changing attitudes to the race issue in the USA, 1930-2000

why was there so much racial inequality in the USA between 1930 and 1945?

segregation and the 'Jim Crow' laws

in the south

• strict segregation
• imposed through the 'Jim Crow' laws
• segregated black people in public places
• black people prevented from voting or had to pass literacy or other tests to do so
• Scottsboro trials showed the injustice when 8 black boys were convicted of ****** 2 white females on very circumstantial evidence

in the north

• did not have segregation laws
• racism was still commonplace
• 1920s- thousands of black workers migrated from the south to cities in search of work
• known as the great migration
• given low paid jobs
• tended to live in squalid tenement ghettos
• were improvements for some
• jazz brought fame to black singers and muscians
• black neighbourhood of Harlem in New York became the centre of the Harlem Renaissance for black singers, musicians, artists, writers and poets

the NAACP

• formed in 1909 by William Du Bois
• active in fighting against racial injustice throughout the 1930s and 1940s
• during the 1920s it had campaigned against lynching and was the main opponent of the Ku Klux Klan
• 1930- successfully blocked the nomination of Judge John Parker, a known racist, to be appointed to the Supreme Court
• during the war the NAACP pressured Roosevelt into ordering a non-discriminatory policy in war related industries and federal employment
• employed black lawyer Thurgood Marshall to fight against segregation in education, secured equal salaries for teachers
• supreme court ruled that blacks had the right to the same quality of graduate education as whites

the ku klux klan

• mid 1860s- founded
• members had to be WASPS (white, anglo saxon, protestants), anti communist, anti jewish, anti catholic and agaisnt all foreigners
• dressed in white robes and white hoods- symbolise white supremacy and conceal identity
• used terror and violence to intimidate anybody who supported equal rights
• strong in the southern states
• reached a peak in mid 1920s
• 1925- prosecution of Klan leader caused sharp fall in membership
• powerful grip on how many southern states were run
• members included police officers, lawyers and judges
• many politicians knew that if they opposed the klan they might not be elected to congress
• despite decline remained active and powerful

impact of the depression and the new deal

• blacks last to be hired, first to be fired
• black farmers and sharecroppers forced off the land
• new deal provided jobs for black americans
• PWA allocated funds for building of black hospitals, universities and housing projects
• FERA granted aid to black american families
• number of black americans employed by the government rose
• did little to eliminate unfair hiring practices and job discrimination
• failed to support anti lynching bills

the jim crow army

• in the army there were black only units which formed the jim crow army
• pre 1944- black soldiers not allowed into combat in the marines
• navy could only accept blacks as mess men
• US air force would not accept black pilots until the formation of an African American 322nd Fighter Group (Tuskegee…