Civil Rights 1917-55 - key facts

13th Amendment - 1865

Abolition of slavery

14th Amendment - 1868

All people born or naturalised in the USA made US citizens

15th Amendment - 1870

All US citizens had the same voting rights

Plesy v Ferguson - 1896

Despite the 14th Amendment, segregation was possible if provision was ‘separate but equal’

1917 - Silent Protest Parade

March of over 10,000 black people in New York in response to both lynching and anti-black riots that year

Executive Order 8802

Banned racial discrimination in the defence industry, in order to get as many people into war-work as possible

Benefits of New Deal

1/3 of low-income housing built had black tenants, because many of the poorest people eligible for this housing were black

NAACP vs Communists

In the early 1930s, Birmingham, Alabama had 6 members of the NAACP and over 3000 black American communists

Father Divine of the Peace Mission church group in Harlem

Set up restaurants and shops that sold food and supplies to black people at a lower cost than white-run stores

Housewives Leagues

Began in Detroit and spread across the country

Mounted ‘don’t buy where you can’t work’ campaigns to boycott stores in black districts until they hired black workers

Response to 1937 Depression

In 1939, around 2 million people signed a petition asking for federal aid to move to Africa

March on Washington

• In May 1941, A. Philip Randolph threatened a 100,000-strong all-black march on Washington unless Roosevelt banned discrimination in the army and defence factories

• March stopped by Executive Order 8802

Black defence workers

• In 1942 - 3%

• 1944 - 8%

President’s Committee on Civil Rights - 1946

• Called for equal opportunities in work and housing

• Urged strong federal support for civil rights

Government list of suspect organisations

• National Negro Congress - earlier collaboration with communists

1948 executive orders

• Desegregation of military

• Desegregation of all work done by businesses for the government

NAACP membership

• 1917 - 9000

• 1919 - 90,000

• 1946 - 600,000

Black children in integrated schools in the South 10 years after Brown v Board

1/100

1954 - Formation of White Citizens Council

Fought desegregation and civil rights for black Americans in response to Brown v Board of Education

1947 - Journey of Reconciliation

CORE members and the Fellowship for Reconciliation rode interstate buses through the Southern states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky to desegregate them