Panthers

1966 - based in California - carried guns, confrontational, watched police - aimed to stop police brutality - started foodbanks and breakfast clubs in schools - lasted until 1969