african-american history since the civil war dr. liz bryant

African-American History Since the Civil War

dr. Liz Bryant

1920s: Emergence of the “New Negro”

• Confidence after WW1• Believed they should be treated as first-class

citizens

White Reaction to the New Negro

Lynchings Increase

New Negro

• Unwilling to accept such conditions

Du Bois and the Crisis

Marcus Garvey

Harlem Renaissance

• Time of great cultural achievement in the US• Centered in Harlem (New York)

Harlem Renaissance

• Includes music, poetry, writing, visual arts

Many Cultural Achievements Were Segregated…

• Cotton Club• White audience• Black performers

Cotton Club

Harlem Renaissance

• To be commercially successful meant attracting a white audience

• Many elements of black culture were adapted into the white mainstream

Harlem Renaissance

• Many whites learned about the struggle of African-Americans through the arts

“Jazz Age”

Jazz Age

Jazz Age

• Musical styles of African-Americans influenced whites so much that the 1920s began to be referred to as the “Jazz Age”

October 29, 1929

Stock Market Crash

Stock Market Crash

• October 29, 1929- Stock Market crashes• Marks the beginning of the Great Depression• Jazz Age comes to a quick end

AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

African-Americans during the Great Depression

The Great Depression

• ALL Americans are impacted• Blacks are hit especially hard• 1932- 50% of African-Americans are

unemployed

Black Leadership during the Great Depression

• Forced to focus most of their attention on economic issues– Layoffs– Housing foreclosures


• Rural blacks are impacted the most• 2 million black farmers– 2/3 made no money or went into debt


• Many sharecroppers/ tenant farmers abandoned their houses/ farms and went into the cities searching for work

“Black” Jobs Now Became “White”

“Black” Jobs Became Whites

• Blacks were fired so that whites could be employed– Domestic positions

Racism Increases during This Era…

What Happened If It Was Thought A White Job Was Taken…

Increase in Lynchings

• 1932- 8 lynchings• 1933- 28 lynchings

Jessie Daniel Ames

Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching


• Founded by Ames• Ames believed it was the duty of women’s

organizations to solve racial problems


• Challenged the notion that blacks were lynched for raping white women

• Said lynchings instead occurred because of racial hatred

Pledge of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching

• We declare lynching an indefensible crime, destructive of all principles of government, hostile to every ideal of religion and humanity, degrading and debasing to every person involved. We pledge ourselves to crate a new public opinion in the South which will not condone for any reason whatever acts of the mob or lynchers."

Pledge

• Signed by over 40,000 women


• Convinced white women to go into their communities to speak out against lynchings

• Faced opposition to this and were often threatened for their work


• Successful• 1940- first year since the Civil War that no

lynchings were recorded in America


• Did not believe in a federal anti-lynching law• Put them in conflict with African-American

groups such as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

• American jazz singer• 1938- performs “Strange Fruit” for the first

time• 1939- song is released as a single; huge

commercial success; sells over 1 million copies

BRINGING AWARENESS TO THE PROBLEM DOESN’T STOP THE HARASSMENT…

The Scottsboro Boys

The Accusers

Scottsboro Boys

• 1931• 9 African-American boys were arrested after

being accused of raping two white women• Alabama

The Scottsboro Boys

• Accusers were likely prostitutes• Accused them to protect themselves from

being charged for crossing state lines to perform an illegal activity

Scottsboro Boys

• No evidence of rape• All white-jury• Trial took one day

Verdict

• GUILTY• 8 of the 9 were sentenced to death• 9th was sentenced to life in prison (12 years

old)

Reaction

• This case receives much media attention• Demonstrates the prejudice against African-

Americans at this time

Reaction

• Communist Party works to overturn the verdicts

The Case Was Brought Before the Supreme Court

• Powell v. Alabama• Overturned guilty verdicts• Said the boys had not received adequate legal

council

The Boys Go Back to Alabama

• And the state begins to retry them…

Haywood Patterson

Haywood Patterson

• Tried• Convicted• Judge set aside verdict because he did not

believe Patterson was guilty• Judge- defeated in the next election

Clarence Norris

Clarence Norris

• Tried, convicted• Case went to the Supreme Court

Norris v Alabama

• Supreme Court ruled the verdict was illegal because no blacks were allowed to serve on the jury

Scottsboro Boys

• The state kept trying and convicting them• Defendants kept appealing their sentences

Scottsboro Boys

• November 21, 2013- Alabama grants pardons to all of the Scottsboro boys

The Communist Party

• One of the few interracial organizations concerned about the plight of blacks during the Great Depression

• Concerned especially with rural blacks• Organized interracial unions• Held demonstrations asking for jobs and relief

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D Roosevelt

• 1932 Election Slogan: Happy Days Are Here Again

1932 Election

• Prior to this election, blacks had primarily voted for the Republicans

• BUT FDR seemed as if he could bring relief from the Depression

• Many blacks voted for Roosevelt• Marks the beginning of when blacks turn to

the Democratic Party (trend which continues)

FDR and African-Americans

• Had some black advisors• Entertained blacks at the White House• Seemed to give African-Americans a sense of

belonging

Eleanor Roosevelt

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

• Very liberal• Spoke out against racial injustices in the US• Had many black friends:– Walter White, head of the NAACP

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson

• On a national tour• Supposed to give a concert at Constitution

Hall in Washington DC• Constitution Hall- controlled by the Daughters

of the American Revolution

Marian Anderson

• Told that Constitution Hall was limited only to white performers

• Eleanor Roosevelt gets involved (is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution)

• DAR- refuses to budge

Marian Anderson

• Eleanor Roosevelt instead gets permission for Anderson to perform in front of the Lincoln Memorial


• New Deal programs were open to Americans of all races

• Access to:– Jobs– Relief– Farm subsidies– Education– Trainings


• New Deal programs still gave preferential treatment to whites


• Social Security- did not provide coverage to domestic workers

• 2/3 of employed blacks were not covered by this program

A 1935 poster announcing Social Security program.


• Would not put any race-specific language in his bills

• Afraid of losing the support of Southern Senators and Congressmen


• Would not publicly support a federal anti-lynching law


• Even though there was discrimination, blacks still saw that the government was doing something for them

• Felt as if they were included in mainstream American life

• This is why they continue to support the Democratic Party

Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod Bethune

• 1935- founds the National Council on Negro Women

• Meant to advance the quality of life for African-American women

Mary McLeod Bethune

• Served as an advisor to FDR• Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the

National Youth Administration– First African-American female agency head– Helped the government recognize the need to get

more agencies to hire blacks

EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS NO ONE “GREAT” BLACK LEADER DURING THIS TIME, THE NEEDS OF BLACKS WERE NOT IGNORED…

Walter White

Walter White

• 1931- takes over the NAACP• “White” skin, blond hair, blue eyes• Could “pass” as white

Walter White

• Changes the focus of the NAACP• Really focus more on legal issues under him

NAACP in the 1930s

• Operating on a reduced budget because of the Depression

Legal Defense Fund

Charles Houston

Charles Houston

• Dean of Howard Law School• Head of NAACP’s legal defense fund

Legal Defense Fund

• Focus on the South• 80% of blacks live there• Less than 100 black lawyers

Education

• Biggest issue for the NAACP during the 1930s

Education

• Howard: found three areas where he thought segregation in schools could be challenged– Differences in salaries in teachers between white

and black schools– Lack of access of African-Americans to graduate

schools– Disproportionate funds for schools compared to

what African-Americans paid in taxes

NAACP and the New Deal

• Challenged programs they felt to be discriminatory towards African-Americans

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

• 1936- joins the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund• 1940- becomes chief council for the Legal

Defense Fund• 1967- named to the US Supreme Court– First African-American to hold this position

Criticism of the NAACP during the 1930s

• Ordinary African-Americans wondered if court cases took too long to bring about change

W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. Du Bois

• 1934- decides to leave the NAACP– Issues with White– Questions about the structure of the organization– Questions about the focus of the organization– Begins to advocate for voluntary segregation (goes

against the ideals of the NAACP)

GOING INTO THE 1940S, CONDITIONS WERE NOT GOOD FOR BLACKS IN AMERICA…

Pearl Harbor

The West Virginia explodes, Pearl Harbor ( 1941)

Rare color photograph of destruction at Pearl Harbor

A Day Which Will Live in Infamy…

• December 7, 1941• Japanese attack Pearl Harbor

US Is Now Officially Involved in WW2

• African-Americans have to decide whether or not they want to support the war effort

• Issue: they were not treated like citizens at home, so why should they fight for democracy abroad?

African-Americans in World War 2

• The black press reflected many concerns that African-Americans felt

• Unlike the mainstream press which supported US involvement in the war

• Made them subject to harassment

W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. Du Bois

• Did not support the US getting involved in the war

• Especially did not like the decision to fight in the Pacific

James Thompson and the Double-V Campaign

James Thompson and the Double V Campaign

Double V Campaign

• Victory at home (i.e. an end to Jim Crow laws)• Victory abroad

Double V Campaign

Thompson and the Double V Campaign

• Joins the Army• His example, and campaign, lead to many

more blacks joining the military

J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover

• Did not like the Double-V campaign• With FDR’s support, he wanted to indict black

newspaper editors who supported this idea

Frances Biddle

Frances Biddle

• Attorney General of the U.S.• Met with black newspaper editors and agreed

not to charge them as long as they didn’t intensify their criticism of the war effort

Black Newspapers Were Still Thought To Be A Threat…

• Military libraries would not carry them• Burned any copies they found so that black

soldiers did not have access to them• Were very fearful that black newspapers

would encourage blacks not to support the war effort

African American Men during WW2

African-American Men during WW2

African-Americans during WW2

• Over 700,000 serve• Primarily in Army• Initially, government wanted to limit blacks to

5.8% of the armed forces but blacks protested against this

African-Americans during ww2

• Forced to endure segregation in the military

Blacks in the Military

• Generally assigned to menial jobs

Tuskegee Airmen

Blacks in the Military

• Even though most blacks were not on the front lines, their work behind the scenes was very important

Impact of African-Americans in WW2

• Military is officially segregated until 1948• BUT WW2 lays the foundation for integration• 1941- less than 4000 blacks in the military; 12

officers• 1945- 1.2 million blacks were serving• HUGE increase

African-Americans on the Homefront

• Last hired and first fired


• Great Depression ended with the war

Hundreds of Thousands of New Jobs Opened… To Whites

Even White Women


• Over 50% of defense factories said they would not hire blacks

• Did not matter whether the blacks were skilled laborers or not

A. Philip Randolph

A. Philip Randolph

• Wanted to have a March on Washington demanding equality for blacks in the federal work force

• Had tremendous support from the black community

• Over 100,000 were scheduled to go

FDR

• Worried about how a March on Washington would make the US appear to the rest of the world

A. Philip Randolph and Walter White

2 Demands

1) Integration of the army2) No segregation in hiring for the defense

industries

Executive Order 8802

• There will be no discrimination in the employment of workers because of race, creed, color, or national origin

Fair Employment Practices Committee


• Meant to ensure companies with government contracts followed Executive Order 8802

• Led to more African-American men getting jobs in the war industries

• Had a small budget, and few employees so effectiveness varied by region


• Executive Order 9346– Strengthens the Fair Employment Practices

Committee– Required that all government contracts had a non-

discrimination clause– Now included federal government establishments

like shipyards, etc.

Impact of Randolph

• Showed that blacks could DEMAND their rights and the government was willing to listen

• Will bring this into the Civil Rights Movement

POST-WAR AMERICA

Post-War America

• Racism was as bad as before the war

Post-War America

• Blacks attitudes had changed• Had achieved victory abroad so they now

wanted to get victory at home

A. Philip Randolph

A. Philip Randolph

• League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation

Harry Truman

Executive Order 9981

• Bans segregation in the armed forces

WORLD WAR 2 LEADS TO THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT…

african-american history since the civil war dr. liz bryant

Documents

white slide

jazz slide

lynchings slide

unemployed slide

work slide

debt slide

era slide

great depression slide