Summary
Summary Civil Rights and Race Relations in America - Geography Notes
- Institution
- PEARSON (PEARSON)
Civil Rights and Race Relations in America - Geography Notes and Overview - migration, patterns of change etc
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Factors for Geography Question 1850-2009Improvement Setback
Congress and - Reconstruction and Redemption 1863-77 - Reconstruction and Redemption 1863-77
Legislation - December 1865 – 13th Amendment ratified (abolished slavery and freed 4 million) - 1866 Southern Homestead Act set aside 44 million acres
- 1865 – Freedmen's Bureau established in 5 Southern states to redistribute to former slaves but
- 2 March 1867 –3 Acts passed including: failed as the law was repealed.
o Military Reconstruction Act passed over Johnson’s presidential veto (Start of Congressional - Loopholes in the 1870 15th Amendment (e.g., non-racial
Reconstruction). reasons used to deny the vote).
Invalidated State governments approved by Johnson May 1865-March 1867 - 1872 – Congress shut down Freedmen’s Bureau
Divided former confederate states into 5 military districts. - 1873 – President Grant pardoned 1,888 Klansmen not yet
New state governments had to meet terms to be recognised by Congress. tried under the Enforcement Acts as well as those who
o Command of the Army Act – required all Johnson’s orders to army to go through army HQ had been convicted and were still serving their sentence.
(under Rep supported Ulysses S. Grant) - 1875 CR Bill was limited as in their desperation to pass
o Tenure of Office Act – Required consent of Republican dominated Senate for the President to it Republicans left it in a weakened state – limited
remove any office-holder. protection soon stripped by courts.
- Effect of 2 March 1867 Acts – (Temporarily disenfranchised 15% of potential white voters and - Jim Crow 1883-1900
enfranchised 703,000 former slaves. - Congress had power under 14th Amendment to reduce
- July 1868 – 14th Amendment ratified Southern states' congressional representation in
- 1871 – Third Enforcement Act/KKK Act: proportion to its illegal disenfranchisement but failed to
o Gave President and federal troops the power to suspend habeas corpus and arrest KKK do this.
members - 1890 Lodge/”Force” Bill (which would have placed
o Made interference with citizens’ CR a federal crime (guaranteed a more objective hearing than responsibilities for the conduct of fair elections in the
if the case was held in Southern state courts) hands of the federal circuit courts rather than state
election boards) failed
- 15th Amendment Ratified 1870
- 1890 Blair Bill (which made federal aid to public
- New Deal 1933-41
education contingent on no discrimination between white
- Anti-Lynching Legislation
and black American schools) failed
o Before the New Deal era, anti-lynching bills failed in 1918, 1919, 1922, 1923, 1924
- “I Have a Dream” 1954-68
o 1882-1932 – 4,608 victims of lynching (70% = AA)
- Great Society Reforms slowed due to the cost of the
o 1934 and 1935 - Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching bills (killed by filibuster)
Vietnam War.
o 1937 and 1940 – Anti-lynching Gavagan Bills passed the HofR (but halted in Senate)
- Eisenhower’s 1957 and 1960 CRA were largely
1937 Gavagan Bill coincided with high profile lynching case of Roosevelt Townes and ineffective in ensuring black voting rights.
Robert McDaniels (the story was read out in HofR when the Gavagan bill was debated).
- Great Society Reforms slowed due to the cost of the
o President Roosevelt was the first since the 1870s to denounce lynching as murder (though he
Vietnam War.
never fully supported the anti-lynching bills of 1934, 1935 and 1937-8)
o Eisenhower’s 1957 and 1960 CRA were largely
- “I Have a Dream” 1954-68
ineffective in ensuring black voting rights.
- 2 July 1964 – 1964 CRA passed
- April 1968 – Fair Housing Act
o Title I barred unequal application of voter registration requirements;
o Limited by population movement in urban areas –
o Title II and III outlawed racial segregation;
due to “White Flight” housing remained separated
o Title IV enforced the desegregation of schools;
in practice.
o Title VI and VII forbade racial discrimination - (VII set up Equal Employment Opportunities
, Commission (EEOC) to ensure that CRA was implemented.) o Small maximum fine was an ineffective deterrent.
- 1964-5 – LBJ launched “Great Society” programs to eliminate poverty and racial injustice: - “I Have a Dream” 1954-68
o 1964 - Economic Opportunity Act; - SCLC’s 1957 March on Washington to support the 1957
o 1965 - Elementary and Secondary Education Act (to help children out of ghettos); CRA only drew 20,000 people.
o 1965 - Higher Education Act; - SCLC’s 1958-60 Crusade for Citizenship was limited as
Within a decade of the Higher Education Act, the number of black college students it had poor organisation and limited financial support.
quadrupled. - November 1961-August 1962 – SCLC worked in Albany
o 1965 - Social Security Act (set up Medicare and Medicaid – halved black infant mortality rates but failed to gather national attention as Police Chief
within a decade). Laurie Pritchett tried to minimise violence and therefore
- These programs disproportionately helped AA as many AA lived below the official poverty line: outrage.
o 1960 – 55% - BPP contributed to splits in the CR movement
o 1968 – 27% o 1963 – 80% of AA supported more conservative
- 1965 Voting Rights Act: NAACP (1969 – only 20%)
o Outlawed literacy tests and created federal registrars to replace state gov officials. - January-August 1966 – Chicago Freedom Movement
o Barred discrimination in registering a person to vote on the basis of race. o Failed as national press was unsympathetic towards
o Named several Southern states (with a history of discrimination in voting practices) which now black entry into white neighbourhoods.
had to seek fed approval before changing their election laws Also – King’s first time campaigning in the
o Increased voter registration North; Northerners less convinced by ideas of
- By end of 1965 – 250,000 new black voters had been added to southern states electorates. non-violent protest; Whites tired of national
o More voters registered in the South in the first 5 years after VRA passed than in the previous protests and ghetto riots; Lack of clearly
defined issue/strategy.
100.
- April 1968 – Fair Housing Act
Individual CR - Reconstruction and Redemption 1863-77
leaders/CR - 1867 Reconstruction Act stipulated that all former Confederate states (except TN) had to hold conventions to draft new constitutions.
organisations o In these 1868-9 Southern conventions – 265 (25% of total delegates) were black.
o Republicans overwhelmingly elected in ensuing state elections.
- 1869-77 – 16 black Congressmen, 2 black Senators (Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce)
- 1,000 AA elected to local posts with power (e.g., mayors, police chiefs, school commissioners).
- Jim Crow 1883-1900
- The Political Challenge of Populism represented a serious challenge to Democrat hegemony – but Southern Dems used threat of black domination to disrupt
opposition in the form of the Populist movement.
- New Deal 1933-41
- Political change
o 1941 – NAACP trade unions and the NNC sponsored National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax
- Social Change
o 1932-1941 – Number of AA in Civil Service tripled to 150,000
o Helping education:
1934 on – Charles Houston directed NAACP’s legal campaign and focused on universities.
1935-40 – Thurgood Marshall argued for equal salaries for black teachers in Maryland and Virginia.
, o 1935 – Mary McLeod Bethune made FDR’s adviser on minority affairs.
o Sustained pressure from NAACP led the HofR to pass the 1937 and 1940 Gavagan Anti-Lynching bills (but stopped in Senate)
- Economic Change
o 1925 – A. Philip Randolph set up first all-black labour union (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters)
At its peak in the 1940s, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters had 15,000 members
o Black unemployment for the young was 30% during the Depression.
o Mary McLeod Bethune had her own fund for black students and encouraged state officials to ensure that black youths signed up for programmes.
o 1934 – Robert Weaver became “Special Adviser on the Economic Status of” AA
o 1941 – A. Philip Randolph spearheaded the March on Washington Movement (press feared 100,000+ would march)
Eleanor Roosevelt told FDR to meet with CR leaders (to avoid the March on Washington) – Roosevelt met A. Philip Randolph and Walter White on 18
June 1941.
A week later FDR issued Executive Order 8802 (banned racial discrimination in government employment, defence industries, and training programs)
and established the FEPC.
- “I Have a Dream” 1954-68
- Role of Media:
o MLK ensured MBB had national media coverage, drawing the attention of the North to segregation in the South and exposing the unreasonable behaviour of
many Southern whites
o Black struggle at Little Rock made for dramatic pictures (birth of on-site television reporting) that influenced moderate white Americans.
o King was put on trial for organising an illegal boycott in March 1956 – chose to go to jail rather than pay the fine to bring national attention to his protest.
o Violence towards the Freedom Riders was televised/reported on by national press, publicising southern racism and lawlessness.
o 1/5 of Soviet radio time was devoted to the events in Birmingham in 1963 (evidence of American corruption).
o August 1963 – King’s "I have a dream" speech was televised across the world.
- December 1955-December 1956 – Montgomery Bus Boycott
- February 1960 – SNCC sit-ins at Woolworth’s
- April-December 1961 – Freedom Rides
- 1961-64 – SNCC worked on their Mississippi Freedom Voter Registration program.
- 1962 – James Meredith attempted to become the first black student at Uni of MS
- April-May 1963 – SCLC Birmingham Campaign
- August 1963 – March on Washington for “jobs and freedoms” – aimed to increase black employment and encourage passage of CR Bill.
- March 1965 – March planned from Selma to Montgomery to bring attention to AA rights and push for a new voting rights act.
- October 1966 – Black Panther Party formed (1969 – 250,000 people read the BPP newspaper).
o BPP initially aimed at reform – free breakfast programme for 1000s of black children in Oakland, California (1967)
- 1970 poll – 64% of AA took pride in Black Power.
SCOTUS - New Deal 1933-41 - Reconstruction and Redemption 1863-77
- 1915 – Guinn v. US – Grandfather Clauses overturned - 1866 – Ex Parte Milligan – Special military courts set up by FB were unconstitutional
- 1932 – Powell vs. Alabama and an overextension of states’ rights.
o SCOTUS ordered a retrial of Scottsboro boys (overturning - 1873 – Slaughterhouse Cases – 14 Amendment protected the rights of national
th
Alabama Supreme Court). citizenship but not rights received by state citizenship.
- 1935 – Norris v. Alabama - 1876 – US v. Reese – SCOTUS stated that the 15th Amendment did not give the right
o SCOTUS held that the systemic exclusion of AA from jury to anyone but just barred states from using race-based reasons to disqualify voters.
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