Race Relations in the USA 1945 - 1968

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Background

  • Some attitudes of Black people in the 19th century was formed during the era of slavery. People thought that they were being lazy and untrustworthy
  • In 1865, Slavery was abolished in America but there where sill a lot of segregation laws which were passed in the Southern States. 
  • These segregation laws were known as Jim Crow laws which discriminated against black people
  • One million African Americans moved to the northern cities but also found racial discrimination here as well

What was the impact of World War 2 on African Americans?

  • More than one million African Americans served in the military defeating Nazi Germany and to fight Nazi racism
  • They felt they needed to have equality back home considering they were fighting racism and discrimination abroad.

Ku Klux Klan

  • The KKK was originally formed in 1866 after slavery was abolished. 
  • They were a white supremisist group who wanted to keep African Americans inferior
  • Had a resurgence of support in the 1920s with 5 million people being a Klan member in 1925
  • After WWII when some African Americans were questioning laws against them, the membership of the KKK increased yet again.
  • They would bomb African American houses and would lynch African Americans for tiny things

Brown vs Topeka Board of Education 1954

  • In 1896 the US supreme court ruled that segregation would be legal AS LONG as the schools would be equal
  • However most white schools were better funded
  • The NAACP - National Assosiation for the Advancement of Coloured People was set up in 1911
  • The NAACP had 450,000 members by 1945
  • The NAACP had challenged the inequality of segregated schools and based their case in Topeka, Kansas
  • Oliver Brown was concerned about his 7-year-old daughter's route to the black school in Topeka in which she had to cross a railyard in order to get to school. 
  • He wanted his daughter to the White school which was just around the block
  • NAACP won the case and the judge ruled that segregation in schools was "unconstitutional" and in 1955 the supreme court ordered all states to desegregate their schools
  • Many states moved slowly and little had happened by the end of 1957

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-56

  • In December 1955, Rosa Parks, an NAACP activist, refused to give her seat when…

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