Issue 2 The Obstacles To Black Americans Gaining Civil Rights In The USA Up To 1941: Factor 1: Legal Impediments and the ‘Separate But Equal’ Decision of the Supreme Court Factor 2: Lack of Political Influence Factor 3: The Activities of the Ku Klux Klan Factor 4: Divisions in the Black Community Factor 5: Popular Prejudice In The North AIMS OF ESSAY: To Be Able To Discuss What Prevented African-American's Achieving Equal Rights To Whites

Aims Paragraph 2: To Understand The Voting Restrictions Placed In Blacks To Be Able To Describe How The Federal Government’s Failure To Act Led To The Greater Struggle For Civil Rights To Understand How The Attitudes Of Different Presidents Led To The Greater Struggle For Civil Rights Have The Background Knowledge & Argument To Write Your FOURTH Paragraph For Essay Two On The Obstacles stopping AA Achieving Their Civil Rights

PLAN FOR PARAGRAPH Political Influence 1. Start with an Opening Argument e.g. state there is a link between the isolated factor & the question 2. Put in Knowledge – Details of how restrictions were put on voting 3. Put in Analysis – Explain why this was a problem 4. Knowledge – details on Woodrow Wilson 5. Analysis – Explain the negative impact this had 6. Evaluation – make an judgement, how important was this factor compared to the Jim Crow Laws? Read Through Paragraph 2 On Handout

Why Is Having The Vote Important To Civil Rights?

The Right To Vote In theory black Americans had the vote: 15th Amendment to the Constitution (1870): gave black American adult males the right to vote. It also said that nobody should lose their right to vote because of their colour or race By 1870, 700,000 freed slaves in the southern states had been given a fundamental civil right – the right to vote By the 1890s, loopholes in the 15th Amendment were exploited so that states could impose voting qualifications to prevent blacks from exercising their right to vote Can You Think Of Any Qualifications That Might To Stop AA Being Able To Vote?

How Did They Stop Blacks From Registering To Vote? In 1898 the Supreme Court had ruled in the court case of Mississippi vs. Williams that they did not think that it was discrimination for states to impose voting qualifications as these were applied to all voters To vote in the USA, you had to register Many southern states made up voting qualifications which made it difficult for black people to vote These voting qualifications meant blacks did not have an equal political voice Can You Think Of Any More?

Voting Qualifications: PAY A POLL TAX The tax rate was set so high that most blacks could not afford to pay it Therefore they could not vote RESIDENCY QUALIFICATIONS In Mississippi, blacks had to prove that they had lived 2 years in the state and 1 year in the election district This affected black tenant farmers who were in the habit of moving yearly in search of a better chance

Voting Qualifications: GRANDFATHER CLAUSE Invented in Louisiana in 1898 Allowed illiterates to qualify to vote if their fathers or grandfathers had been eligible to vote on January 1st 1867 Blacks did not have the vote at this time! LITERACY TESTS Black men had to take literacy tests This meant reading out a difficult document in front of a white listener who judged if it had been read well enough In 1900 two and half million blacks in the south were illiterate

Voting Qualifications: 5. UNDERSTANDING CLAUSE This was designed as a loophole for illiterate whites who could not read the Constitution They could qualify by showing that they could ‘understand it’ to the satisfaction of the registrar Fraud was institutionalised 6. QUESTIONS In some states, blacks could only register to vote if they could answer a series of questions correctly Questions like “How many bubbles does a bar of soap make?” ensured many Blacks could not answer and therefore vote! Any Black who did qualify to vote was often threatened and beaten up

Result Of Voting Restrictions? Of the 130,344 black voters registered in Louisiana in 1896, only 5320 remained by 1900 In 1900 180,000 blacks were registered to vote in Alabama, By 1902, only 3,000 were registered By 1915, almost every southern state had introduced voting qualifications and only 3% of blacks could vote If blacks could not vote, then they could not elect anyone who could change their circumstances and get rid of the Jim Crow Laws In order to service on the jury you had to have the vote – this meant that there was very few Blacks on juries & verdicts were enforced via racism Once blacks were deprived of the vote it was easier to pass laws enforcing rigid segregation in practically all public facilities

2. Failure of the Federal Government The Supreme Court did nothing to ensure that the 14th and 15th Amendments were enforced E.G. The 1875 Civil Rights Act aimed to prevent discrimination in public places but in 1885 the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional as it took away the rights of individual states to decide on issues of segregation (2) The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was defeated in the US Senate – this enabled the practice of lynching to continue (3) President Woodrow Wilson (1916) “ Segregation is not humiliating and is a benefit for you black gentlemen”. He praised the KKK for helping to save the South from black rule during Reconstruction He removed blacks from government positions

Group 1: Ensure You Can Explain The Answers To These Questions Q1. What was the 15th Amendment? Q2. What happened in the Mississippi Vs Williams case? Q3. How did they stop Blacks being able to vote? Q4. Detail all 6 restrictions Q5. How greatly were voting numbers reduced? Q6. What were 2 impacts of not being able to vote? Q7. How did President Woodrow Wilson show himself to be racist? Evaluation

FACTOR TWO OPENING ARGUMENT Black people in America were also denied their civil rights up to 1941 as they lacked any sort of political influence to change their circumstances as they were restricted from voting and Presidents did little to change their circumstances.

Political Influence KNOWLEDGE 1 ARGUMENT 1 Many Jim Crow laws passed by Southern governments could not legally stop Black Americans voting but… they could make it extremely difficult. For example, by placing a high tax on voting and literacy skills it made it nearly impossible for Black Americans to vote because they were predominantly poor and illiterate. ARGUMENT 1 This meant that Black people could not elect politicians to overturn the racist Jim Crow Laws or Serve on juries and thus was a major cause of black people being denied civil rights before 1941

Political Influence KNOWLEDGE 2 Arguably President Woodrow Wilson was personally racist and praised the work of the KKK. He also segregated the White House and the federal civil service. ‘Segregation is not humiliating and is a benefit for you black gentlemen’ ARGUMENT 2 It can be argued that the negative attitudes of American Presidents towards blacks did little to help pass legislation to help blacks achieve civil rights and were more likely to extend the hand of Jim Crow and make the situation worse

Political Influence EVALUATION: These qualifications formed part of the Jim Crow legislation passed by southern states and were very important as an obstacle to black civil rights as they prevented black Americans from electing politicians who would vote against these racist laws.

PLAN FOR PARAGRAPH Political Influence 1. Start with an Opening Argument e.g. state there is a link between the isolated factor & the question 2. Put in Knowledge – Details of how restrictions were put on voting 3. Put in Analysis – Explain why this was a problem 4. Knowledge – details on Woodrow Wilson 5. Analysis – Explain the negative impact this had 6. Evaluation – make an judgement, how important was this factor compared to the Jim Crow Laws? Read Through Paragraph 2 On Handout

Political Influence KNOWLEDGE 2 ARGUMENT 2 Congress attempted to pass an Anti-Lynching Bill in 1921, which would have turned lynching into a federal crime which could be dealt with in federal rather than state courts. The Bill was defeated in the Senate however by Southern Democrats. ARGUMENT 2 It can be argued that the Federal government were an obstacle to civil rights as they did little to enforce equality legislation or challenge state government’s decisions. This demonstrates that the few attempts by the federal government to improve the rights of Black Americans had little support and that Southern politicians would go out of their way to prevent them.