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
AfricanAmerican's
Achieving
Equal Rights
To Whites
Aims Paragraph 2:
1. To Understand The Voting Restrictions Placed In Blacks
2. To Be Able To Describe How The Federal Government’s
Failure To Act Led To The Greater Struggle For Civil
Rights
3. 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:
1. 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
2. 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:
3. 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!
4. 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
(1) 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?
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.
• 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
ARGUMENT 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.
• 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
• ‘Segregation is not
humiliating and is a benefit
for you black gentlemen’
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.
•
•
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.