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Summary Key topic 2 The quest for civil rights, 1917-80
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Key topic 2 The quest for civil rights, 1917-80 A-Level Edexcel History In search of the American dream topic 2 summary
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Key topic 2: The quest for civil rights, 1917-80Black American civil rights 1917-55:
LIFE IN THE SOUTH: THE NORTHERN MIGRATION:
In 1917, 80% of Black Americans lived in the South. After 1910, large numbers of black Americans migrated to northern cities.(Chicago,
Southern blacks remained economically, legally, socially and politically inferior. Detroit, Cleveland etc ) This is because they found better paid jobs, could vote and
Most people were impoverished sharecroppers - The farmer would provide the were less likely to be lynched.
worker (mostly former slaves) with tools, land, shelter to work. They were provided First migration began after WW1 to fill increasing employment opportunities in
on credit but had to produce a certain amount of crop. If this was not reached, the urban areas causing migration.
workers owed more money with high interest, this cycle was almost impossible to Those who migrated were said to be ‘voting with their feet’.
escape.
All aspects of southern life were segregated, and did not follow the Plessy vs By 1920, 40% of Black Americans lived in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati
Ferguson ruling. and Columbus Ohio.
Southern whites used a variety of means to keep blacks from voting, black
americans had to pay expensive poll tax and pass literacy rates
Between 1915-30, there were lynchings of 65 white men and 579 black men.
Emmet Till was killed = attracted mass amounts of publicity and caused shock.
KKK was a white supremacist organisation which was against any non-WASP
group.
1925 membership ranged from 3-8 million.
KEY INDIVIDUALS: CHURCH GROUPS
Booker T Washington - gave a speech that came to be known as the Atlanta Church organisations were developments in the North that helped to develop the
Compromise. civil rights movement.
Atlanta Compromise - progress through education and entrepreneurship rather Father Divine - 1932-42 set up shops in Harlem that provided goods at a lower
than to directly challenge the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of price to black Americans
black voters in the South.
Housewives League - ‘don’t buy where you can’t work’
LEGAL CHALLENGE TO DIRECT ACTION DIRECT ACTION
Black American protestors used non-violent protests, picketing, boycotting and The NAACP and other organisations took on direct action in the 1940s and 50s as
sit-ins to draw public attention to discrimination. membership grew and they saw that legal rulings were not enough.
NAACP - legal rights through non violent means was set up in 1910. March of over 10,000 black people in New York on the 28th June 1917, in
Separatist movement was formed - where black Americans embraced segregation response to both lynching and anti-black riots in the year.
and fought for equal conditions. E.g Marcus Garvey Protests happened more often and locally.
Legal challenge - NAACP began by mounting a campaign against lynching, feeling Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) held a series of sit-ins to desegregate public
many people did not understand the cale of it. Took cases of segregation to court facilities.
e.g Brown vs Board of Education. Thousands of black people took it into their hands to be the first to move into all
White Citizens council fought desegregation and legal action. white housing blocks or business districts, often putting themselves in real danger.
Some rules that were set up by civil rights organisations.
, POLITICAL: SOCIAL: ECONOMIC:
THE NORTHERN MIGRATION THE NORTHERN MIGRATION THE NORTHERN MIGRATION
● Black migrants settled in areas that coincided with voting ● Populations of these cities rose largely ● Large economic impact on the South. The
wards. ● Assumption that those black Americans who labour force shrank and the farming areas of
● Led to an increase in political influence. remained in the South were accepting Jim Crow. the South struggled to get by.
● Led to a more powerful business-orientated black elite.
● Segregation made it more likely that they could try for
positions in politics because a black American campaigning
in a black ward would gain the votes.
● However this was not the same in other areas for example
New York where the black population was more evenly
distributed.
WW1 WW1 WW1
● Post war civil rights effort demonstrated that white ● 100,000 march on Washington unless ● Black Americans did not benefit much from
Americans were still racist supporting housing segregation Roosevelt banned discrimination in the the war induced boom that began in 1939;
and jobs should go to whites not blacks. army and defence factories. white workers were given a preference.
● Increased migration to the north. ● Complaints to the Employment Practises
Committee, equality was only patchily
● implemented.
● 1942 - 3% of defence workers were black,
1944 - 8%
THE NEW DEAL THE NEW DEAL THE NEW DEAL
● Black voters shifted from voting Republican to voting ● Roosevelt’s wife spoke in favour of civil rights. ● 1 million Americans obtained jobs through
Democrat. ● Black Americans believed that Roosevelt had the New Deal.
● Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 which banned racial their interests at heart ● Roosevelt made a significant number of
discrimination in the defence industry. ● The National Recovery Administration set both appointments promoting blac Americans to
● Black officials protested and advised, sometimes they got black and white wages to be equal. senior positions in the federal bureaucracy.
results, as when they persuaded the National Recovery ● ⅓ of the low income housing built had black
Administration, which regulated wages and working tenants.
conditions.
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