The position of Black Americans in the early 1950s Flashcards

All 7 cards in this deck

What were the Jim Crow laws?

State and local laws in the Southern states that enforced racial segregation, keeping Black and white Americans apart in schools, buses, restaurants, parks and other public places.

What methods were used in Southern states to stop Black Americans voting in the early 1950s?

Literacy tests, poll taxes and intimidation; only around 20% of Black Americans in the South were registered to vote and there were very few Black politicians.

What was the NAACP and how did it campaign?

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; it challenged segregation and unfair education through legal cases in the courts, e.g. its lawyers won Brown v. Topeka (1954).

What was CORE and what methods did it use?

The Congress of Racial Equality; it organised campaigns against segregation using non-violent direct action such as sit-ins, and later organised the Freedom Rides (1961).

What did the Supreme Court decide in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?

That segregation was constitutional as long as the separate facilities for Black and white people were equal. This 'separate but equal' doctrine gave Jim Crow segregation its legal basis.

Which civil rights leader helped found CORE in 1942, and whose ideas inspired its methods?

James Farmer. CORE's non-violent direct action, such as sit-ins, was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's campaign against British rule in India.

Who was Thurgood Marshall?

The NAACP lawyer who led its legal department and argued its civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Topeka (1954).