African American - Government Action

Front 1

Emancipation Proclamation

Back 1

1863

Slaves were free from their masters.

Front 2

13th Amendment

Back 2

1865

Congress

Slaves were formally freed

Front 3

Reconstruction

Back 3

(1865 - 1877)

North trying to impose their wishes on the south.

Front 4

14th amendment

Back 4

1867

Congress

African Americans were equal citizens with equal rights

Front 5

15th amendment

Back 5

1870

Congress

Vote won't be denied because of race.
700,000 black people were granted the vote.

Front 6

President Andrew Johnson

Back 6

(1865-1869)

- South should control their own reconstruction.

- Fails to veto amendments due to 2/3 minority of congress in favour of them.

Front 7

Early political rights

Back 7

-700,000 black people were granted the vote.

- 22 African Americans were elected into congress

Front 8

Freedman's Bureau

Back 8

1865

Congress

- A platform to train black professionals and ggive security

- Limited, only a minority benefited.

- 1890 - 65% of black and only 15% of white children were unable to write.

- 1872 - Shows the North were losing interest in the South.

- African Americans still relied on land ~Sharecropping~

Front 9

The Slaughterhouse case

Back 9

1873

Supreme Court

- rules that rights of citizens should stay under state control.

- Backed up the 14th Amendment

~ Confirmed later by US V Cruikshank 1876 ~

Front 10

President Ulysses S Grant

Back 10

(1873-1877)

- 'Do-nothing' President

- Had a southern view ~ Johnson ~ Southern states should create their own laws

- Civil Rights act 1875 - was not enforced.

Front 11

US V Cruikshank

Back 11

1876

Supreme Court

Federal government can only take action against states not individuals.

Front 12

President Hayes

Back 12

The Great Compromise (1877)

- Democrats made a deal that Hayes could be President if the North removed their troops from the south. Ending reconstruction.

Front 13

Southern State Government

Back 13

Added additional voting requirements

- Literacy tests

- Property owning

- Poll tax

- Grandfather clauses

~ Guinn V US ~ ~ Griggs V Duke Power Company ~

Front 14

Jim Crow Laws

Back 14

Segregation laws.

8 states introduced formal segregation laws of races on trains and waiting rooms.

1894 - expanded to cover all kinds of public places.

Front 15

Plessy V Ferguson

Back 15

Supreme Court

1896

Ruled that separation didn't imply inferior treatment. In support of the Jim Crow laws.

Front 16

Guinn V US

Back 16

Supreme Court

1915

The grandfather clauses in Maryland were outlawed.

Front 17

President Wilson

Back 17

Southern Democrat, had racist attitudes.
Fired black workers

Shows 'birth of a nation' at the white house

Front 18

President Harding

Back 18

'Do nothing' president.

South believed they had a superior understanding on the problem of race relations

Front 19

President Coolidge

Back 19

Republican

'Do nothing'

Had a passive stance

Front 20

President Hoover

Back 20

Republican

Received large scale support from African Americans in elections - but didn't help Civil Rights.

Front 21

Roosevelt (1933)

Back 21

Needed southern Democrat support to pass the New Deal.

Black praised his attempts to encourage fair wages and reduce working hours.

Front 22

Moore V Dempsey

Back 22

1923

failed to uphold the death sentences of 12 blacks. Shows a change in attitude against lynching.

Front 23

Trudeau V Barnes

Back 23

1933

Highlights the slowness of legal appeals

~ King 'waiting is no longer an option' ~

Front 24

Gaines V Canada

Back 24

1938

After a black qualified man was denied a job the supreme court ruled separate but equal treatment.

Front 25

President Truman

Back 25

- Positive, but limited by his party

- 1946 Established the President's Committee on Civil Rights to investigate the status on Civil Rights.

- Addressed NAACP at the Lincoln memorial 1947

- 1948 Desegregated the US military

- 1948 Democratic national convention

- Key for creating the climate for future changes.

Front 26

Democratic National Convention

Back 26

1948

- Truman and liberal democrats wanted to end segregation, lynching and discrimination in employment

- South were against this, walked out.

- Southern Democrats formed the Dixiecrat party who wanted to split the vote and see the Civil rights movement abandoned - failed

- Black votes for Truman and won over the republican candidate.

Front 27

Brown V Board of Education

Back 27

1954

- Ruled that a black girl should be able to attend her nearest school.

- 14th Amendment interpreted allowed all children to state schools on equal terms.

- Segregated education was against the constitution

- limited by not setting a deadline for this to be done.

As a result...
- White citizen councils were made to maintain white superiority.

- pro-segregation legislation was passed by some southern states.

Front 28

Boynton V Virginia

Back 28

1960

- Outlawed segregation on all travel facilities

- Gained attention of Kennedy - who stated that the southern states were failing to maintain law and order

~ Montgomery bus boycott ~

- Eisenhower believed that this set back progress in the south.

Front 29

Emmet Till

Back 29

1955 was shot for making a comment about a white women and he body was dumped.

Murder found not guilty.

Shows lack of justice in the south.

Front 30

Little Rock School

Back 30

1957

- Governor Fabus used troops to stop the entry of black children.

- District Court ruled schools must be desegregated

- Eisenhower used Federal power troops to enforce the law and announced 10,000 Arkansas Nation guard troops would be put under federal control.

- Presidential action was needed

Front 31

Civil Rights act 1957

Back 31

- Aimed at increasing the number of registered black voters

- Set up a civil rights commission to investigate voting abuses

- Thurmond spoke for 24 hours against it

- Bill was passed but watered down by Senator Johnson.

Front 32

Civil Rights act 1960

Back 32

- The commission was renewed and introducing federal penalties for mob violence and bombing,

- Limited impact and was not an anti-lynching law and was hard to enforce.

Front 33

President Kennedy

Back 33

Sympathetic

Worried about losing Southern Support

Kennedy's brother (Robert) enforced legal orders confirming the desegregation of all inter-state travel.

Assassinated in 1963

Front 34

President Johnson

Back 34

- 1964 Civil Rights act in memory of Kennedy

- Used his Southern background to achieve a pro civil rights coalition of republicans and Democrats - a huge defeat for Southern Democrats

- Destroys Jim Crow laws

- Broken by the Vietnam war

Front 35

Selma

Back 35

Despite the progress in 1950's and 1960's, registration rates were still low (1%)

Jim Clark ~ Bull Connor ~ Cameras recorded violence and increased sympathy

Marched to Montgomery ~ Bus Boycott ~

Front 36

Voting Rights Bill

Back 36

1965
- Shows the movement was at the peek of it's power.

- Gives African Americans more recognition

- Politicians have to appeal to black voters -

- Increased black votes in Mississippi by over 10% to 67.5%

- HOWEVER under 60% of eligible blacks were registered and only 50% of those registered voted.

Front 37

Fair housing act

Back 37

1968

no racial discrimination allowed in the sale or rent properties.

Front 38

President Nixon

Back 38

- Civil right should be 'paused for the time being'

- Clammed down hard any disturbances of the peace

- Distancing himself from civil rights policy

-Education ' bussing' transporting children outside their local ares to better schools

- Affirmative Action - positive discrimination

Front 39

Affirmative Action

Back 39

- Positive Discrimination

- Black workers from 1% to 12%

- Nixon did this for political gain

- Opposition from Young believing it was a dangerous policy and opposition from Reddick (SCLC) who said it went against the notion of equality.

Front 40

Swann V Charlotte Mecklenburg

Back 40

1971

Ruled bussing as constitutional

Front 41

Milliken V Bradley

Back 41

1974

Busssing could only be used if segregation was apparent.
Caused bussing to decline

Front 42

Green V Connolly

Back 42

1970

Upheld the ruling that uni would be withheld from funding if they continue to be segregated. However by 1971, 1/3 of the students still attended their traditional uni and in the south 90% of blacks attended unis of their colour.

Front 43

President Ford

Back 43

- Appointed the first black transport secretary to his administration

- Backed up ROAR in support of stopping bussing.

Front 44

President Carter

Back 44

- appointed 37 black federal judges

- lacked popular support

Front 45

California v Baake

Back 45

1978

shows that the federal system was beginning to move away from affirmative action

Front 46

President Reagan

Back 46

- felt that people should be appointed to the supreme court on the basis of qualification. Appointed William Renquist (1986) brought more conservative views towards legislation

1988 – tried to veto congresses’ Civil Rights restoration act – made discrimination illegal in businesses and services. 2/3 minority passed it.

- Reagan also opposed affirmative action

- Reagan was forced to accept change due to a liberal congress. 1982 renewing of the voting rights Act – Strom Thurmond accepted it showing a change in attitudes

Front 47

President George Bush

Back 47

- accused his democrat opponent being lenient on black crime

- vetoed a bill that made it easier to challenge job discrimination

- 6.9% if this judicial appointments were from ethnic minorities

- Extremely conservative Clarence Thomas was appointed (black) cunning move.

Front 48

Vietnam War

Back 48

1966

- Show power of Government backing, takes focus away from Civil Rights movement. Pushed the Civil rights movement from the front page.

- War went against against MLK religious belief in non-violence.

- Damaged MLK's relationship with President Kennedy.