Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Black American Life in the 1940s (in the south)


  • Post-American Civil War, most southern states and, later, border states, inputted laws that took away basic human rights from African Americans. These laws, customs, and tendencies became colloquially referred to as Jim Crow laws which remained intact through the 1960s and 1970s. These laws separated bathrooms, water fountains, hospitals, cemeteries, etc. by race. Separate states had separate laws. 
  • Lynching (hanging African Americans from trees) was very prevalent during this time. 
  • Jim Crow laws were created because of backlash from reconstruction after the Civil War and it appealed to white voters who believed African Americans would take their jobs
  • In order to validate these laws, many false scientific notions were created to try to even lesser equalize blacks-- E.x. It was believed, through the work of craniologists (those who make allegations based on the head's shape) that because African Americans had different head shapes, they were inferior. 
  • With WWII, America became the center of global attention. United Nations delegates were horrified at the segregation in the US, which pushed Truman to promote an agenda based on racial equality
  • In an effort to ease the inequality between races, Roosevelt issued the New Deal to try to give African Americans housing and employment, but Roosevelt did not back all of the legislation put forth by the NAACP

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