However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations. They did this by introducing a ‘Grandfather Clause’, which is that only people whose grandfather voted, gave them the ability to vote. Also literacy test was another method used, which in most ways wasn’t made fairly and even well educated people were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote. However, in 1946 President Truman established The President’s Committee on ‘Civil rights’, producing a report examining the experiences of racial minorities in America. The report was called ‘To Secure These Rights’, this report highlighted the problems facing African Americans and proposed radical changes to make American society better.
How far do you agree with the statement that the position of black Americans changes little during the period 1945-1955? It may be argued that during the period 1945-55 the position of the black Americans changed unnoticeable, yet there had been certain factors that in longer term resulted in improving the position of white Americans in a big scale. The improvements consisted of army. Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948 and appointed the first black federal judge. This meant that the American workers left their jobs to join the army, which created many job opportunities for black Americans, which were needed especially in the defence industries, which now grew in importance as they had to make supplies for the Army such as guns and tanks.
The Double V campaigned for hypocrisy of the discrimination in America and the segregated lines. The black race was not well represented until Adam Clayton Powell was elected into the House of Representatives in 1944. Also in the south most African Americans were given jobs with
Following the Second World War which African Americans had played such a large part in, and ended up still coming home to beatings and brutal racism, President Truman felt obliged to commit to Civil Rights for African Americans. Strongly demonstrated through his report titled ‘to secure these rights.’ in 1947, which outlined many of the hardships faced by African Americans and provided recommendations on how to solve them. Following the report several initiatives were pushed through by Truman, such as the signing of Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 10308. These were crucial in improving the lives of African Americans as they guaranteed fair employment practices in the Civil Services and that defence contracts would not go to companies that discriminated against African Americans, hence empowering them in the workplace. On the other hand it could be argued that the Second World War’s influence was in fact limited.
How far do you agree that the black power achieved little for black Americans Some of the thing that the black power movement wanted to achieve was self sufficiency to reinforce black culture and to have independence from white people, they did this through a variety of different ways and allot of their campaigns involved violent protests however they saw it as self defence. However whether they were successful in their actions is debatable. One way in which they achieved their aims was with the creation of the Black Panthers. Their main aims were to organise the working class black community improve the conditions in the northern ghettos and implement a 10 point program they had made. They had many different methods of doing this such as patrol the pigs, liberation schools and president elections.
History Practice Controlled Assessment: ‘To what extent has the contribution of Martin Luther King to the advancement of black Americans between 1954 and 1968 been exaggerated?’ On 6th December 1865, the 13th amendment to the American Constitution was passes, leading to the abolition of slavery. However whilst slavery was abolished, the black people of America still faced harsh racism and had very little rights. During the period of 1954-1968, many people were campaigning for an advancement of black Americans. These people wanted equal civil rights for blacks as white Americans had. One such person was Martin Luther King.
So, even though they took a step forward in equality outside of the south, it didn’t really help that much as they couldn’t do much with the vote because of the attitudes shown towards blacks from whites. This also links to segregation shown outside the south, even though it was no longer the law. The Second World War was not a turning point for African Americans because even though segregation was not a law in the states outside the south, they still suffered with De Facto segregation. This happened in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit. The black population of such cities was concentrated in ghetto areas, where homes and schools for blacks were inferior to those for whites.
African-Americans were highly affected by the New Deal in the first part of the 1930’s. Urban historian, Kenneth T. Jackson wrote, “For perhaps the first time, the federal government embraced the discriminatory attitudes of the marketplace. Previously, prejudices were personalized and individualized; FHA exhorted segregation and enshrined it as public policy” (179). When Roosevelt first entered office, he didn’t seem to be concerned about the problems that African-Americans were facing. There were several committee chairmen who were southern Democrats and as Biles wrote, “the strength of southern Democrats in Congress dictated the president’s reluctance to challenge the South’s racial customs” (175).
How far do you agree that the years 1945-55 saw only limited progress in improving the status of African Americans? The years 1945-55 can be described as ‘seeds of change’ in improving the African American people’s position in society as their lives saw slight improvements however nothing drastic happened that changed their economic, political and social status immediately in America. Before 1945, during the second world war, conditions of life for black American’s was slightly improving in the northern states with there being less institutional racism and more equal job opportunities with acceptable pay for everyone. However in the south, conditions were very different; Jim Crow Laws meant that deep racial divides were being enforced throughout most states. Segregation was seen as lawful due to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case saying that ‘separate but equal’ was how they should live their lives.
Racisms effect on America after the Civil War HIS 204: American History Sense 1865 Racisms effect on America after the Civil War Though the Civil War had ended in 1865, it had hardly cooled racial tensions within the hearts of American citizens. Policies put in place after the war placed non-whites at major disadvantages causing the differences between whites and non-whites to become even more inherent. This made harmony among the races impossible. The issue of race played a major role in issues of the day, effecting specifically, immigration to the United States and American Imperialism. There were many reasons that made the problem of “the color line” more and more definite.