ALEVEL HISTORY:
CIVIL RIGHTS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS REVISION GUIDE
BOOKLET.
THIS GUIDE COVERS:
African American rights statistics (social, economic and
political) that can be used in your exam answers
African American Social Rights – (and what the Federal
Government Help/Hinder) – this has all the case studies
that can be used in exam answer
African American political rights (and what the Federal
Government Help/Hinder)
African American economic rights – (and what the Federal
Government Help/Hinder)
The factors resulting in economic, social and political rights
Everything is in a handy table
1
, African American Rights Statistics
Beginning Middle End
Social
Segregatio The Jim Crow Laws By the end of 1962, 810 towns and
(developed from 1887- cities had desegregated public
n.
91) introduced formal areas.
segregation in the south
on trains, in schools and
later in all public places.
Education. By 1876 there were 3.8% of the male African American By the end of the 1960s the
70,000 African population had a high-school percentage of African Americans
Americans at school in diploma in 1940, compared to 13% with a High School diploma went
the south, compared to of white males. up 40-60%.
none in 1860. In 1949 in Clarenden County, South In 1969, 3.6% of African Americans
By 1890, 65% of African Carolina, an average of $179 was aged over 14 were illiterate,
American school-aged spent on every white child in compared to 0.7% of whites aged
children in the south school, compared to $43 on each over 14, however the figure for
were still unable to African American child. African Americans had decreased
write, compared with In 1952, the illiteracy rate for to 1.6% by 1979, although the
15% of white children. African Americans 14 years of age figure for whites had also
or older (10.2%) was more than decreased to 0.4%.
five times that of whites (1.8%). In 1990 the African American
More than a quarter of African school dropout rate was 13%,
American males (28%) completed compared to 9% for whites.
no more than four years of In 1992, 76% of African Americans
schooling, compared with less than graduated, which was 6% under
9% of white males. whites.
Higher Only 2% of African Americans were In 1992, 12% of African Americans
college graduates in 1950. had a bachelor’s degree,
Education.
compared to 22% of whites.
Transport. The 13th Amendment
(1865) gave African
Americans the right to
travel freely.
However, they generally
couldn’t do this due to
the cost, and after the
Jim Crow laws transport
was segregated.
Housing. 40,000 freed slaves in In 1940, the percentage home In 1960, half of the housing in
Georgia and South ownership amongst African Harlem pre-dated 1900 and a
Carolina briefly acquired Americans was 20.5%, compared dozen people might share one
their own land but then with 42.1% for whites. small apartment.
lost it to whites again African Americans formed ghettos By 1992, 56% of African Americans
shortly after the end of in the north during and after WW2, rented their homes, compared to
Reconstruction. e.g. Harlem in New York, Watts in 31% of whites.
By 1910, 20% of African Los Angeles, and the South Side in There were a few integrated
American farmers Chicago. middle-class housing areas by the
owned their land and 1990s, like Philadelphia’s Mount
their standard of living Airy.
was rising.
Lynching. It was estimated 184 In 1915 it was estimated that 69 14 year old Emmet Till was
African Americans were African Americans were lynched. murdered in 1955 for speaking to
lynched in 1885. a white woman.
Lynchings were rarer by 1992,
however attacks on African
Americans still occurred, such as
the beating of Rodney King by the
police in 1991.
2
