The quest for civil rights 1917-1980

1917- 80%

• Impoverished sharecroppers

• All aspects of life (schools, restaurants, prisons) were segregated (Jim Crow laws)

• ‘Separate but equal’- but black facilities inferior

• Black people had to pay expensive poll taxes and pass literacy tests to vote

• Fear of being lynched

Regarded economic imporvement and education as the first necessary step for blacks- until this was achieved he believed they should accept segregation

Aimed at legal and political equality- established the NAACP which promoted black equality and desegregation through the law courts

1909

1945- 450,000 members

1910- 2 million AAs migrated to northern cities

• Better paid jobs in the north

• Would be able to vote

• Unlikely to be lynched

Ghettos- hard to get out due to discrimination and limited education

Last hired, first fired- white Americans moved into jobs previously dominated by black Americans

Race riots after WW1 (1919)- 40 killed

Founded the UNIA in 1914 to make blacks proud of themselves- established in Harlem. He supported separatism

Increased recruitment after 1915- helped by Birth of a nation. By 1925- they had 5 million members

• Roosevelt was reliant on southern Democrats, so failed to support anti-lynching bills

• AAA removed black tenants from land

• Social Security Act didn’t apply to farm or domestic work

• Disproportionate number of poor kids were black so New Deal programmes helped greatly

• 1 million black Americans obtained jobs

• Promoted black Americans to senior positions in government (black cabinet)

• 1/3 of black Americans received FERA aid

• Many black servicemen were based in Britain where they experienced less prejudice

• The fight against Nazi Germany inspired more black Americans to campaign against their own lack of freedom and equality

• 1942- CORE established

• Able to take advantage of GI Bill

• American forces remained segregated

• Trade unions continued to exclude black Americans

• Many white workers resented black workers- race riots

1946 To Secure These Rights- called for an end to segregation

1948

• Worked with trade unionists, churches and white liberals to promote anti-lynching bills

• Mobilised southern blacks for the abolition of the poll tax

• Thurgood Marshall

1944- easier for black Americans to vote in the south

1954- schools should be desegregated, reversing Plessy v Ferguson, but no time limit was given

• Sit-ins at segregated Chicago restaurants

• ‘Freedom Rides’ 1961

• 1955

• Rosa Parks refused to give up her ‘white’ seat

• Boycott lasted over a year

• 75% of bus users were black- 90% stayed away from buses

SOUTHERN

Emmett Till- his murderers were acquitted, so his mother held an open casket funeral

SOUTHERN

• Increased black consciousness

• Harlem Renaissance

• 70% of northern states had desegregated within a year

• 1% of black children in integrated schools in the deep south

• 1957

• 9 black children sent to attend Central High

• Governor of Arkansas stopped this

• Eisenhower sent in federal troops

SOUTHERN

1957 (voting) and 1964 (discrimination)

1957- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), influenced by Gandhi

• 1960

• Greensboro

• Sat in at Woolworths lunch counter in North Carolina

• Copied across the South

• SNCC created shortly after

SOUTHERN

• 1963

• 250,000 people

• ‘I have a dream’ speech

• Good publicity

• Equal Employment Commission

• Desegregation of schools

• Outlawed segregation in public facilities

• Strengthened black American voting rights

Banned discrimination in housing

• 1964-68

• Riots in ghettos over poverty and de facto segregation

• 1965 LA- 34 killed and 900 injured

• Important voice in black power movement

• Nation of Islam

  • Stressed the evil nature of white people

40,000

1965 by members of the NOI

• Leader of SNCC

• Popularised slogans such as ‘Black Power’ and ‘Black is beautiful’

• Didn’t think that non-violence was working

• Founded by ex-criminals in 1966

• Sought confrontation with the police

• Only had around 5,000 members

• Emphasised self-help

• Established clinics to advise on health, welfare and legal rights

Demanded a fairer distribution of wealth

• Didn’t want to pay more taxes

• Didn’t want to live next door to black Americans

1968

• 125 ghettos erupted in rage

• 70,000 troops were needed to end the riots

• $70 million of property damage

• 20,000 arrested

• Segregation and most forms of discrimination came to an end

• Most white supremacists were removed from office

• Increase in their political power

• Affirmative action programmes

• Bussing introduced

• 1980- 1/3 of black Americans categorised as middle class

• US presidents (like Johnson) helped a lot

• Supreme Court verdicts were crucial

• Media coverage

• NAACP, CORE, SNCC, SCLC

• Individuals

• Lost white sympathy following the Northern riots

• Whites disliked affirmative action programmes and bussing

• Nixon cut back on Johnson’s Poverty programmes