African American History Honors Final Study Guide - Ernest Milton's Class 2425

The Antebellum Period

____

• Antebellum - before the Civil War

Types of Slave Labor

• Field Hands - the majority of the slave workforce

• House Slaves - cooks, maids, butlers, gardeners

  • *More closely supervised because of proximity to whites.

  • Cut off the slave community

• Skilled Slaves - more elite than house slaves

  • Carpenters, blacksmiths, millwrights

  • *Maintained plantation houses and slave quarters

  • *May need to travel to get tools or parts

    • *Greater taste of freedom (dangerous)

  • *Some earned money which the master kept.

• Urban Slaves - domestic, waiters, washwomen, hack drivers

  • *Lived in the larger southern cities (EX. Richmond, VA, Charleston, SC, Washington DC)

  • *Purchased their own food and clothes

  • *Some purchased their freedom

• Industrial Slaves - mostly in rural areas

  • *Textile mills, iron works, lumber industry, salt works, chemical manufacturing

  • *Some were paid.

  • *Some purchased their freedom.

Slave Life

____

Marriage 

• Slave marriages were not recognized by law.

  • *Jumping the broom.

  • Slave marriages were more egalitarian (equal) more like partners.

• White southern marriages were patriarchal.

  • Male-dominated 

Children 

• High infant mortality rate

  • *Prone to catching disease

  • *50% died by age 5

Exploitation 

• Enslaved women were raped by masters.

  • *Perceived power of slave masters

• Justification: Black women were naturally promiscuous.

  • White women were virtuous.

  • Black men were powerless to protect.

Health 

• *Rations included: cornmeal and salt pork or bacon.

• *African American soul food developed during this period.

• *Diseases of the enslaved:

  • Salmonella

  • Hepatitis

  • Diarrhea

  • Intestinal worms (hookworms, tapeworm)

• Smallpox and gonorrhea could be spread from one race to another.

• *Sickle cell anemia

  • Largely affected African descended people.

  • It could develop from the sickle cell trait.

  • The sickle cell trait protected Africans from malaria.

• Lactose Intolerance - the inability to digest dairy products

• The enslaved used traditional remedies that were passed down by women.

Religion 

• Some slaves were of the same religion as their masters.

  • *Roman Catholic & Jesuit

• Religion helped most of the enslaved endure.

  • *There were some who ignored Christianity. 

• Slaves were told to be obedient to their masters.

Character of Slavery 

• Slavery was paternalistic. 

  • *Masters saw themselves as “father figures.”

  • *They were rescuing the enslaved from an unfortunate situation (African Barberism).

• Peculiar institution - slavery

 The Causes of the Civil War

Categories

____

• P = political 

• L = literature 

• H = humanitarian

1. P— Missouri Compromise, 1820

2. P— Mexican War, 1846-1848

3. P— Compromise of 1850

4. L— Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

5. P— Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

6. P— Republican Party formed, 1854

7. H— Dred Scott Decision, 1857

8. H— John Brown’s Raid, 1859

9. P— Lincoln’s Election, 1860

The Missouri Compromise (1820)

____

• 1 free state (Maine), 1 slave state (Missouri)

• The Compromise also banned slavery from the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri, the line of 36° 30’ N. Latitude (36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude), except in the state of Missouri.

Sectionalism

____

• Sectionalism - loyalty to one’s own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole

• Sectionalism in 1800s America refers to the different lifestyles, social structures, customs, and political values of the North and South.

• The North industrialized, urbanized, and built prosperous factories.

• The deep South concentrated on plantation agriculture based on slave labor, together with subsistence farming for poor whites who owned no slaves.

Mexican War (1846-1848)

____

• The Wilmot Proviso attempted to ban slavery from any territory captured from Mexico.

• The Proviso would extend to the Pacific Ocean across 36° 30’ N. Latitude (36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude).

• Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California were too much land for slavery.

• Slavery wasn’t banned in territory until 1862.

Manifest Destiny

____

• Expansion westward seemed perfectly natural to many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century.

• Courageous pioneers believed that America had a divine obligation to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the Pacific Ocean.

• Newspaper editor John O’Sullivan coined the term “Manifest Destiny” in 1845 to describe the essence of this mindset.

• Native Americans were considered heathens.

Compromise of 1850

____

• The Compromise of 1850 said that for every free state North, there would be a slave state South.

• Overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

____

• *Permitted people to be deputized to help apprehend fugitive slaves.

  • Problematic in the North

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

____

• Harriet Beecher Stowe never saw slavery first hand. She had heard about it from other sources second hand.

• The book was written to raise money for the Abolition Society.

• It was sold in every Methodist Church.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

____

• Popular sovereignty (vote) would decide if the territories would be free or slave.

• Bleeding Kansas - violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in the territory

  • *Border ruffians - people who crossed the border to try to vote illegally

Formation of the Republican Party (1854)

____

• Started as anti-slavery 

• Formed because Republicans were in the North

• They said the democratic form of government doesn’t work.

• Socialism:

  • Decisions should be made by the public.

    • Everyone works for the benefit of the whole.

  • Slavery should be done away with.

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

____

• States that slaves were not citizens and could not sue in court.

• Chief Justice Roger Taney

  • *Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

  • *He gave the opinion in the Dred Scott case that:

    • Blacks could not sue in court because they weren’t citizens.

    • “The Black man has no rights that the white man is bound to respect.”

John Brown’s Raid (1859)

____

• Attempted to overthrow the South through armed conflict and end slavery

• Harper’s Ferry Virginia

Lincoln’s Election (1860)

____

• Elected in 1860

• Abraham Lincoln said, “If I could save the Union without freeing slaves, I would. If I had to free the slaves, I would. If I could free some and not others, I would.”

Secession

____

• *Black people either refused or accepted Lincoln with reservations.

• South Carolina seceded in December of 1860.

• Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas soon followed and formed the Confederate States of America.

• Secession - withdrawing formally from a political state

• *The South believed that slavery was necessary for their survival.

• The Civil War began when Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC was attacked.

  • *Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee then seceded.

Disunion (Google Form)

____

1. How did Philadelphia struggle and succeed by existing on the border?

Philadelphia has erected its own borders. There were 29 autonomous townships and districts and an urban bedlam surrounding the wealthy city. Laborers, bankers, and firebrands fought for control.

2. Compare and contrast James Forten and Nicholas Biddle.

Both James Forten and Nicholas Biddle had businesses and were successful at a time. James Forten had a sailmaking shop which was a personal business he built. Unlike Forten, Nicholas Biddle was the president of the second bank of the United States so it was a business for the government. Biddle also had the goal to end the chaos of urban life through investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, and education.

3. Heath comments, “consolidation is a manifesto of urban greatness.” What does he mean by this statement?

I think Heath means that bringing all the different communities together will create a big, successful city where so much can be achieved.

4. There were several events that took place in Philadelphia during this time. List the actions. Pick one event and explain if it had a significant impact on the United States.

The events that took place in Philadelphia during this time are the burning of the Flying Horses Carousel, Black churches and businesses attacked, Andrew Jackson’s election, and the Bank War. The Bank War happened when Andrew Jackson wanted to kill Biddle’s bank and vetoed the bill to recharter it. He eventually attacked Biddle and Biddle fought back by restricting the flow of capital into the economy. He ended up pushing the United States into a depression. The Bank War caused Philadelphia to lose the title of being the banking capital of the US and passed that onto New York. Philadelphia’s white working class grabbed the reins again. 

5. Summarize, in your own words, the causes of the Mexican War.

Once Texas became independent, the US originally declined to incorporate it into the union because in the North, people were against the idea of a new state that supported slavery. The Mexican government encouraged border raids and warned that if anyone tried to invade, there would be a war. After James K. Polk was elected as president, annexation procedures started to happen because Polk believed in the “Manifest Destiny.” The war was instigated when his offer to purchase states of the Southwest was denied.

6. Who was James K. Polk?

James K. Polk was a president of the United States who believed that the United States had a “Manifest Destiny” to expand west and across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.

7. What role did Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana play in the war?

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was a general who was charismatic and lived in exile in Cuba. He convinced Polk that if he was allowed to return to Mexico, he would end the and side with the US. When Santa Anna arrived, he decided to take control of the Mexican Army and lead the Battle of Buena Vista. He suffered from casualties and was forced to withdraw.

8. Identify the following: Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, Ninos Heroes

   1. Zachary Taylor was a general who commanded the Mexican cavalry to attack US soldiers in the disputed zone and killed about a dozen people. They laid siege to Fort Texas along the Rio Grande and Taylor called in reinforcements. They ended up defeating the Mexicans at the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.

   2. Winfield Scott was a general who led US troops. They landed in Veracruz and took over the city then began marching toward Mexico City. At the Battle of Cerro Gordo, Mexicans resisted, but were beaten each time. In 1847, Scott successfully laid siege to Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle.

   3. Ninos Heroes were a group of military school cadets who committed suicide instead of surrendering. 

9. What were the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

   1. The Rio Grande was the US-Mexican border.

   2. Mexico recognized the US annexation of Texas, and agreed to sell California and the rest of its territory north of the Rio Grande for $15 million plus the assumption of certain damage claims.

10. List the main points of the Compromise of 1850.

1. Permitted slavery in Washington D.C., but outlawed the slave trade.

1. Added California to the Union as a “free state.”

2. Established Utah and New Mexico as territories that could decide via popular sovereignty if they would permit slavery.

3. Defined new boundaries for the state of Texas following the Mexican-American War, removing its claims to parts of New Mexico, but awarding the state $10 million in compensation.

4. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required citizens to assist in apprehending runaway slaves and denied enslaved people a right to trial by jury.

11. Based upon what you read in the article, explain the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold 300,000 copies in the first year. It was the first major US novel with a Black main character and to use regional accents. Some people praised the book for exposing the harsh realities of slavery, but abolitionists felt it wasn’t forceful enough. Some said the characters were based on stereotypes and it was a one-sided image of slavery. The pro-slavery responses prompted at least 29 “Anti-Tom” or pro-slavery books before the Civil War. The book inspired products including wallpaper, board games, silverware, song sheets, ceramics, and handkerchiefs.

12. What did the state of Missouri consider to be an act of war? Why did this attitude develop?

1. The signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

2. Colonies always thought that everything to the west of them was theirs, too. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was seen as a pro-Southern act.

13. Why was the arrival of Northerners an act of war?

The arrival of Northerners was an act of war because Northerners decided that if popular sovereignty would decide the fate of Kansas, they would send people to settle, but Missourians assumed that the land would be for themselves.

14. How did John Brown become infamous?

John Brown became infamous because he dragged 5 men from their cabins and shot them to death. That cleared the area of southern settlers. 

15. Who was William Quantrill?

William Quantrill led a band of about 450 people across the border to Lawrences. They held the town for 4 hours and then destroyed it where a bunch of people were killed.

16. What was The First Kansas Colored?

The First Kansas Colored raised the first black regiments to fight in the Civil War. They fought before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

17. What is the legacy of animosity between Kansas and Missouri?

1. In sports events

2. They wanted to create a militarized zone.

18. Why aren’t the battles in Kansas remembered?

The battles in Kansas aren’t remembered because of the bigger and more well-known battles that happened in the east that overshadowed it.

19. Why was Kansas shown as The Soldier State?

 Kansas was known as The Soldier State because of all the Civil War veterans that are coming west.

20. Identify the following: Errol Flynn, Gadsden Purchase, Pottawatomie Massacre.

1. Errol Flynn was an actor who dodged live bullets in the Spanish Civil War.

2. The Gadsden Purchase was a treaty between the United States and Mexico where the US agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve the conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War.

3. The Pottawatomie Massacre is an event where 5 men were murdered from a pro-slavery settlement on Pottawatomie Creek. It happened because of an anti-slavery party led by the abolitionist John Brown and composed largely of men of his family.

21. Why is the Dred Scott Decision considered to be the worst ever by the Supreme Court?

The Dred Scott Decision abolished slavery and declared all persons born in the United States to be citizens of the United States. It had enormous political implications for the entire nation before reaching the high court.

22. Why did John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry increase sectional tensions?

John Brown’s raid helped make further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible which then became an important event of the Civil War.

The Civil War

• Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union.

• *North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas later seceded and joined the Confederacy.

• *Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri were the border states.

  • Slave states that had not yet seceded.

  • Lincoln did not want to lose them.

Blacks Are Rejected

____

• Blacks wanted to join the military, but were rejected.

• Some Blacks organized and formed their own regiments.

• *When pressed by Black citizens, the War Department rejected their demands for Black soldiers.

• Some Union Generals had policies that would hinder any attempt by a slave to free themselves early in the war.

• The Union and Confederacy would join forces to end slave revolts. 

• General David Hunter attempted to end slavery in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

  • *Lincoln revoked this quickly.

Lincoln and Emancipation

____

• Lincoln supported compensated emancipation.

  • *The government said slave owners and the slaves would be relocated to West Africa, the Caribbean, or Latin America.

• Lincoln began to associate the war with abolition in the summer of 1862.

• Lincoln accepted the idea of emancipation after the Union won a major battle.

The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

____

• Issued on September 22, 1862

  • *The Union won the Battle of Antietam. 

  • *It gave the Confederacy 100 days to return to the Union.

    • They could keep their slaves if they did.

• The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863. 

  • *The Proclamation “freed” slaves in areas that were in rebellion against the Union.

Black Troops

____

• The Civil War was thought to be a white man’s war.

  • *Black troops were still not accepted by Union leaders.

• General David Hunter was recruiting Black soldiers in 1862.

  • *Some were impressed (forced into military service).

• Black troops were eventually authorized by the Lincoln administration.

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment

____

• *The first all black and most famous Civil War regiment.

• *Led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw

• *They saw combat at Fort Wagner in SC.

  • In this battle, Col. Shaw and 40% of the regiment were killed.

Spies and Liberators

____

• Robert Smalls commandeered a Confederate ship and freed himself and others.

• Harriet Tubman was a spy and a scout for the Union.

  • *She freed 800 slaves during the war.

• Mary Elizabeth Bowser was a literate slave who passed information to the Union.

The New York City Draft Riot

____

• The riots began when Irish immigrants were drafted for the war.

• Reasons for the riot:

  • *The Irish were told that Blacks would benefit from the war.

  • *Irish dockworkers that were on strike were replaced by Blacks.

  • *The rich could buy a draft exemption.

• The riot lasted for 4 days and was stopped by Union Army forces. 

  • Republicans, Democrats, and Blacks had been attacked during the riot.

Black Confederates

____

• Some free Blacks in the south supported the Confederacy.

  • *They wanted acceptance.

• Some free Blacks hoped to profit from a Confederate victory.

  • Black farmers & Black slave owners

Black Confederate Troops

____

• Some southerners supported the idea.

  • Jefferson Davis rejected using Black soldiers. 

• The South was confused by the possibility that Blacks could make good soldiers.

  • *The southern mindset was jeopardized.

• Robert E. Lee approved of using Black troops.

  • Approved by the Confederate Congress

  • Freed only if the master and state approved of it

• Only 35 soldiers were part of the first Black unit.

• The Civil War ended when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in VA.

Articles of Secession (Google Form)

____

1. Give examples of why the Georgia state government has an issue with the anti-slavery states.

   1. Endeavored to weaken Georgia’s security

   2. Disturbs their domestic peace and tranquility

   3. Used their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive them of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic

2. Give examples of how Georgia was in support of the institution of slavery.

   1. Georgia said that banning slavery was wrong and that they had shed blood and paid money for slavery.

   2. Georgia thought the policy was beneficial for new territories acquired by the Union and that they were open to all people from all states of the Union, including slaveholders and their slaves.

3. Give examples of Georgia’s complaints against anti-slavery.

   1. Georgia called the conduct of anti-slavery northerners that were looking to ban slavery faithless.

   2. Georgia called people who wanted to take slavery away from them criminals.

4. Explain the statement that the state of South Carolina makes regarding slavery.

South Carolina states that past laws say that states are independent and can make their laws and if a government becomes oppressive in the United States, the people have the right to overthrow it. Because of this, South Carolina says, they are withdrawing from the Union and becoming their own independent state.

5. Explain the role that slavery had in Texas becoming a state on December 29, 1845.

When Texas became a state on December 29, 1845, it entered the Union as a state that would accept and protect the institution of slavery.

6. Why did the state government of Texas say that the northern states had violated the fugitive slave clause of the US Constitution?

The state government of Texas said that the northern states had violated the fugitive slave clause by imposing high fines and penalties for citizens/officers who try to capture fugitive slaves and return them to their original masters.

7. List the positive words that the state government of Texas uses to describe the institution of slavery.

• Beneficial

• Tolerable

• Desirable

• Justifiable 

8. What does the state government of Texas think about the doctrine of equality of all men?

The state government of Texas thinks that the doctrine of equality of all men is false and conflicts with the world and divine law.

9. What does the state of Virginia say about slavery?

Virginia says that the Federal Government has used its powers to oppress southern slaveholding states.

10. Identify Jefferson Davis and list 3 facts about him.

Jefferson Davis was the first and only president of the Confederacy.

1. He became a slaveholding landowner on a plantation given to him by a wealthy older brother.

2. He served in Congress and in the Senate in the 1840s, fought in the Mexican War, and in 1853, he was appointed secretary of war by President Pierce.

3. After the war, he was charged with treason and served 2 years in prison at Fort Monroe, VA.

11. Who was Alexander Stephens?

Alexander Stephems was the vice president of the Confederacy, proclaims that slavery and white supremacy weren’t the only cause for secession, but the Cornerstone of the Confederate nation was.

12. Explain why Stephens says the Constitution is wrong.

Stephens says the Constitution is wrong because it assumes the equality of all races.

13. Explain what the Cornerstone of the Confederacy is.

The Cornerstone of the Confederacy says that Black and white men aren’t equal to each other and that slavery is the natural and moral condition of them.

14. What does Stephens mean by “truths” in this speech?

Stephens means that whites are superior and God wanted it that way for his own purposes.

Reconstruction

Reactions

____

• Some Blacks fled at the first opportunity once they heard the South had lost.

  • *Others were deeply seasoned and couldn’t.

• White planters died from heartbreak.

  • *The South had lost.

  • *”Loyal slaves” were leaving.

• Freedman - former slaves

• The most important thing to freedmen was finding family members.

• Land was also wanted by the freedmen.

  • *Granted economic security.

Special Field Order #15

____

• *Granted 40 acres of land to freedmen families.

• *Land that was confiscated was abandoned Confederate property.

• *The land tract extended from Charleston, SC to Jacksonville, FL.

  • 30 miles wide by 245 miles long

  • A mule was included also (40 acres and a mule).

• Reconstruction (1865-1877), the turbulent era following the Civil War, was the effort to reintegrate Southern states from the Confederacy and 4 million newly-freed people into the US.

Freedmen's Bureau

____

• *Its purpose was to assist the freedmen as a temporary agency.

  • Medical care

  • Education

  • Contract disputes

• *Whites were also helped.

• After Lincoln was assassinated, VP Andrew Johnson became President.

  • *Johnson overturned Special Field Order #15.

Sharecropping

____

• Grew out of the inability of landowners to pay cash to the workers.

• *Workers (freedmen) would receive a portion of the crop.

• Landowners would provide seeds, tools, and living quarters.

The Black Church

____

• The most important institution for Blacks after the Civil War.

  • *Former slaves founded Baptist and Methodist Churches.

• Free Black families continued to attend Episcopalian and Presbyterian Churches.

• In New Orleans, free people of color (Creoles) attended Roman Catholic churches.

Education

____

• “To remain illiterate was to remain enslaved.”

• Freedom demanded literacy.

  • *The elderly wanted to read the Bible.

• Freedmen preferred to have Black teachers.

  • *Teaching was seen as honorable.

• Many HBCUs were established during Reconstruction.

  • *They were teacher training schools.

• Many white southerners were hostile to Blacks getting an education.

Violence

____

• Reasons why Blacks were attacked:

  • *Demanding to be addressed by a title (Mr./Mrs.)

  • *Wearing nice clothes

  • *Using insolent language

Presidential Reconstruction

____

• Johnson’s Plan

  • *Pardons to former Confederates who swore allegiance to the US.

  • *High ranking Confederates had to beg.

  • *Restored Confederate land to the previous owners.

  • *Appointed provisional governors in former Confederate states.

• Jefferson Davis spent only two years in prison and never took the oath of citizenship.

• Robert E. Lee was never tried.

• *States had to acknowledge the 13th Amendment for readmission.

• *Repudiate war debts (deny).

• The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the US.

  • *Except if someone has been convicted of a crime.

Black Codes for Freedmen

____

• *An annual labor contract

• *Corporal punishment was legal.

• *Rules against hunting, loitering, fishing, vagrancy (homelessness)

• *Could not vote or be a juror

Radical Republicans

____

• *Wanted to include Blacks in the political and economic system.

• *Believed the South was not to be forgiven

  • Radicals:

    • Despised by many whites

    • Appreciated by Blacks

• *Radicals wanted Black men to vote.

  • Moderates didn’t. 

• *Democrats were against the Black vote.

• *Whites in the North, Republicans, and Democrats were against Blacks voting.

Johnson’s Vetoes

____

• Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and Civil Rights Bill

  • Passed in the House

  • Both vetoed by Johnson 

• *Congress overrides the vetoes and made it law.

Fourteenth Amendment

____

• *Made Blacks citizens of the US.

  • Invalidates the ⅗ clause

  • The 14th Amendment could also reduce the number of Representatives if voting rights were infringed (denied).

Radical Reconstruction

____

• 1866 — Republicans gain a ⅔ majority in both the House and the Senate.

• 1867 — First Reconstruction Act is passed.

  • *The South is divided into 5 military districts controlled by a general in each.

  • *Governments overturned in those districts.

Ku Klux Klan 

____

• Founded in 1866 in Pulaski, TN

• It began as a social club for former Confederates.

• Kyklos - Greek word for “circle”

• Klan - family

• ‘K’ was used for alliteration.

• Eventually, white robes were worn for night rides.

  • White robes appeared as “supernatural.”

• The first Grand Wizard of the KKK was Nathan Bedford Forest.

Resisting the Klan

____

• In Arkansas, D.P. Upham waged war against the Klan.

  • AR had been divided into 4 quadrants.

  • Upham was successful in defeating the Klan.

• Tennessee was the only former Confederate State not in the military districts.

  • Governor Bill Brownlow

The North Loses Interest

____

• *Continued demands of southerners and freedmen began to tire the Radical Republicans.

• *American politics had grown corrupt.

  • Federal and local levels

• *Many northerners started to think that Reconstruction was a mistake.

• *The Panic of 1873 caused Reconstruction efforts to decline.

  • “Panic” is another word for an economic depression.

  • High unemployment

  • Bank closures

  • Value of money declines

• Ulysses S. Grant had been elected President in 1868. His administration was highly affected by corruption.

• The Freedmen’s Bank was established and many Blacks deposited money into it.

  • *Bad investments by the bank caused its Black patrons to lose money.

  • *The building of generational wealth was denied. 

The End of Reconstruction

____

• Redemption (redeem) - to return the South to rule by the Democratic Party

  • Violence and intimidation were used to redeem states.

  • Coushatta, LA experienced extreme violence which caused the Army to be mobilized.

• Shotgun Policy - extreme violence in Mississippi against Blacks and Republicans

  • *No federal help was sent by Grant.

The Hamburg Massacre

____

• Hamburg was an all-Black town in SC.

  • *Violence between the all-Black militia and whites.

  • *Reinforcements for white combatant came from GA.

  • *One white person killed. Several Black militiamen executed without due process.

• Governor Race in SC

  • Wade Hampton (D)

  • Daniel Chamberlain (R)

• Red Shirt - a hate group

• Democrats openly attacked Black people. 

  • Blacks openly attacked Democrats in the vicinity of Charleston, SC.

  • Some Blacks supported the Democrats.

Compromise of 1877

____

• Majority of electoral college votes

  • Samuel Tilden (D)

  • Rutherford B. Hayes (R)

• FL, LA, SC: unredeemed states, both claimed to have won them

  • Whoever won those states would be President.

• The Compromise

1. Democrats accepted a Hayes victory.

2. FL, LA, SC: Republican government wouldn’t be supported.

3. Troops would be removed from FL, LA, SC allowing control to be taken over by Democrats.

• Reconstruction ends.

Jim Crow

Jim Crow (Google Form)

____

1. Explain the 15th Amendment.

The 15th Amendment guaranteed the right for anyone to vote no matter their race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

2. Define, “disenfranchisement” or “disfranchisement.”

Disfranchisement is when the right to vote from a person or group is being deprived.

3. What was the Eight Box Law?

The Eight Box Law was a literacy test that was passed in South Carolina in 1882. Voters were required to deposit separate ballots for separate election races in the proper ballot box.

4. What was a poll tax?

A poll tax is a tax levied as a prerequisite for voting.

5. What was a literacy test?

A literacy test is an exam testing the person’s ability to read and write.

6. What was the grandfather clause?

The grandfather clause was a legacy clause that was an exemption that allowed people or entities to continue with activities or operations that were approved before new rules, laws, or regulations were implemented. 

7. What were the Jim Crow Laws?

Jim Crow Laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. (EX. water fountains, buses, movie theaters)

8. Identify Thomas Dartmouth Rice.

Thomas Dartmouth Rice (Thomas “Daddy” Rice), or the "Father of Minstrelsy" was an actor from New York and created the “Jim Crow” character. He founded a new genre of racialized song and dance called blackface minstrel shows.

9. Who were the Exodusters?

The Exodusters (plain settlers) were African Americans who moved to the Great Plains after Reconstruction. They believed that if they moved to the Great Plains, they could live in peace and build a community, instead of worrying about hate groups.

10. What were the factors that caused the Exodusters to go to the West?

    1. Land acts

    2. Offers for free or low cost land

    3. The 1862 Homestead Act

11. What was Nicodemus?

Nicodemus is the best-known all-black town in the Great Plains. It had a population of 600+ people by 1879 which made it the largest community in Kansas north of the Kansas Pacific Railroad.

12. Name some of the all-Black towns that were developed in the West.

Some of the all-Black towns that were developed in the West are Langston, Oklahoma, Boley, Oklahoma, and Dewittiy, Nebraska.

13. What happened to most Blacks in the West by the late 1800’s?

By the late 1800s, most Blacks in the West had returned to their home states. However, in Nicodemus, some people learned to adapt to the new environment, used fertilizers, built water-diversion channels, and survived harsh winters.

14. Who was Benjamin “Pap” Singleton?

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton was born a slave from Tennessee who escaped to Canada, then moved to Michigan. In Michigan, he operated a boarding house where fugitive slaves were often housed. He was known as the Father of the Exodusters since he convinced Blacks in the South to move. 

15. Explain why he is important to the story of the Exodusters.

Between 1877 and 1879, Singleton steered more than 20,000 migrants to Kansas.

16. What other migration ventures did Singleton try?

Singleton tried to migrate Blacks to Cyprus, but it was unsuccessful.

17. Who were the Buffalo Soldiers?

Buffalo Soldiers were African American soldiers who served on the Western frontier after the Civil War and fought against Native Americans.

18. How did they get their name?

The Buffalo Soldiers got their name because the soldiers had dark, curly hair that resembled the fur of a buffalo or because they fought so fiercely.

19. What was the role of the Buffalo Soldiers’ in the Indian Wars?

The role of Buffalo Soldiers in the Indian Wars was that they minimized Indian resistance in Texas, participated in at least 177 conflicts, and fought against the Indians.

20. What other roles did the Buffalo Soldiers have?

The Buffalo Soldiers fought wildfires and poachers in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks and supported the parks’ infrastructure.

21. What was the experience of the Buffalo Soldiers in the Spanish-American War?

In the Spanish-American War, the Buffalo Soldiers served courageously and fought in the Battle of San Juan Hill, the Battle of El Caney, and the Battle of Las Guasimas.

22. What was the Executive Order #9981?

The Executive Order 9981 abolished racial discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces.

23. What was the military record of the Buffalo Soldiers after they had been disbanded?

The military record of the Buffalo Soldiers after they had been disbanded is the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Texas.

24. What was Plessy v. Ferguson?

Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.

25. Who was Homer Plessy?

Homer Plessy was an African American train passenger who refused to sit in a cart for Black people. His constitutional rights were violated. The Supreme Court ruled that a law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between white people and Black people was not unconstitutional.

26. What did the Supreme Court rule in May 1896 in the case?

In May 1896, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Plessy v. Ferguson and they said that his 14th Amendment rights were not violated because it only applied only to political and civil rights, not “social rights.” 

27. Who was John Marshall Harlan?

Justice John Marshall Harlan was a former slaveholder from Kentucky. He had opposed emancipation and civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction era, but the actions of the KKK changed his position.

28. What did Harlan say in his dissent?

Harlan said that segregation ran counter to the constitutional principle of equality under the law: “The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race while they are on a public highway is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution. It cannot be justified upon any legal grounds.”

29. What was the significance of Plessy v. Ferguson?

The significance of Plessy v. Ferguson is that it enshrined the doctrine of “separate but equal” as a constitutional justification for segregation, ensuring the survival of the Jim Crow South for the next half-century.

Jim Crow Era (Google Form)

____

1. What was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a law passed by the Congress, the first significant law restricting people from China to immigrate  into the United States.

2. Give three reasons why people left china.

   1. Floods and drought contributed to an exodus of peasants from their farms. 

   2. People left to find work.

   3. Gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley of California in 1848 so Chinese people came to the US to join the Gold Rush.

3. What did the Supreme Court rule in, People v. Hall?

The Supreme Court case, People v. Hall ruled that Chinese people were not allowed to testify in court, making it effectively impossible for Chinese immigrants to seek justice against the mounting violence.

4. What was the Geary Act of 1892?

The Geary Act of 1892 reinforced and extended the Chinese Exclusion Act’s ban on Chinese immigration for an additional ten years and required Chinese residents in the US to carry a special certificate of residence from the Internal Revenue Service. If an immigrant did not have the certificate, they were sentenced to hard labor and deportation.

5. Who was considered “undesirable” by the Immigration Act of 1924?

The Immigration Act of 1924 considered Middle Easterners, Hindu, East Indians, and the Japanese "undesirable" groups.

6. What was the Lost Cause?

The Lost Cause was an intellectual movement that revised history to look more favorably on the South after the American Civil War. It was The War of Northern Aggression and it is what southerners call the Civil War.

7. What are the three components of the Lost Cause?

   1. The Confederate fight was heroic.

   2. Enslaved people were happy.

   3. Slavery was not the root cause of the war.

8. Who were the United Daughters of the Confederacy?

The United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded in 1894 in Nashville, but descended from elite antebellum families. They preserved Confederate culture for generations and they used their social and political clout to spread the pro-Southern version of the war as "real history."

9. What were the accomplishments of the UDC?

The UDC covered the Southern landscape with memorials for Confederate leaders and soldiers. They used their fundraising and lobbying skills to pressure local governments into building monuments in public spaces such as courthouses and state capitals. By the early 20th century, the UDC had 100,000 members in chapters, mostly in former Confederate States.

10. Explain how the UDC influenced the thinking of children.

Most of the Confederate monuments were erected during the UDC's height of influence. They wanted the monuments to be built before all of that generation dies off so they can teach future generations about those men. The UDC were able to lobby for a Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

11. For what things could a textbook be rejected?

A textbook could be rejected if it did not "accord full justice to the South." They also urged libraries to deface every book that didn't measure up by writing the words "Unjust to the South" clearly on its cover. The language of the textbook had to align precisely with the language of the Lost Cause or it could be rejected.

12. What was required of the Children of the Confederacy?

Kids born in former Confederate states had to actively participate in their version of history. Kids had to recite call-and-response "truths" from the Confederate Catechism.

The Wilmington Riot

____

• Wilmington, NC

• Republican Party & Populist Party

  • Shared power

  • Black and White politicians

  • Democrats were angry.

• A newspaper angered the Whites because it states Black men were involved with White women.

• Whites attacked Blacks as a result. 

• Populists and Republicans were forced out.

  • Blacks left Wilmington in large numbers. 

  • Black property was sold cheaply.

• Gerrymandering - to manipulate the boundaries of an electoral constituency so as to favor one party or class

Lynching

____

• *Murder by a mob without due process

• *Mostly Black men were lynched.

  • Hanged, shot, mutilated, burned

  • Allegedly for rape of white women

Racial Etiquette

____

• Rules of racial behavior in Jim Crow America

• To violate this racial etiquette placed one’s very life, and the lives of one’s family, at risk.

• Whites much preferred to give blacks honorary titles, such as Doctor, Professor, or Reverend, in order to avoid calling them Mister.

Ida B. Wells

____

• *Ida B. Wells was a school teacher who was removed from first-class rail car, sued, won the case, but it was overturned in an appeals court. 

• *A friend of hers and two other men were lynched for owning a successful grocery store.

  • Ida B. Wells became a crusader against lynching.

  • She wrote articles exposing the practice.

Justice in Early Jim Crow

____

• Peonage - debt servitude

  • *Employers could force an employee to work off debt through work.

• Laws

  • *Regulated behavior of Blacks

  • *Regulated Black vagrants

    • People with no home

• *No Black jurors

  • Police and judges were white

• *Whites were rarely convicted for harming Blacks.

  • Blacks were rarely convicted of crimes against other Blacks.

• Blacks could receive longer sentences or pay higher fines than white citizens for similar offenses. 

• Convict Leasing - the renting of prisoners to businesses in order to raise revenue for the state

  • *Convicts could be beaten and underfed. Disease was prevalent. 

Social Darwinism

____

• *Applies the theories of Charles Darwin to human societies.

  • The wealthy are more “fit.”

• *”The White Man’s Burden”

  • The westernized nations believed that their values would benefit “less developed” nations.

  • A concept created by Rudyard Kipling.

  • He also wrote The Jungle Book.

Social Darwinist Hierarchy

____

• Superior - those of Anglo-Saxon ancestry

• Middle - Eastern and Southern Europeans

  • *Viewed with suspicions

• Inferior - Blacks

  • *Only fit for menial labor

• Red Scare (1919-1920)

  • After the Russian Revolution and the Creation of the USSR, Americans became fearful of a communist takeover.

  • *Eastern and Southern European immigrants were thought to be communists.

• *Palmer raids targeted “aliens” who were thought to be communists.

  • Thousands were arrested and over 200 were deported.

• *Labor unions were thought to be communist fronts.

• Xenophobia - fear of foreigners

• Anarchists - people opposed to organized government

Scientific Racism

____

• Pseudoscience - false science

  • No basis is the scientific method

• The Great Migration was the mass movement of Blacks from the south to the north.

  • *Push Factors - destruction of the cotton crop by the boll weevil.

  • *Pull Factors - availability of jobs in the North because of World War I

• This movement angered whites in the north and south.

• White Americans believed that immigrants from eastern and southern Europe would weaken (dilute) the gene pool of Americans with northern and western European ancestry.

  • *Quotas were issued for immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and southern/eastern Europeans.

  • *Asian immigration was banned.

The Birth of a Nation

____

• *A film produced by D.W. Griffith.

• *It showed the Reconstruction governments as corrupt.

• *It showed the KKK as being heroic.

The Ku Klux Klan

____

• *The Birth of a Nation caused the KKK to reform at Stone Mountain, GA.

• The rejuvenated Klan was against Blacks, Jews, and Roman Catholics.

  • There was a boys and girls group as well as a group for women.

    • Women’s Order, Junior Order, Tri K Klub

African Americans in the Early 20th Century

Education

____

• Black schools had fewer books and the Black teachers were underpaid in comparison to white teachers.

• School buildings (facilities)

  • Black = poor condition

  • White = well funded, modern

Booker T. Washington

____

• *Born a slave in the South

• *He later received an education at Hampton which was a manual training school after the Civil War.

  • He was influenced by Samuel Chapman Armstrong who thought industrial training was best for Blacks.

• *Washington believed that hard work by Blacks would end racial discrimination.

• *Washington founded Tuskegee Institute to train Blacks in various fields of labor.

Atlanta Compromise Speech (1895)

____

• *Blacks shouldn’t protest, but should work hard for economic progress which benefits everyone.

  • Blacks would then be granted full rights.

• Washington became prominent enough to dine with Teddy Roosevelet at the White House.

  • Black southerners applauded.

  • Whites were disgusted.

W.E.B. DuBois

____

• William Edward Burghardt DuBois

• *Born free in the Massachusetts

  • Faced little racism

• He was the first Black person to receive a PhD from Harvard in history.

Race Riots

____

• Racial violence between Blacks and Whites.

Atlanta 1906

____

• Causes:

  • *Resentment of Black success 

  • *Alleged attacks of white women by Black men (false)

  • *The movement of rural Blacks into Atlanta

Chicago 1919

____

• Cause:

  • *A Black youth crossed the invisible boundary line in Lake Michigan.

• Violence lasted for one week.

Red Summer of 1919

____

• The period of bloody race riots in the summer of 1919 

• *Outbreaks of racial violence in two dozen American cities.

Tulsa 1921

____

• *This riot (massacre) happened because of an alleged attack on a white, female elevator operator by a Black male.

  • She never pressed charges. 

• *The Black neighborhood was Greenwood.

  • Also known as, “The Black Wall Street”

  • Very wealthy

• *Greenwood was attacked by armed white men and incendiary bombs were dropped from airplanes. 

Rosewood 1923

____

• *This started because a white woman was allegedly raped by a Black man.

  • She was actually having an affair and was beat up by the philander.

• *Because of the violence, the town of Rosewood got burned to the ground.

Blacks in the Early 20th Century (Google Form)

____

1. Perhaps the most well known book by W.E.B DuBois is The Souls of Black Folk. Explain his concept of “double consciousness.”

It is an idea in which African Americans are required to consider views of themselves, as well as the views of others, like whites, as a part of their life.

2. What was the purpose of the Niagara Movement?

The purpose of the Niagara Movement was to call for civil and political rights for African Americans. It served as a forerunner to the NAACP and the civil rights movement.

3. In what way was DuBois connected to The Crisis Magazine?

DuBois is connected to The Crisis magazine because he served as the editor of the NAACP’s magazine.

4. Why was the NAACP founded?

The NAACP is America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization and it was founded in response to the ongoing violence against Black Americans around the country.

5. Name the founders of the NAACP.

Mary White Ovington, Henry Moskowitz, William English Walling, Oswald Garrison Villard, W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimke, Mary Church Terrel

6. Choose one of the founders and explain what their accomplishments were.

Oswald Garrison Villard was an early member of the anti-war America First Committee and a founder of the American Anti-Imperialist League.

7. How was the literacy test in Oklahoma designed to work?

The literacy test in Oklahoma was designed to allow people whose grandfathers had been eligible to vote in 1866 to register without passing a literacy test. It enabled illiterate whites to avoid taking the literacy test while discriminating against illiterate Black people, whose ancestors weren’t afforded the right to vote by requiring them to pass a test in order to vote.

8. What was Guinn v. United States?

Guinn v. United States struck down the “grandfather clause” in Oklahoma’s Voter Registration Act of 1910 because the clause discriminated against blacks, and, therefore, violated the 15th Amendment.

9. How is the Harlem Renaissance defined?

The Harlem Renaissance was the most influential movement in African American literary history and embraced literary, musical, theoretical, and visual arts.

10. How did the Great Migration impact the Harlem Renaissance?

The Great Migration impacted the Harlem Renaissance because of the dramatically rising levels of literacy, the creation of national organizations dedicated to pressing African American civil rights, “uplifting” the race, and opening socioeconomic opportunities, and developing race pride.

11. Explain Harlem’s history.

Harlem was a formerly white residential district that by the early 1920s was becoming virtually a Black city within the borough of Manhattan. It was a catalyst for artistic experimentation and a highly popular nightlife destination. Its location in the communications capital of North America helped give the “New Negroes” visibility and opportunities for publication not evident elsewhere. It was a particularly fertile place for cultural experimentation.  

12. How did the art style of primitivism affect the Harlem Renaissance?

The art style of primitivism affected the Harlem Renaissance because it extolled “primitive” peoples as enjoying a more direct relationship to the natural world and to elemental human desires than “over civilized” whites.

13. Define the term, cultural pluralism.

Cultural pluralism inspired notions of the United States as a new kind of nation in which diverse cultures should develop side by side in harmony rather than be “melted” together or ranked on a scale of evolving “civilization.”

14. Give two examples that James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. DuBois state that Blacks have made on America.

1. DuBois and James Weldon Johnson asserted that the only uniquely “American” expressive traditions in the United States had been developed by African Americans.

2. DuBois and Johnson argued that Blacks had been forced to remake themselves in the New World, while whites continued to look to Europe or sacrificed artistic values to commercial ones. African Americans’ centuries-long struggle for freedom had made them the prophets of democracy and the artistic vanguard of American culture.

15. What musical styles were created by Blacks during this time?

The musical styles created by Blacks during this time were blues and jazz.

16. What was the impact of this music?

Black music provided the pulse of the Harlem Renaissance and of the Jazz Age more generally.

17. What hope did Black leaders of the 1920s have for Black art?

Black leaders of the 1920s hoped that achievement in the arts would help revolutionize race relations while enhancing Blacks’ understanding of themselves as people. 

18. Define the term, The New Negro.

The New Negro was a movement toward the idea of racial uplift for African Americans to be considered more refined, educated, sophisticated, and involved in the political process.

19. Where was Marcus Garvey born?

Marcus Garvey was born in Saint Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.

20. Where did he receive an education?

Marcus Garvey attended Birkbeck College (University of London).

21. Define the purpose of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

The Universial Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa.

22. What was the Negro World?

The Negro World was a weekly newspaper with worldwide circulation that was created by Marcus Garvey as the official organ of the UNIA and the African Communities League. The paper was produced in New York beginning in August 1918. The Negro World preached Garvey’s philosophy of black consciousness, self-help, and economic independence.

23. What was the purpose of the Black Star Line?

The purpose of the Black Star Line was to bring economic power to blacks around the world and transport many of them back to a proud and independent African nation.

24. Who was J. Edgar Hoover?

J. Edgar Hoover was an United States government official who served as director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972. He built the agency into a highly effective and controversial arm of federal law enforcement. 

25. What was Garvey charged with?

Garvey was charged with mail fraud in connection with a ship on the Black Star Line, Orion. 

26. Why did Garvey meet with the KKK at one point?

Garvey met with the KKK because they shared similar views on segregation, given that he sought a separate state for Black Americans.

27. What did DuBois and the NAACP think of Garvey?

DuBois called Garvey the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race — either “a lunatic or a traitor.” He said Garvey “suffered from serious defects of temperament and training” and described him as “a little, fat, black man, ugly… with a big head.”

28. What did his supporters say about him?

Garvey’s supporters focused on his key message, which was steeped in Black pride. When Garvey was in prison, his supporters said that his conviction was “motivated by a desire on the part of the federal government to discredit, disrupt and destroy Garvey’s civil rights movement.”

A Nation of Immigrants (Google Form)

____

1. Define, swarthy and tawny.

   1. Swarthy - dark-skinned

   2. Tawny - a mix of yellow, orange, and brown colors

2. Summarize the following entries

   1. Fear of foreigners: In 1798, President John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts which gave more power to deport or imprison foreigners. They also were able to make it harder for immigrants to vote. Federalists believed that foreigners were a threat to American security.

   2. Mass immigration: Between 1870 and 1930, more than 25 million immigrants left their homeland to come to America for better economic opportunities. People left due to famine, crop failure, rising taxes, and land and job shortages. The majority of the immigrants in the 1870s and 1880s came from Ireland, Germany, and England, with immigrants from other countries coming around the turn of the century.

   3. Border Patrol and quotas: In 1924, following World War I, nationalism and suspicion of foreigners increased. Congress then established the Border Patrol and carried out a new quota system that limited immigration of Northern and Western Europeans and reduced immigration of Eastern Europeans.

The Scottsboro Boys and The Tuskegee Study (Google Form)

____

1. Were the participants in the Tuskegee Study in control of their own health?

The participants weren’t in control of their own health because their recruitment plan centered on a lie which was that participants would receive free drugs and care for their condition.

2. Define the term, medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional or researcher does not provide appropriate treatment, take appropriate action, or gives substandard treatment that causes harm, injury, or death to a person.

3. Define, “bad blood” as the term was used in the South.

The term “bad blood” was used to describe ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue.

4. Who was Dr. Raymond Vonderlehr?

Dr. Raymond Vonderlehr was the director of the CDC from 1947 to 1951, and the on-site director of the Tuskegee Experiment. He helped conduct physical exams, supported giving men partial treatment to recruit more people to participate, and came up with policies which gained “consent” of the participants for spinal taps.

5. Who was Nurse Eunice Rivers?

Nurse Eunice Rivers was a public health nurse with the Macon County Health Department in Alabama and a worker in the TSUS. After the scandal closed, she was the target of adverse attention and was portrayed as the only woman involved in the study. No other women were identified as culpable.

6. Who was Dr. Eugene Dibble?

Dr. Eugene Dibble was a physician at A. Andrew Memorial Hospital in Tuskegee.

7. What advances had been made in the study of syphilis? 

Penicillin cured the syphilis in its early stages and helped manage it in its late stages.

8. What is Treponema pallidum?

Treponema pallidum is the bacteria that causes syphilis.

9. What was the role of Peter Buxton in the Tuskegee Study?

Peter Buxton was an STI contract tracer who convinced the PHS to consider ending the study. However, leadership decided against it so he sent his concerns to the press.

10. What other acts of medical practice were mentioned in the video?

Researchers also performed painful and invasive spinal taps to investigate the disease’s neurological consequences. These men were also given placebos. After these men died, the PHS would swoop in to study the body by funding funerals in exchange for autopsies. They listed men as volunteers to obscure the circumstances under which they’d been recruited.

11. What impact did the Tuskegee Study have on the families of the participants?

Only 74 men remained alive after the Study ended, so 40 of their wives and 19 of their children had contracted syphilis.

12. What were the years the narrative of the Scottsboro Boys takes place?

March 25, 1931

13. What were the charges against the Scottsboro Boys in their first trials in 1931?

The Scottsboro Boys were charged against raping Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, who were two white women.

14. Explain if the Scottsboro Boys were treated unfairly.

The Scottsboro Boys were treated unfairly because the only evidence considered was the testimony of Price and Bates, although when they were examined they didn’t find any signs of rape. A large mob was outside the jail that thought these boys were guilty and demanded the boys to be lynched and the trials were completed in 4 days.

15. What is stated in the Sixth Amendment. 

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who your accusers are and the nature of the charges and evidence against you.  

16. What was decided in Powell v. Alabama? (1932)

State courts are required under the Sixth Amendment to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants unable to afford their own attorneys.

17. Would anyone convicted of rape in the United States today be sentenced to death for that crime?

No, they won’t be sentenced to death because the death penalty is “grossly disproportionate” and an “excessive punishment” for rape.

18. What was decided in Norris v. Alabama? (1935)

The Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s exclusion of African Americans from juries violated their right to equal protection under the law.

19. How much prison time was served collectively by the Scottsboro Boys?

130 years

20. Who was George Wallace?

George Wallace was the governor of Alabama in the 60s, 70s, and 80s and a segregationist.

Alternative Parties (Google Form)

____

1. Discuss how Orthodox Marxists tied racism to capitalism.

Orthodox Marxists tied capitalism to racism by saying that racism was directly linked to capitalistic exploitation, and once that died out, so would racism. Therefore, Marxists said that blacks should disregard and ignore racial issues.

2. What did Marxists say was necessary for fighting racism?

Marxists said that supporting socialism was necessary to fight racism.

3. According to the article, why was an attack on the 1930s Communist party misplaced?

The attack on the 1930s Communist Party was misplaced because the party worked against and fought racism, uniting black and white workers over topics of black oppression.

4. Why did Karl Marx support the Civil War?

Karl Marx supported the Civil War because he believed that as long as slavery was a part of the US, workers could not effectively protest and advocate for their rights.

5. Why did Karl Marx support the Irish independence movement?

Karl Marx supported the Irish independence movement because British domination of Ireland helped hold back the struggle of English workers.

6. What did Lenin teach Karl Marx?

Lenin taught Karl Marx about imperialism and resistance against national oppression.

7. When was the Communist International formed?

The Communist International was formed in 1919.

8. Why was the Communist Party’s policy split from the Socialist party policy?

The Communist Party’s policy was split from the Socialist Party policy because they saw racism differently. Socialists viewed it as an extension of class oppression and communist party viewed it as a political and economic problem.

9. What was the African Blood Brotherhood?

The African Blood Brotherhood was a secret nationalist society that called for a separate state for blacks in the US. They advocated for complete social, economic, and political liberation and unity between blacks and whites. They were inspired by the Russian Revolution and tended to favor socialist policies.

10. How did Stalinism impact the Communist Party?

Stalinism stopped the communist party from being a revolutionary workers’ party, as the democracy got replaced with Stalin’s bureaucratic rule.

11. What did the Comintern say about Blacks in 1928?

The Comintern said that blacks in the US constituted a nation and called for self-determination in the Black Belt, which was a swath of land in the south where a lot of rural blacks lived. 

12. Why was calling for a separate state problematic?

There was simply no basis or aspirations for blacks to start their own state.

13. What economic problems did Blacks face in the 1930s?

In the 1930s, Blacks faced economic problems such as very high unemployment, low wages, and no relief for the people who were struggling. 

14. Give two examples of how the Communist Party led struggles against racism in the 1930s.

1. They organized interracial meetings and dances, demonstrations, and social gatherings both in the North & South.

2. They petitioned against segregation in baseball.

15. Was the Communist Party integrated?

Yes 

16. How many people, Black and white, marched on International Unemployment Day?

Between 500,000 to a million

17. How was the Communist Party received in Harlem?

In Harlem, the Communist Party was received well as it gained the reputation of an organization willing to fight for the rights of black and white workers.

18. Who was Sufi Abdul Hamid?

Sufi Abdul Hamid was a nationalist who called himself the “Black Hitler” and demanded that Jews be driven out of Harlem. He organized a boycott of Woolworth and other stores in 1934 on an anti-white basis, collecting money from his supporters to give them jobs in the stores they picketed in return.

19. What impact did the Communist party make in Alabama?

The Communist Party helped defend the Scottsboro Boys and other cases where black people were being denied their rights by the legal system. They also organized white and black workers to fight for relief and union rights. They were feared and hated because they called for black and white unity.

20. What was problematic about the Communist supporting the Democratic party?

The Communists supporting the Democratic party was problematic because they had a fear of alienating southern Democrats if they decided to challenge segregation. In addition, they weren’t against lynching since Roosevelt wasn’t.

The Civil Rights Movement

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

____

• Linda Brown was the named plaintiff. 

  • She had to walk through a switchyard to get to the all-Black school.

  • An all-white school was closer.

• The case was handled by the NAACP-LDEF (Legal Defense and Education Fund).

• Attorneys for Linda Brown (more than 2): 

  • Thurgood Marshall - lead attorney

  • Constance Baker Motley - co-counsel

• There was a dream team of professional support. (more than 2)

  • John Hope Franklin - historian

  • Dr. Kenneth Clark - psychologist (effects on racism on children); The Doll Test

• Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

  • The Court ruled in favor of Linda Brown.

  • “Separate but equal” doctrine became unconstitutional. 

Brown II (1955)

____

• Brown II was issued by the Court one year later.

  • *The Court ruled that desegregation should begin “with all deliberate speed.”

  • This ruling would be open to interpretation by all states.

Resistance to Brown

____

• *White Citizens Councils were formed to “maintain Southern freedoms.”

• *The Southern Manifesto

  • An agreement by southern Congress people to fight against desegregation.

• *The NAACP was forced to close in some parts of the South.

  • “Linked to communism”

Emmett Till

____

• Mamie Till - mother

• Mose Wright - uncle

• Carolyn Bryant - allegedly whistled at Emmett

• Roy Bryant - husband of Carolyn

  • Lynched Emmett Till

• J.W. Milam - half brother of Roy

  • Lynched Emmett Till

• Bryant and Milam sold their story to Look magazine.

• *They could not be arrested again for the crime. 

• Emmett Till’s lynching is more probable beginning of the Civil Rights movement.  

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

____

• Montgomery, AL had a history of Civil Rights activism.

• l,The Women’s Political Court (WPC) was a prominent group of Black female activists in Montgomery.

Claudette Colvin

____

• 15 year old girl who refused to give up her best seat in March 1955.

• *She was arrested, but did not get support from the NAACP.

  • Her pregnancy and being unmarried were the main reasons.

Rosa Parks

____

• December 1955 — Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person. 

• In reality, she had been trained for such a situation.

  • Field secretary for NAACP

• Response to Rosa Parks:

  • Calls for a 1-day boycott

  • Initiated by:

    • *Joanne Robinson - WPC member, college professor

    • *E.D. Nixon - Pullman Porter (train waiter) member, NAACP member

  • The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed to coordinate the boycott.

  • The boycott had been voted to extend indefinitely.

  • A leader of the group had been voted in Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    • New to Montgomery

    • No “enemies” in the white community

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

____

• Originally Michael King

  • His father changed their names to Martin Luther King.

• King used his abilities to make the boycott succeed. 

  • Bayard Rustin trained King in Gandhi's concept of nonviolent protest.

• Stanley Levinson was an attorney with a history of social justice activism.

  • He and Bayard Rustin had a history of involvement with Communist or activist groups.

• November 1956 — The Supreme Court overturned Montgomery’s segregated bus policy.

  • Montgomery would also hire Black bus drivers.

• Blacks began to ride the buses again on December 21, 1956.

• Dr. King became a rational figure.

SCLC

____

• Southern Christian Leadership Council (Conference)

• *The SCLC was created after the bus boycott.

  • Dr. King was the first leader of it.

• Duties of the SCLC:

  • *Secure voting rights

  • *Train college activists

  • *Coordinate with other civil rights groups

The Little Rock 9

____

• In Arkansas. Gov. Orville Faubus attempted to ignore the Brown ruling.

  • *The National Guard blockaded the school.

• Only 9 black students had attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School.

  • The 101^st Airborne was sent to Little Rock to protect the movement of the students.

Sit-ins

____

• A desegregation strategy that was used by 4 college students at a lunch counter in a Woolworth’s store.

  • They were not served.

  • The protest attracted more students to sit in.

JFK and the Civil Rights Movement

____

• Election of 1960

  • John F. Kennedy (D)

  • Richard Nixon (R)

• *Kennedy was hesitant to support the movement.

  • Fear of losing southern votes

• *King had been arrested in GA and Kennedy was persuaded to call Coretta Scott King.

  • Blacks supported Kennedy as a result.

SNCC

____

• Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

• *Founded by Ella Baker 

  • She was tired of male leadership in the SCLC.

  • She met with students at Shaw University.

  • Acknowledged possible confrontations, but they were non-violent.

The Albany Movement

____

• *Formed in the summer of 1961 in Albany, GA.

• SNCC attempted a voter registration drive.

• Arrested for attempting to desegregate a bus terminal.

  • Sheriff Laurie Pritchett charged them with violating city ordinance so that there would be no federal intervention.

• *The Albany Movement called King and the SCLC and strategized to fill the jails with protestors.

  • Pritchett sent protestors to jails in surrounding areas and trained his officers in nonviolent arrests.

  • There was no confrontation or federal action.

• *King was arrested and chose 45 days in jail instead of admitting guilt.

  • Pritchett released King after protests started.

• *Pritchett then got a federal injunction against King to prevent him from demonstration. 

• *The Albany Movement failed and the SCLC began to have difficulties.

Medgar Evers

____

• *Field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi

  • Investigated the murders of innocent Blacks

  • Sought fair employment for Blacks in Jackson

  • Spoke about employment issues on television which led to demonstrations

• *Gunned down in his driveway by Byron de la Beckwith.

  • Two trials in 1964, but there was a hung jury (no decision) both times.

  • Bragged for 30 years for killing Evers.

• *New evidence was found in 1990 and Beckwith was sentenced to life in prison in 1994.

John F. Kennedy

____

• *On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot as his limo was driven past the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, TX.

• *Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1pm.

• *Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for Kennedy’s assassination.

• *On November 24, Oswald was murdered on live TV by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner. 

  • Indicted November 26

• *Ruby was sentenced to death, but won an appeal to overturn.

  • Died from cancer complications in 1967.

The Civil Rights Act of 1969

____

• The Civil Rights Act was presented to Congress during the Kennedy administration.

  • *It banned segregation in public spaces.

  • *Banned discrimination in employment because of race.

  • *The EEOC was created to monitor discrimination in employment.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

____

• The largest gathering for Civil Rights of its time.

  • An estimated 250,000 people attended the march on August 28, 1963, arriving in Washington D.C. by planes, trains, cars, and buses from all over the country.

• This event focused on employment discrimination, civil rights abuses against African Americans, Latinas, and other disenfranchised groups. 

• Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.  

Mississippi Freedom Summer

____

• *Mississippi was the symbolic center for racism and violence.

• Freedom Summer was a voter registration drive that focused on that state.

• *Council of Federated Organizations (COFO)

• *The voter drive was spearheaded by Bob Moses.

• COFO invited white students from prestigious universities to help.

  • *Media attention

  • *Federal protection

• Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney

  • Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were the white college students.

  • All 3 disappeared after investigating a church bombing. 

  • Arrested for “speeding” then killed by the KKK.

• *Klan informers provided information about the location of the bodies because of the reward money.

• Freedom Summer gained national attention because of the murders of Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman.

• Freedom Summer statistics:

  • 80 people beaten

  • 6 murdered

  • 35 workers shot

  • Over 1,000 arrests

  • 30 homes bombed

  • 37 churches bombed

• SNCC began to reject the use of non-violence, the involvement of white activists.

• Freedom schools were developed during the summer and Blacks began to become more politically involved in Mississippi. 

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

____

• *Created by COFO/Bob Moses to challenge the seating of delegates at the Democratic Party national convention.

  • Over 60 MFDP delegates were chosen.

  • A compromise was reached where two delegates were seated “at-large.”

• The compromise was rejected.

  • SNCC became more radicalized.

Lowndes County Freedom Organization

____

• *Lyndon Johnson was reelected in 1964.

  • Defeated Republican senator Barry Goldwater

• *George Wallace was receiving support from northerners and decided to run for president in the 1968 race.

• *Whites across the US were becoming more reluctant to support the civil rights movement.

• *Blacks wanted new approaches to their problems.

• *The problems faced by COFO in Mississippi radicalized a younger generation of activists.

• *Floyd McKissick (CORE) and Stokely Carmichael (SNCC) rejected King’s moderation, nonviolence, and universalism.

• *Carmichael’s SNCC grew with each confrontation.