There was more de jure change then there was de facto change. President Truman helped change the lives of black people within the US. Truman was president from 1945 to 1953, just after the war so got involved in civil rights because he was moved the the racial attacks that veterans were still receiving. Truman established the “To secure these rights” report in 1947 which highlighted that their equal rights were not equal at all and segregation was a huge problem. Knowing this, Truman tried to do as much as he could to help such as desegregating the armed forces, the acts of fair employment in the civil service and the fair deal programme which included building houses in urban areas.
Black campaigners tried to use the fact that they fought in the war to gain respect and equality. However, there was still a very high number of racism in the southern states and the number of lynchings increased after the war. This shows that even after the effort the black put into helping in the war, they were still classed as second class citizens and not respected in the same way as
World War II may not have been a pleasant thing to endure, but it seems to be a pivotal moment for black history and their civil rights. During World War II, African American Men fought in the army for civil rights across the globe while representing America; they had started to wonder why it was not happening at home. This sparked a huge rise in black activism in America. The status of African Americans seemed to be minor and still had a long way to go until equality was established, but improvements were being made which meant that it could lead onto bigger and more drastic improvements. The improvements being made seemed to be in favour of hopefully treating African Americans as equals.
HOW FAR DO YOU AGREE THAT THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR II WAS THE MAIN REASON WHY THE POSITION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IMPROVED IN THE YEARS 1945-1953? There were many factors that led to the change in position of African Americans within the years 1945-53 but the most important of these was the impact of the Second World War as it helped advance the position of Black Americans in society in a number of ways. However, other factors such as the Civil Rights activism seen through the 40’s along with the Supreme Court’s rulings and also Truman’s Presidency helped the advancement of Black Americans. The position of African Americans in 1945 was absolutely appalling. African Americans in the South suffered more because in all aspects of life, they were seen as ‘inferiority enshrined’ citizens when compared with White Americas.
Firstly, during President Truman’s time in office life improved slightly for black Americans. This was because President Truman became committed to challenging Southern racism and he aimed to reduce lynching, police brutality and discrimination in the armed forces. To achieve his aims he established The Presidents’ Committee on Civil Rights in 1946 and commissioned a report examining the experience of racial minorities in America. This report was called ‘To Secure These Rights’ (1947). While this report was very significant, its proposals were only recommendations and in practice Truman was not able to achieve every proposal due to a lack of support from Congress.
The Voting Rights Act 1965 was a significant law that changed the status of blacks. The act outlawed any test that prevented an American citizen from voting. Although blacks could technically vote under the 15th amendment, they were still prevented from voting by grandfather clauses and literacy tests. But now this act outlawed any of them and now blacks could vote, changing their status and allowing them to vote. This was a significant victory too.
During the period 1955-1968, great changes has happened on racial equality, although still far from complete racial equality, but still moving towards a society without segregation .These changes were mainly caused because of four factors. First of all is the desegregation on education, fair employment, facilities and so on things. Secondly, is the voting rights, voting rights for black people has gained in the period of 19955-1968, this gave the black people more power in hand in the election, which would gain their status in society. More on is the poverty on black people, more and more black people got jobs , this made black people participate a bigger role in the economic society. Finally, the last main factor is the public support
This meant that a black man had just as much say as a white man in a court of law and was protected from prejudice and racial segregation as of the 1875 Civil Rights Act. These developments caused by the Civil War were helped by presidents Lincoln and Johnson. Lincoln believed in equal racial rights and the abolition of slavery, as did Johnson; except when Johnson became president he hindered the development of black Civil Rights because although he encouraged the 13th amendment; he was a white supremacist and was not in support for equal racial rights and in 1866 tried to veto the Civil Rights Bill. This
The NAACP and SCLC welcomed black and white members arguing that the cooperation between the two would make the movement stronger. However the more radical groups felts that black people should work alone. Furthermore, groups in America during this period such as; SNCC and CORE, were both protest groups which aimed at improving working and living conditions for black people, and to make them equal to other races in the USA. These had been quite moderate organisations which were linked to Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. This was the first time that black organisations had really tried to improve conditions in the cities.
Reconstruction DBQ Reconstruction was a time period of repair after the Civil War. It was to repair the North and the South politically, socially, and economically. It was also to rejoin the South back into the Union. The goal of reconstruction was to build a perfect democratic society where citizens of all races have equal rights. Reconstruction was successful at giving blacks many more rights than they had in earlier years but failed to enforce the laws protecting the rights of Blacks in the South.