Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ISSUE 2 Revision
ISSUE 2 Revision
Divisions in
Popular
black
prejudice
community
OBSTACLES
Lack of
Legal
political
impediments
influence
KKK KU
• Originally formed in 1860s with direct purpose
to prevent former slaves enjoying equal rights
• Resurgence in 1920s, in order to protect the
‘American way of life’.
• Hiram Wesley Evans - leader in 1923.
• By 1925, 3 million members, many of which
were police, judges and politicians.
• Tactics of lynching, torture and violence
characteristic of this secret organisation.
KKK ARGUMENT
• A SIGNIFICANT obstacle:
• Lynching resulted in a black population too terrified to
campaign for fear of the consequences.
• Roosevelt refused to support an anti-lynching bill in his
New Deal for fear of losing Democrat support in south
therefore allowing lynching to continue unpunished.
• 1925 March on Washington permitted showed their
support
• In some states, only KKK approved candidates could
stand for election proving their political power.
• By 1920s, scandals discredited KKK. In Alabama where
they were most powerful numbered less than 6,000 by
1930 but they remained powerful in local groups.
DIVISIONS IN BLACK COMMUNITY KU
1. Booker T Washington, accomodationist philosophy, regarded as an
‘Uncle Tom’ by many – he argued not to antagonise whites but prove
themselves through hard work and education.
2. W. E. B. Du Bois disagreed with Washington – he said this approach
assumed that blacks were inferior and fought for complete racial
equality. W E B De Bois founded the NAACP – a national organisation
whose main aim was to oppose discrimination through legal action.
1919 he campaigned against lynching, but it failed to attract most
black people and was dominated by white people and well off black
people
3. Marcus Garvey and Black Pride – he founded the UNIA (Universal
Negro Improvement Association) which aimed to get blacks to ‘take
Africa, organise it, develop it, arm it, and make it the defender of
Negroes the world over’. This ‘Negro nationalism’ was very popular as
it rejected white culture. 1922 6 million members. However, Garvey’s
fraudulent activity discredited him.
DIVISIONS IN BLACK COMMUNITY
ARGUMENT
• Resulted in a WEAKENED campaign before
1941, lack of COHESION. DISAGREEMENT in
approach and ideology. Shared goals but not
the approach.
• Garvey did raise pride in black community.
Washington’s Tuskegee institution did educate
black Americans who attended.
LEGAL IMPEDIMENTS KU + ARGUMENT
• ‘Jim Crow Laws’ − separate education, transport, toilets
– passed in Southern states after the Civil War – this
gave legal justification to racism. Restricted their civil
rights and resulted in apathetic black Americans.
• ‘Separate but Equal’ Supreme Court Decision 1896,
when Homer Plessey tested their legality – proved a
significant legal obstacle
• Attitudes of Presidents eg Wilson ‘Segregation is not
humiliating and is a benefit for you black gentlemen’.
Wilson also called them ‘an ignorant and inferior race’ –
unsympathetic president would prevent further reforms
being passed that would improve civil rights for blacks
LACK OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE
• By 1900, almost no blacks could vote despite their
constitutional right to do so therefore could not elect
someone to fight for civil rights. Voting registration
rules were an important obstacle.
• 1898 case of Mississippi v Williams – voters must
understand the American Constitution.
• Grandfather Clause: impediment to black people
voting.
• Most black people in the South were sharecroppers
they did not own land and some states identified
ownership of property as a voting qualification.
LACK OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE ARGUMENT