From Reconstruction to Civil Rights, c1877–1981
CW39: From Reconstruction to Civil Rights, c1877–1981
The main ethnic divisions across the United States and the extent to which living standards and economic and social opportunities varied between them
The first Americans (Indians) / The original English settlers / African-Americans / Hispanic Americans / Chinese Americans· History
Travelled from Siberia to Alaska; settled in North America; referred to as ‘Indians’ by Columbus; uniquely, they never wanted to assimilate but instead wanted to remain different
· Legal status
Dawes Act 1887 gave rights of citizenship, protection of the law, requirement to pay taxes; no option but to abandon their holdings
· Opportunities
Negative –
Suffered as the settlers moved westwards; property confiscated in the eastern states; nomadic tribes imprisoned on reservations; dependent on government; considered worthless by many Christians; deprived of vast areas of reservation lands and offered financial inducements to leave what remained and move into urban areas
Positive –
Some Christians educated the Indians; some entered the professions / · History
Began during the seventeenth century; Pilgrim Fathers; 200,000 settlers in 1700
· Variations
Quakers practised religious tolerance in contrast to Puritans; northern settlers were a cross-section of the social order, whereas southern settlers were from the gentry class and wanted to gain prosperity by the labour of others; religious beliefs were far less influential for southern than for northern settlers; Quakers had long been opposed to slavery whereas southern settlers used them on their plantations
· Activities
Established Puritan settlements on the east coast; destroyed Native Americans; settlements founded on religious bigotry, particularly hostility to Roman Catholicism; settlements thrived due to the hard work and determination of their inhabitants; southern settlers used slaves on their tobacco and cotton plantations
· Relationship with other groups
Represented the right-wing reaction and the growth of nativism; pledged to protect the purity of the American ideal which was being threatened by foreign immigration; from 1880, hostile attention turned to immigrants arriving from Italy, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire / · History
Enslavement of African men and women in the USA since the seventeenth century; triangular trade; 20% of the population of the thirteen original states; in the 1860s approximately 90% of African-Americans lived in the South
· Legal status
1660s defined the status of
non-whites as hereditary, so their children also automatically became slaves; Congress banned the importation of slaves in 1808
· Experiences
Slave labour; pidgin; conversion to Christianity; in Methodist, Baptist or Presbyterian Churches they would hear sermons which would inspire them to demand more rights; emergence of a sense of identity and cultural pride / · History
Mexicans forced off their land in California, Arizona and New Mexico during the second half of the nineteenth century when these lands became part of the USA; arrival of immigrants from Puerto Rico and Cuba in the mid-twentieth century
· Legal status
In 1932, 200,000 Mexican aliens were expelled during the Great Depression
· Experiences
Negative –
Conflict with Protestant Americans due to their Spanish dialect and Catholicism; experienced prejudice, segregation and forced into low-rent accommodation in barrios
Positive –
Those that remained after 1932 campaigned to be treated fairly and became actively involved in the movement for civil rights / · History
Arrived in 1849 to labour for gold prospectors and work in the mines; by 1865 there were 60,000 Chinese in the whole country; 105,000 in 1880
· Legal status
Chinese Exclusion Acts 1882, 1892, 1893, 1902
· Experiences
Negative –
Became victims of racist violence; ‘coolies’, ‘mongol peons’; many driven out by violence and intimidation; taught in English in schools despite not understanding anything; anti-Chinese violence in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver
Positive –
Enterprising and industrious
Factors promoting change in the second half of the nineteenth century
· Direct effects
Negotiated purchases, outright war, Manifest Destiny, migration and immigration of peoples of differing beliefs and cultures set the scene for racism and division; Pacific Railroad Act aided opportunities for further expansion
· Rate of immigration
3 million immigrants between 1845–1854; nativism; Know Nothing Party, Ku Klux Klan; violence
· Why did immigration cause such problems?
Volume; religious differences of immigrants; immigrants rarely mixed with others; seen as a threat to job opportunities; conflict between different racial groups; activity in left-wing organisations
· Effect on land ownership
Southern Homestead Act; 20,000 homesteaders had settled on the land by 1865; however, still problems with affording to buy the land; little capital to make the farms efficient; worked as labourers for former plantation owners
· Expansion on Native American territory
Indian Treaties, promise of annual payments and support to develop an agricultural economy in return were not fulfilled; killing of the buffaloes, Plains Wars, Sand Creek Massacre, Battle of the Little Big Horn; Dawes Act 1887, Wounded Knee; by 1900 only about 100,000 of the estimated 240,000 who occupied the Plains in the 1860s remained
· Immigration of certain groups
Fortune seekers –
Discovery of gold at Sutter’s Fort in California
Chinese Americans –
Came to work in the gold mines
Hispanic Americans –
Became part of the United States after the US government pursued a policy of consolidating its lands in the west; some Hispanics assimilated into the social circles of white Americans and even took seats in the House of Representatives, others were largely journeying agricultural labourers
European-Americans –
Northern and western Europe initially, soon included central and eastern Europe; arrival resulted in poverty and recognisable ghetto areas / · Economic factors
Growth of the cotton-based economy in the South necessitated an increased dependence on slave labour; immigrant labour filled the gap and kept agriculture flourishing; poor working conditions; laissez-faire policies gave employers carte blanche to do as they pleased, exacerbated by immigration; immigrants prepared to take on unpopular jobs and live in poverty; caused resentment amongst native-born Americans; lack of influence for trade unions
· Direct impact of industrialisation
Emergence of Ku Klux Klan, Knights of the White Camelia and the White Brotherhood in response to the sudden influx of cheap black labour
· Chinese Americans
Could only work in occupations which no-one else wanted; 68% of cigar makers by 1900, 52% of laundry workers by 1900; accused of keeping wages low; Denis Kearney led a march to support demands for an 8-hour day and the removal of the Chinese; Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 / · Education and self-help
Role of Church organisations; Fisk University, Howard University, Hampton Institute; growth of independent black churches; provided a moral code of behaviour for congregants to follow; Church minister became a key role in the community
· Politics
Black ministers began to serve on state legislatures; African-American senators; Blanche K. Bruce; support for the Republican Party from former slaves
· Transport
First transatlantic railroad completed in 1869, accelerated the influx of settlers / · End to slavery
Brought about the split between northern and southern states that resulted in the American Civil War and the Emancipation of Slaves in 1863; by 1870, 700,000 freed slaves in the southern states had been given the vote with the Fifteenth Amendment; pro-slavery defended slavery; response by the Abolition Movement
· Impact of emancipation
Little immediate effect since it related to territories which the Union at that stage did not control; slaves in the south began to rebel; a mixture of acceptance and backlash in the south to the emancipation; African-Americans were resented for joining the Union Army; assassination of Lincoln
· Campaign for slavery reform
William Lloyd Garrison; Anti-Slavery Society; Campaign for the Fourteenth Amendment; Thaddeus Stevens; Abraham Lincoln
· Civil War
Lincoln had no intention of liberating the slaves and did not want to lose the support of pro-slavery politicians and states but the war started to go badly for the north; linked emancipation to military necessity to get support of pro-slavery politicians; would reduce the chance of the Confederacy being recognised as an independent state; strengthened his own personal position; collapse of the southern economy and huge human loss
Key events and developments in the first half of the twentieth century
· Migration
Expansion of manufacturing industry increased African-American migration into cities
· Employment
African-Americans and Native Americans joined the army
· Tension
Chicago race riots in response to lack of jobs for returning white soldiers; suspicion of European-Americans – prohibition in part emanated from the fact that many US breweries were owned by Germans
· Representation
Increased enfranchisement of African-Americans that led to more representatives; increase in black newspapers / · Meetings of Black Civil Rights’ leaders
Benjamin Mays; cooperation between educated black elite and liberal radical white supporters
· Black protest movements
Randolph Blackwell, Youth Chapter of the NAACP, Robert Sharp
· Japanese Americans
All Japanese assets on the US mainland were frozen; curfews; internment; Supreme Court backed these measures
· Native Americans
Formation of the National Congress of American Indians; still occupied infertile land on isolated reservations; did not desire integration like black people
· Mexican Americans
Encouraged an increase of Mexican immigration into California; Bracero Agreement; unemployment became an issue as returning troops coincided with an influx of Mexican workers; no sign of a Mexican Civil Rights movement; attempts at strikes in the 1940s were usually unsuccessful
· Chinese Americans
Political friendship towards China increased; moved into the financial sector after the war / · Theodore Roosevelt
Emergence of NAACP, Supreme Court rulings on discrimination and emergence of a highly educated and articulate Black Elite BUT lynching and violent disruption were regular; employed black people in government and civil service departments
· Woodrow Wilson
Praised the work of the KKK during Reconstruction period; removed African-Americans from government posts
· Herbert Hoover
Nominated Justice John J. Parker to the Supreme Court but lost the election due to pressure from the NAACP
· Franklin Roosevelt
‘Black Cabinet’; Mary McLeod Bethune as Director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration BUT did not support anti-lynching legislation; did not eliminate the poll tax which barred black people from voting; New Deal programme did not always help black people / · Effect of immigration
Urban growth, exacerbated tense situation as it clashed with spells of economic depression and high unemployment; high levels of illiteracy; Mexican population of California rose from 90,000 to 360,000 during the 1920s and by 1930 there were
2 million Mexicans in the USA
· Racist response to immigration
Italians were particularly victimised whilst English, Irish and German immigrants of northern Europe were more favourably treated; trial of Sacco and Vanzetti; Prohibition targeted at more successful Italians; Quota Act 1921 – placed ceilings on the number of immigrants admitted from each country outside the Western hemisphere; National Origins Act 1924 – limited the total European immigration to 150,000 per year, and reduced each nationality's allowance to 2 percent of its US population in 1890; anti-Semitism – Henry Ford
1945–1981 – The path to civil rights and the extent to which equality of opportunity had been achieved: African Americans; Truman to Carter and Supreme Court
· Truman
Higher Education Commission created; desegregation of the navy in 1946 and the army in 1948; appointed a black person to the federal judiciary; addressed the NAACP
· Eisenhower
Refused to insist upon desegregation about the Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education; intervention in Little Rock
· Kennedy
Personally committed to civil rights, new frontier, concerned about alienating southern Democrats; helped pave the way for 1964 Civil Rights Act; Robert Kennedy’s work as Attorney-General
· Johnson
Education Act 1965; Medicare, Medicaid; pushed through the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act
· Nixon
Opposed the expansion of the Voting Rights Act 1965, nominated conservative justices to the Supreme Court who were opposed to the idea of desegregation; HOWEVER – launched a programme of affirmative action supported by the Supreme Court case of Grigg v. Duke Power Company; promoted idea of black capitalism – Minority Business Enterprise; continued desegregation of schools in the South / · Native Americans
1969 – Louis R. Bruce’s appointment as Commissioner for Indian Affairs, returning of 48,000 acres of sacred land to the Taos Pueblos Indians; 1970 – Nixon wanted to free the natives from federal supervision and transfer responsibility to the state; 1975 – Indian Self-Determination Act attempted to give Native Americans more control of their reservations; 1978 – American Indian Religious Freedom Act granted basic rights to Native Americans; HOWEVER – discontent with the tactics of the American Indian Movement; poverty and deprivation continued in both the reservations and the cities
· Hispanic Americans
Chicano governors elected in New Mexico and Arizona; trade union recognition led to better working conditions; process of school desegregation was speeded up; rise in the number of Chicano teachers and administrators; HOWEVER – bulk of Mexican immigrants were poor; literacy levels amongst peasants remained low; continual exposure to unemployment and low-paid jobs / · Civil Rights Acts 1957
Bipartisan Civil Rights commission, a new division in the Justice Department to investigate civil rights abuses in fields such as voting
· Civil Rights Act 1960
Renewed the Civil Rights Commission; introduced federal and criminal penalties for mob and bombing action
· Civil Rights Act 1964
· Voting Rights Act 1965
· Civil Rights Act 1968 / · Brown v. Board of Education 1954
· Browder v. Gayle 1956
· Boynton v. Virginia 1960
· Shelton v. Tucker (1960)
· Monroe v. Pape (1961)
· Baker v. Carr (1962)
· Gray v. Sanders (1963)
· Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1980)
Sources
Patterson, David Civil Rights in the USA, 1863–1980 (Heinemann, 2001)
Pennington, Joanna Modern America: The USA, 1865 to the Present (Hodder Murray, 2005)
Sanders, Vivienne Race Relations in the USA 1863–1980, third edition (Hodder Murray, 2003)
Sanders, Vivienne and Farmer, Alan An Introduction to American History, 1860–1990, (Hodder Murray, 2002)
Processes (Part A)