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Emancipation Proclomation
Gave freedom to slaves in rebel-held territory in the south. Slaves in states loyal to the Union were not freed. It was a political and military tactic -
13th Amendment passed
Formally abolished slavery. Freed 3.5 million slaves. Meant that African Americans could now:
- Have their plantation marriages legalised
- worship freely in their own churches
- own property
- travel freely -
South Carolina's Freedmen's Convention
The appeal ran as follows
'We simply ask that we be recognised as men; that we have the right of trial by jury of our peers; that schools be established for the education of coloured children as well as white ... that no impediments be put in the way of acquiring homesteads for ourselves and our people; that in short we are dealt with as others are - in equity and justice.' -
Freedman's Bureau set up
- Set up by federal gov to short term support free slaves & provide basis for long term security.
- Supported black self-help groups provide education for black children & adults
- Head: General Oliver Howard.
- Traditional curriculum would train black lawyers, scientists and teachers and indirectly future leaders.
- But educational advances only for small minority
- By 1890 65% black children in south illiterate compared to 15% white
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Lincoln assassinated
assassinated at Ford theatre by a Southern Democrat John Wilkes Booth. -
KKK set up
- Used terror and violence against black people and their supporters
- In Memphis, there were 3 days of violence after a white and black carriage crashed into each other. The violence killed 46 people, and 5 women were raped.
- In New Orleans, in July African Americans travelling to vote were attacked. 34 killed, 100 injured
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Civil Right Act
Asserted all races (other than Native Americans) were full citizens of the US, even if they had previously been slaves. -
Military Reconstruction Act
Divided the South into Military districts to try and force the South to ensure that African Americans would get their rights. -
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Reconstruction
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Impeachment of President Johnson
Johnson kept vetoing any legislation that Congress wanted to pass that could help the African Americans. This all culminated in the impeachment of Johnsons, which failed but did end up weakening Johnson politically and meant that he saw the remaining year of his Presidency quietly, which allowed reconstruction to continue the way that Radical Republicans wanted. -
14th Amendment
- Gave all black ppl citizenship and equal protection under law
- Made right to Citizenship of all naturalised citizens clear and made clear their rights couldn’t be removed w/o ‘due process of law’
- S2 made it clear that if Southern States tried to stop black ppl voting, they would receive smaller representation in House of Representatives
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15th Amendment
Forbade the denial of vote to any man on the basis of colour, race or ‘previous conditions of servitude -
22 black people elected to congress
twenty to the House of Representatives and two (from Mississippi) to the Senate. -
Freedman's Bureau closed down
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Slaughterhouse Case
Supreme Court decided that the rights of citizens should stay under state rather than federal control. It ruled that the 14th amendment to the Constitution protected a person's individual rights but not their civil rights, that is rights granted at the discretion of the civil government, the state. In the future these latter rights would be eroded. This was the first of a number of victories for advocates of states rights that would impede the granting of civil rights to African Americans -
Blanche K. Bruce elected to Senate
Unlike Minister Hiram Revels who only managed to stay in for one year, Bruce sat for the full 6 year term from 1875-1881. Although he gained the support of a number of leading White Republicans in the State government, he never gained the support of others and failed to advance Civil Rights for black people in general. -
US v Cruishanks
Following a riot in Louisiana which left seventy African Americans and two white people dead, over a hundred white men were arrested by Federal authorities. They were freed when the Supreme Court ruled that the Enforcement Act empowered federal officers to take action only against states and not against individuals. This showed the Supreme Court ruling part of the Civil Rights Act as unconstitutional -
Hayes-Tilden Compromise
- Formally ended reconstruction after Presidential elections in November 1876 where the votes for both Democrat and Republican Presidents were close
- The Democrats agreed to accept a Republican President as long as Reconstruction ended
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Small group of A.A's start moving to Harlem, NY
Led to formation of first black ghetto. In the North, they frequently experienced discrimination, their employment opportunities, housing quality, low education levels, and effective confinement to specific areas meant that their QoL did not significantly improve. Interracial violence remained a big aspect of their lives.
However, there was a greater possibility of franchise and their combined votes were capable of determining the outcome of local elections. Strong black culture developed. -
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Grover Cleveland
He did not question white supremacy. He once boasted that he had never shared a dining table with a black person. -
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Development of Jim Crow Laws
Developed rapidly when 8 Southern States introduced formal segregation on trains, three of them extending this to waiting room facilities. Reinforced school segregation laws -
Segregation laws formally and rapidly extended to cover all public places
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Grover Cleveland
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Plessy v Ferguson
This case set the legal precedent for segregation in all forms of public life. It set out the principle of 'separate but equal'. In reality, they were separate but black facilities were of lower standard. -
Mississippi v Williams
ruled the Mississippi poll tax and similar devices were constitutional and did not breach the 15th Amendment. This was significant as it undermined black voting rights in the same way that Plessy v Ferguson had given the green light to segregation -
Cummings v Board of Education
The principle of 'separate but equal' was extended to schools, but even here, a greater amount of money was spent on white schools. -
Niagra Movement
Du Bois and Trotter helped to found the Niagara movement in 1905, which developed from a meeting held in Canada, in the city of Niagara Falls. Meeting by the great waterfall tied in with the ‘mighty current of change they believed was required in the American approach to the welfare of its black citizens. They wanted a campaign to restore voting rights and to abolish all discrimination. It was a rejection of Washington's cautious approach and put the emphasis on protest to demand civil rights. -
Springfield Race Riots
Violence committed against A.A by mob of ~5,000 white people in Springfield, Illinois b/w Aug 14-16. 2 black men had been arrested as suspects in a rape, and attempted rape and murder. The alleged victims were 2 young white women and the father of one of them. The police refused to hand over the accused to the rioters some of the white residents took revenge by attacking and burning black homes and businesses. 17 people died. Showed racism was not just in the South. Most A.A fled the city. -
Foundation of NAACP
Founded in 1909 the year after the Springfield riot, it
was the first successful, nationwide, civil rights organisation to campaign systematically for black civil rights and gain a large membership of both black and white supporters. It remained a peaceful and Constitutional organisation. Its successes were rarely spectacular but it played a significant long-term role in the fight for the legal end of segregation. -
25% of black farmers owned their land
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Nation Urban League set up
Inspired by NAACP and set up to look after the welfare of African Americans in northern cities. Though not directly a civil rights organisation and having little impact in the south, the NUL did campaign against discrimination in jobs and housing. -
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) set up
Aimed to help ‘the new and rising Negro give expression to his feelings’ to gain 'industrial, social, political and religious emancipation of the race' by campaigning for equal rights and for independence rather than being absorbed into a melting pot. It wouldn't campaign to ask a white US government to improve the lives of blacks but rather encourage them to develop their own means of salvation through their own efforts and developing their own institutions run by blacks. -
Guinn v US
Outlawed Grandfather clauses in Maryland and Oklahoma -
Marcus Garvey comes to USA
He built up a rapid and dynamic following within a year but in the mid-1920s his downfall was nearly as fast. Nonetheless, he was for a few years the best-known leader of African Americans and his ideas, though seemingly unproductive at the time, were to have a considerable impact on the next generation of black leaders putting forward the idea of “Black Power’ -
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America in WW1
Over 350,000 blacks served in the First World War,
although only 40,000 of these saw active service and 1,300 black officers were commissioned. About half of those drafted went to France. They served with distinction in segregated regiments fighting alongside French colonial troops rather than their fellow Americans. The experience broadened their horizons on the question of racial equality. -
Chicago Race Riots
A teenage black boy accidentally drifted towards the
‘whites only’ section on Lake Michigan beach. He was
stoned, and then drowned. Thirteen days of sporadic
violence followed when Irish and Polish workers attacked the city’s black ghettos, leaving 23 black and 15 white people dead and 1,000, mainly black, families homeless. This frenzied reaction indicated that race hatred could be just as virulent in the north and was not confined to those of Anglo-Saxon origin. -
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Harlem Renaissance
An out-pouring of artistic talent by blacks in the 1920s and 1930s in literature, the visual arts, theatre and music. A.A artistic performers were now praised by critics and publicly acknowledged. For the first time there were black people singing and writing about their experiences and desire for equality and freedom. -
Oscar de Priest elected to Congress
Was elected as a Republican to represent Chicago's South side from 1929-35. He was criticised for not supporting many aspects of New Deal legislation which were seen as potentially helpful to blacks. However, he did win admiration for his stand against segregation in Washington and for being prepared to accept, despite death threats, speaking engagements in the south. -
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America in WW2