A2 History Civil Rights: African Americans Revision Notes (OCR)

lOMoARcPSD|11700591




A2 African
Americans
Revision


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African American Rights Statistics
Beginning Middle End
Social
Segregation.  The Jim Crow Laws   By the end of 1962, 810 towns and cities
(developed from 1887-91) had desegregated public areas.
introduced formal segregation
in the south on trains, in
schools and later in all public
places.
Education.  By 1876 there were 70,000  3.8% of the male African American  By the end of the 1960s the percentage of
African Americans at school in population had a high-school diploma in African Americans with a High School
the south, compared to none 1940, compared to 13% of white males. diploma went up 40-60%.
in 1860.  In 1949 in Clarenden County, South  In 1969, 3.6% of African Americans aged
 By 1890, 65% of African Carolina, an average of $179 was spent on over 14 were illiterate, compared to 0.7%
American school-aged every white child in school, compared to of whites aged over 14, however the figure
children in the south were still $43 on each African American child. for African Americans had decreased to
unable to write, compared  In 1952, the illiteracy rate for African 1.6% by 1979, although the figure for
with 15% of white children. Americans 14 years of age or older (10.2%) whites had also decreased to 0.4%.
was more than five times that of whites  In 1990 the African American school
(1.8%). dropout rate was 13%, compared to 9% for
 More than a quarter of African American whites.
males (28%) completed no more than four  In 1992, 76% of African Americans
years of schooling, compared with less than graduated, which was 6% under whites.
9% of white males.
Higher   Only 2% of African Americans were college  In 1992, 12% of African Americans had a
graduates in 1950. bachelor’s degree, compared to 22% of
Education.
whites.
Transport.  The 13th Amendment (1865)  
gave African Americans the
right to travel freely.
 However, they generally
couldn’t do this due to the
cost, and after the Jim Crow
laws transport was
segregated.
Housing.  40,000 freed slaves in Georgia  In 1940, the percentage home ownership  In 1960, half of the housing in Harlem pre-
and South Carolina briefly amongst African Americans was 20.5%, dated 1900 and a dozen people might
acquired their own land but compared with 42.1% for whites. share one small apartment.
then lost it to whites again  African Americans formed ghettos in the  By 1992, 56% of African Americans rented
shortly after the end of north during and after WW2, e.g. Harlem in their homes, compared to 31% of whites.
Reconstruction. New York, Watts in Los Angeles, and the  There were a few integrated middle-class
 By 1910, 20% of African South Side in Chicago. housing areas by the 1990s, like
American farmers owned their Philadelphia’s Mount Airy.
land and their standard of
living was rising.
Lynching.  It was estimated 184 African  In 1915 it was estimated that 69 African  14 year old Emmet Till was murdered in
Americans were lynched in Americans were lynched. 1955 for speaking to a white woman.
1885.  Lynchings were rarer by 1992, however
attacks on African Americans still occurred,
such as the beating of Rodney King by the
police in 1991.
Legal Rights.  The 14th Amendment (1868)   In 1950, 35% of those in prison were
gave African Americans de African Americans or other non-whites,
jure equal protection under which had increased to 38% by 1960.
the law.  23% of young African American men were
 In the south, the Black Codes in prison, on parole or on probation in
(developed in 1865-6) barred 1992.
African Americans from giving
evidence against a white
person or serving on juries.
 Bankrupt state governments
would lease out African
American convicts to
businessmen to be used as
cheap labour in terrible
conditions (known as convict
leasing).

Political

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Right to vote.  Following the Civil War, over  In 1947, only 12% of African Americans  The percentage of registered African
700,000 African American were registered to vote. American voters in Mississippi increased
men were enrolled to vote.  The number of African Americans registered dramatically from 6.7% in 1964 to 67.5% in
 It was estimated that of the to vote in the USA rose from 2% in 1940 to 1968.
181,000 African American 12% in 1947 and to 20% in 1952.
males of voting age in
Alabama in 1900 only 3,000
were registered to vote.
African  In the 1870s, 22 African  By 1947, there were only 2 African  As of 1991, there were only 26 African
Americans were elected to American Congressmen out of 535, which American Congressmen out of 535, which
Americans in
Congress. was 0.37%. was only 4.9%.
politics.  Over 600 of African Americans  By the late 1940s, 25 African Americans  The number of African Americans in public
sat on state legislatures during were elected to state legislatures, although office increased from 100 in 1964 to 8,000
Reconstruction, 90% of whom none in the Deep South. in 1992.
came from the south.  From 1989-93, George H.W. Bush only had
 From 1881-1969 there were only one African American cabinet
no African American Senators member, Louis Wade Sullivan.
and from 1901-1929 there
were no African American
Congressmen.
Turnout at    Only around 54% of African Americans
voted in 1992, which was around 8% lower
elections.
than the average for all citizens.

Economic
Unemployment.    The 1992 African American unemployment
rate was nearly twice the national average
(14.2% compared to 7.8%).
Discrimination  By 1890, three in four African  Even though the numbers of African  By 1968 affirmative action had increased
American farmers were either Americans in federal employment increased African Americans in the construction
in employment.
tenants or sharecroppers, from 50,000 in 1933 to 200,000 in 1946, the industry from 1% to 12%.
compared to one in three majority of these were in low-level,  African Americans held only about 3% of
whites. unskilled occupations. apprenticeships in 1969.
 During the New Deal and WW2, there was a
25% increase in the number of African
Americans working in the iron and steel
industries.
 In 1940, only 10% of defence contractors
employed African Americans.
 In WW2, African Americans were employed
in aircraft factories for the first time.
Pay.  In 1900, male African  In 1949, the median yearly earned income  In 1978, female-headed African American
American workers earned an of full-time white male workers was $3,150, families earned a median income of under
average of 45% the pay of whereas this was only $1,950 for full-time $6000.
male white workers. African American male workers.  In 1991, the median earning of year-round,
full-time African American male works was
73% that of comparable white males.
Promotions and   In Mobile, Alabama, 50 people were injured  By 1992, 14% of African American men
in riots after 12 African American welders worked in managerial and professional
professional
were promoted in May 1943. jobs, compared to 27% of white men.
careers.
Poverty.    In 1965, 30% of African Americans lived
below the poverty line, compared to 8% of
whites.
 In 1980, nearly 70% of the urban poor were
African American, compared to 10% white.
 By the mid-1980s, 40% of African American
families had acquired middle class
lifestyles.
Welfare   In 1935, 30% of African American families  During Reagan’s Presidency (1981-89)
were on welfare relief compared to only African Americans made up 11.7% of the
benefits.
10% of white families. population, but received high levels of aid,
such as 43% of housing subsidies and 35%
of housing stamps.
African  By 1900, 150 African  
American newspapers existed
American
across the country.
businesses.  By 1915, there were 30,000
businesses owned by African
Americans in the south.
African   
American trade
unions.



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