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IB History SL - The US Civil Rights Movement
- Module
- History SL
- Institution
- Weymouth College
A complete set of notes for IBDP students about the US Civil Rights Movment subtopic of the 'Rights and Protests' option.
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Right and ProtestsCivil rights movement in the United States
1954 – 1965
1. Background
1.a. US Civil War (1864-65) and inequalities
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- in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signs the 13 amendment of the US Constitution, which officially ended slavery in
the USA
- however, new reforms of social discrimination emerged, which limited black people’s ability to vote
1.a.i. Jim Crow laws
- introduced in Southern States which made segregation the norm and ensured white supremacy
- "Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African-American
- prohibited African Americans using public facilities like restaurants, cinemas, hotels, etc.
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- disenfranchisement
o the Mississippi “Pig Law” of 1876, for example, broadened the definition of grand larceny from a theft of
anything valued at more than $25 to a value of $10
o black Americans’ right to vote would be systematically denied through the use of poll taxes, property tests,
intimidation and literacy tests
o grandfather clause – you could only vote if your grandfather was able to vote as well
- access to housing, education, and jobs were limited
- “separate but equal”
o in 1896, the US Supreme Court ruled, during the Plessy v. Ferguson case, that black and white people could be
separated as long as things were equal
o the Supreme Court stated that the inferiority of black people is not due to a fallacy of the institution, rather
because “the coloured race chooses to put that construction upon it”
- by 1920, interracial violence and hostility were still commonplace
- by the 1930s, nearly 3 million school-aged black children (81% of all) lived in 17 states
1.a.ii. Ku Klux Klan
- white supremacist political organisation that began as a club in Tennessee in 1866
- youngish, middle-class, white men, wearing white clothing and colonial hats
- intimidation, beatings, mutilation and lynching
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the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a
person exercising the right to vote
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, - by the 1870s, the KKK was much diminished, but it reappeared nationwide in the mid-1920s and a third wave became
active in the 1940-50s, targeting civil rights activists and their white sympathisers
- most Christian denominations condemned their tactics
1.b. 1920s, Wall Street Crash and President Roosevelt’s New Deal
- in the 1920s, the economic situation took priority in lawmaker’s mind
- Harlem Renaissance in New York, 1920s: brought together a community of talented writers and musicians, and gave
them an expressive platform
o still, black musicians entertained white audiences
- Great Migration of 1910-40: African Americans moving to industrial cities in the north (e.g., Detroit)
o great, because it gave them an opportunity to unionise as large numbers moved, however, resulted in white flight
1.c. The USA’s entry to WWII
- significant social impact: black Americans were equally involved in military service and were sharing the fight against
Japan and Germany ‘equally’ with white Americans
- black conscripts were segregated in the army canteen, the military hospital, on the parade ground and in church
- many black members of the forces now started to ask themselves how the US government has the hypocrisy to ask them
to fight totalitarian and racist regimes while the country upheld a racial caste system back at home
- many African Americans coming home, especially those stationed in Britain and other parts of Europe, had sampled a
taste of racial integration
- historian Mary Dudziak showed how easily communist critics could point out how hypocritical it was for the USA to
portray itself as the leader of the free world, and argues that this eventually pushed the US government into supporting
civil rights legislation
1.d. The post-war era
- overall, wartime experiences strengthened the determination of African Americans to challenge the system
- the activities of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAAP) increased: they worked
harder than ever to get black voters on the electoral register, and the newly enfranchised constituency of black voters,
likely to vote Democrat, could have a significant political impact
- Smith v. Allwright: Thurgood Marshall argued against an all-white primary election and won
- Fair Employment Practices Commission, 1941, Roosevelt: ensured employment of blacks in wartime munitions
industries and allowed them to gain skills to take with them to the post-war world
- the failed Civil Rights Bill of 1947, Truman: would have looked for equal rights, made lynching a federal crime, and
outlawed segregation on public transport
- 1948: segregation within the US military was deemed illegal
- all of the above started to conceive the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s
2. Brown v. the Board of Education, 1954
- Oliver Brown joined the lawsuit of the NAACP along with other parents when their and his daughter, Linda, was refused
to enroll in a white-only elementary school close to their house in Clarendon County, South Carolina
- because his name starts with ‘B’, his name was put first on the lawsuit,
- the case has been called “a promise unfulfilled”, “the most important court decision in the history of the US”
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- US schools in the early 20 century
o New Castle County, Delaware
▪ the state paid $137/pupil at the black school and $178/pupil at the white school, if white students lived
more than 2 miles away
▪ they got a free bus ride, but black students did not get buses
▪ the black school had a higher teacher-pupil ratios
o Prince Edward County, Virginia
▪ there were 450 black students in a school designed for 180
▪ the white school offered a wide variety of lessons and extracurricular activities, while the black school
couldn’t
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