Civil Rights - rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality
Segregation - action fo setting someone/something apart from others
White Supremacy - a person who believes the white race is inherently superior to other races
Race Relations - relations between members/communities of different races within one country
Life before the 1920s
January 1863 - Emancipation proclaimed, slaves are freed
December 1865 - 13th amendment, slavery is abolished
1866 - KKK is formed
July 1868 - 14th amendment, American citizenship granted to former slaves
May 1896 - Plessy V. Ferguson, The Supreme Court insists that segregation is legal and consitutional, Jim Crow Laws are introduced
May 1909 - First campaign group for Civil Rights, the NAACP (National Assocation for the Advancement of Coloured People) is formed
1914 - 1919 - 500,000 black southerns move North during the Great Migration
1917 - 1918 - 200,000 black Americans fight during WW1
Segregation and the Jim Crow Laws
What is segregation?
to seperate or set apart from others, isolate or to require often with force, the speration of a specific racial, religious or other group from the body of society
Why was segregation allowed?
In the Plessy V. Ferguson case of May 1896, it was decided state governments could continue to make their own laws regarding segregation in public facilities
This is aslong if the facilities were of equal quality, "seperate but equal", as a consequence, this allowed white people to have superiority over black people
What were Jim Crow Laws?
Segregation but legal
Reduced African Americans to second class citizens and ensured white supremacy over black people
Several of these laws were passed in the South between 1896 and the 1960s
What are examples of Jim Crow Laws?
Not only public facilities were segregated but:
Black teachers could not teach white pupils
White nurses weren't allowed to care for black paitents
Marriage ebtween blacks and whites was made illegal
In Birmingham, Alabama, white and black neighbourhoods were designated
Comprehensive etiquette system that ensured white supremacy:
A black man could not shake a hand of a white man
Black people addressed white people as "Mr", "Mrs", or "Miss"
White people addressed black people by their first names or "Tom", "Jane", "girl" or "boy"
Where did the name of Jim Crow Laws come from?
Comes from the 19th century nickname "Crow", frequently gave to African Americans due to their colour and supposed "scavenger behaviour"
What happened to those who didn't follow the Jim Crow Laws?
African Americans who tried to protest against the Jim Crow Laws endured:
Beatings
Bombing
Lynchings
Imprisonment
It was not until the 1950s where there was headway in changing these segregation laws
The KKK
The 1920s saw the revival of the KKK
This organisation started in the deep South at the end of the American Civil War 1861-1865
The KKK was a racist group, founded by a people who believed in white supremacy
By 1921, the KK had over 1 million members but between 1920 and 1925, 5-6 million American people joined the KKK
The KKK's main aim was to maintain white supremacy over the blacks and immigrants to "keep them in their place"
Who were they?
The KKK were White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestants or WASPs for short
They were particularly strong in the South of the USA, however there were local units, "dens", all over America
The KKK grew rapidly in the cities as a response to immigration, industrialisation and anti-Catholicism
New members joined in via a secret elaborate ceremonies where they would burn the American flag and wooden crosses
Members of the KKK used a secret code, words known as "klonversations" and had a strict rule book known as "Kloran"
Most members were
Poor white people afraid of blacks and immigrants because would work for low wages
Policemen
Judges
Teachers
Politicans
What did they do?
Klan members carried out lynchings of black people and often took the law into their own hands
Whipping, branding and castration were often used as punishments as well as stripping their victims and covering in tar and feathers
A burning cross became the symbol of their night time meetings and members were white masks and cloaks, carried the US flag and took part in elaborate ceremonies
Life in the 1920s
Some African Americans became famous
Sprinter - Jesse Owens
Baseball player - Jackie Robinson
Dancer - Josephine Baker
Singer - Louis Armstrong
There were black newspapers/magazines
However, racism still existed, African Americans were the last to be given the jobs, paid the lowest wages and first to be fired
The Harlem Renaissance
A time where whites began to accept more black cultural ideas: