History Civil Rights in America

African Americans
FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS ROLE

Presidents
Year
Pre1865
1865
1868 +
1872
1885 +
1893

President
Lincoln

Role
Emancipation Proclamation

Good/Bad
Good

Johnson
Grant

Bad
Good/ Bad

1901

Theodore
Roosevelt
Taft

Opposed Civil Rights legislation

Accepted Reconstruction policy, do his best for
equality for slaves
Affirmed the rights of all Americans regardless of colour
but favours southern states, no questioning of white
supremacy
Supported Progressive movement, did not address
Black Civil Rights, approved of T. Washington
Took little interest in Civil Rights, believed in States
Rights
Typical racist views, appointed segregationists and
dismissed African Americans
Race relations in the South had a superior
understanding of the problem
Declared Black Rights were as sacred as anyone
elses but was passive
Attempted to appoint a racist Supreme Court Judge but
was stopped successfully by the NAACP
New Deal, powerless to help, wife supported Blacks,
executive order to desegregate federal employment
and set up the Fair Employment Commission
Executive order to desegregate the US military,
commissioned a Presidents Committee on Civil Rights,
no legislation
Passive, did not favour aggressive action, failed to take
the initiative after the Brown Case, helped in Little Rock
Southern states were failing to maintain law and order,
lukewarm response, Robert Kennedy more favourable
Not always consistent, general support for Civil Rights,
got together a pro-civil rights coalition of Republicans
and Democrats
Strong line on law and order, pause from Civil Rights,
moderately liberal line
Voted for Civil Rights Bills but sceptical of too much
Federal power in this area
Strong supporter of Black Civil Rights
Tended to oppose welfare and employment
programmes
Liberal background, voted for Fair Housing Act, vetoed
Civil Rights Bill of 1990

Cleveland

1912 +
1916
1921

Woodrow

1923

Coolidge

Harding

Hoover
1934

Roosevelt

1945

Truman

1953

Eisenhower

1961

Kennedy

1963 +
1964

Johnson

1968

Nixon

1974

Ford

1977
1981
+1983
1989

Carter
Reagan
Bush

Bad
Good/ Bad
Bad
Bad
Bad
Good/ Bad
Bad
Good/ Bad
Good/ Bad
Good/ Bad
Good/ Bad
Good
Bad
Good/ Bad
Good
Bad
Good/ Bad

The Supreme Court

Year

Case

1873 Slaughterhouse Case

1876 US v. Cruikshank
1880 Strauder v. West Virginia
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson
1898 Mississippi v. Williams
1915 Guinn v. US
1917 Buchanan v. Warley
1923 Moore v. Dempsey
1933 Trudeau v. Barnes
1938 Gaines v. Canada
1944 Smith v. Allright
1948 Shelley v. Kraemer
1954 Brown v. Board of
Education, Topeka,
Kansas
1956 Browder v. Gayle
1960 Boynton v. Virginia
1962 Bailey v. Patterson
1964 Heart of Atlanta Motel
Inc. v. US
1967 Loving v. Virginia
1970 Green v. Connally
1971 Griggs v. Duke Power
Company
1971 Swann v. CharlotteMecklenburg Board of
Education
1974 Milliken v. Bradley
1978 Regents of the University
of California v. Baake
1986 Batson v. Kentucky

Decision
Rights of citizens should stay under State
control not Federal control (States Rights)
Enforcement Act empowered Federal officers to
take action only against states and not individuals
African Americans cannot be excluded from juries
Ruling of separate but equal
Exclusion of Blacks from the voting register may
have been the effect of state legislation but was
not its intention
Grandfather clauses in the state constitutions of
Maryland and Oklahoma were outlawed
City regulations in Louisville, Kentucky concerning
residential segregation was unconstitutional
Failed to uphold death sentences as the trial was
dominated by mobs
Wanted all state appeals being exhausted before
cases could come before the Supreme Court
The equal clause must give a university place
as no Black equivalent
Outlawed all kinds of White primary in Texas
(vote)
Courts could not enforce racial covenants on real
estate
Admissions of all children to state schools on
equal terms

Good/
Bad
Bad
Bad
Good
Bad
Bad
Good/
Bad
Good/
Bad
Good
Bad
Good
Good
Good
Good

Segregation on buses unconstitutional

Outlawed segregation on all inter-State travel
facilities
Prohibited racial segregation of interstate and intra
state transportation facilities
Congress could use its Commerce clause power
to fight discrimination
Prohibition on interracial marriage was
unconstitutional
Federal funds would be withheld from higher
education institutions continuing segregation
Required intelligence test or qualification was
unreasonable for Blacks due to previous
discrimination
Bussing was a legitimate way to get a
reasonable racial balance in schools

Good
Good

Stopped court-ordered bussing unless there was

deliberate segregation
White boy was unfairly discriminated against when
rejected because of race
The exclusion of jurors based solely on their race
is unconstitutional

Good/
Bad
Good

Good
Good
Good
Good
Good/
Bad
Good

Good

Congress
Year

Bill/ Act/
Amendment
1865 Freedmans Bureau
Bill
1865 13th Amendment
1866 Civil Rights Act

Decision

1866 Second Freedmans

Bureau Act

Provided additional rights including the distribution

of land, schools and military courts to ensure these
rights, voted by Johnson but overrode by Congress
Guaranteeing rights for Blacks and put the
Confederacy into military districts
All free Blacks were given citizenship and equal
protection under the law
Forbade the denial of the vote to any man on
the basis of colour, race or previous condition
of servitude
Protect southern Blacks from the KKK by providing
a civil remedy
Made it clear that equal rights applied to public
areas
Requires equal treatment and training of all
employees

1867 Reconstruction Acts

1868 14th Amendment
1870 15th Amendment
1871 Civil Rights Act/ Klan
Act
1875 Civil Rights Act
1941 Fair Employment
Act (Executive
Order 8802)
1957 Civil Rights Act
1960 Civil Rights Act
1964 Civil Rights Act
1965 Voting Rights Act
1968 Fair Housing Act
1972 Equal Opportunity Act
1983 Martin Luther King Jr.
Day
1988 Civil Rights
Restoration Act
1991 Civil Rights Act

Intended to last one year, aimed to give aid via

education, health care and employment
Slaves were formally freed
Guaranteed legal equality to Blacks

Investigate Civil Rights abuses in fields like voting

Help Blacks register and introduced Federal
penalties for violence
Speed desegregation, mix schools, voting rights,
discrimination illegal
Make certain conditions on voting illegal
No discrimination racially in the sale, rent and
mortgaging of property
More guidelines for the Courts; strengthened in
1988
Martin Luther Kings birthday is made a Federal
holiday
All aspects of Civil Rights legislation had to be
complied with for funds
The right to trial by jury on discrimination claims,
introduced the possibility of emotional distress
damages, limited the amount a jury could award,
based on employment discrimination cases

Good/
Bad
Good/
Bad
Good
Good/
Bad
Good
Good/
Bad
Good
Good
Good/
Bad
Good/
Bad
Good
Good/
Bad
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good

BLACK LEADERS AND ORGANISATIONS ROLE

Years
1865-95
1865
18811915
18831928
18841931
19031963
1909present
19171925
19171927
19401993
19541968
1960-65
19661976

Leader/
Role
Organisation
Frederick
Opponent of slavery, supporter of all civil rights (not
Douglass
just Blacks), raised awareness (newspaper and
speeches)
Self-help
Comprised of freedmen who joined their earnings
groups
to buy land to provide schools and teachers
Booker T.
Ran the Tuskegee Institute, gave the Atlanta
Washington
Speech, accommodation, organised the Negro
Business League
T. Thomas
Editor of newspapers that were protesting against
Fortune
the treatment of Blacks, supporter of Garvey,
President of the Afro-American Council
Ida B. Wells
Sued the railroad company, public opposition to
lynching, womens rights
W.E.B. Du
Found the Niagara movement (1905), founded the
Bois
NAACP
NAACP
Both Black and White supporters, peaceful, focus
on legal aspects, Constitutional organisation,
significant long-term role
Marcus
Founded UNIA (1917), Blacks taking control of
Garvey
their own affairs, Black Eagle Star Steamship, open
air parades, military style leadership
UNIA
Campaigned for equal rights and independence of
Blacks rather than absorbing into the melting pot,
encouraged to develop their own institutions etc.
Thurgood
Black lawyer winning nearly all the NAACP cases
Marshall
and was the first Black Justice of the Supreme
Court
Martin Luther
Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955), Birmingham
King Jr.
Protest (1963), I have a Dream Speech (1963),
sit-ins, freedom rides, peaceful, desegregation and
political rights, views later changed
Malcolm X
Member of the Nation of Islam, violent, economic
and social rights, wrote in a journal, gave
speeches, Black superiority, views changed later
Black Panthers Economic emphasis, influenced by Black Power
and Malcolm X, had a 10-point programme, violent,
military style

Good/
Bad
Good
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good/
Bad
(Limited)
Good/
Bad
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good
(Limited)
Good/
Bad
(Limited)
Good/
Bad
(Limited)

THE ERA S ROLE

Period

Era

Role

Pre
1865
18651877
18771920

Civil War

Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln, slavery ends

Reconstruction

19171945

World Wars

1950s1960s

Civil Rights
Movement

1970s1990s

Conservatism

Amendments, Civil Rights Acts, Radical

Republicans, Black Codes, Johnson
Jim Crow Laws, KKK, Plessy v. Ferguson, lynching,
accommodation, NAACP, Wells, Washington, states
rights
Race riots, Garvey, KKK, Black culture, New Deal,
New Deal Court, shift in attitudes, jobs increased,
poverty, segregation
Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Civil Rights Acts,
Kennedy, Thurgood Marshall, Brown v. Board of
Education, Rosa Parks, Little Rock, assassinations,
media coverage, liberal Federal Government, Cold
War
Cold War, Black Power, affirmative action, Reagan,
bifurcation of Blacks, economic and social rights not
gained as much as political and legal rights,
violence, no segregation

Progressive

Good/
Bad
Good
Good/
Bad
Good/
Bad
Good/
Bad
Good

Good/
Bad

O PPOSITION S ROLE
Opposition
States
KKK

Red Shirts

Whites
Council
NAAWP

Role
Believed in States Rights particularly in South,
clear North-South division, nothing to help
Blacks gain or use rights
White supremacy, opposed Black votes,
violent, very popular in the Reconstruction era
and with the Red Scare (1920s) and later in
the 1960s, secret membership
White paramilitary group, supporters of
Democratic Party, white supremacy, violent,
worked openly, political goals, organised,
military arm of Democratic Party
Bankers, lawyers, doctors, day-to-day
difficulties,
1950s, Supreme Court said to be denying
states rights

Key to Type of Right

All
Social
Economic
Political
Legal

Negative Effect
Segregation de jure and de
facto
Violence and fear,
generations of racists (Black
and White),
Violence and fear, prevent
political civil rights,
generations of racists (Black
and White)
Slowed civil rights
Belief in states rights, late
opposition