African American studies _week 4
reneechrissy
ARTICLE2_Week4_AASP200.docxWeek 4 - Political Activities and Oppression (1900-1935)
Background:
The 1896 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Plessy v. Fergson, undermined the protections of “equal treatment under the law” (the 14th Amendment). The Court reasoned that “equality” had to be upheld by how individual states treated black people, but that such political equality did not extend into the social or business spheres, including theaters, restaurants, public areas and conveyances. Companies were free to not hire minorities (or women). Although trains had to have at least two cars set aside for each race, restaurants did not have to have separate seating areas and could exclude people by race.
The underlying reasons for this separation between the races (interracial marriages were also illegal) was that white people considered people of the black race so inferior that to have to interact with them in any situation where equality was implied was too onerous a burden to bear.
Films, books, advertisements, radio, vaudeville, and music all upheld this racist view of black people.
The destruction of black homes, businesses and churches was commonplace. Being lynched was a real possibility for both black men and women. White people even used bombs from airplanes to destroy the Greenwood Section of Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, and then suppressed news of this massacre which killed at least 100 people.
In the face of overwhelming legal and cultural prejudice against them, as well as physical threats, African American people began to organize to protest their treatment through legal action, writing, and marches.
Essay Question for Political Activities and Oppression (1900-1935):
What were the two most important achievements of the NAACP in this time period to address racial injustice? Why do you think they were unable to do more about physical crimes like lynching, Red Summer, and the Massacre of Black Wall Street?
Resources:
1. Segregated America and Legal Battles: Read this material from the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Separate but Not Equal
Read these sections: Segregated America, The Promise of Freedom, and White Only
For information about the NAACP and its efforts to gain equality through the courts, please read the topics under The Legal Campaign, from Howard University through Targeting Higher Education.
2. Under Week 4 Course Materials, please read the topics starting with “The Niagara Movement” through to “NAACP: Charles Hamilton Houston.”
3. The Massacre of “Black Wall Street” – A subtitled documentary by VOX (12 minutes): Massacre of Black Wall Street - 1921
4. Red Summer, 1919 – The Race Riots of 1919 from The National World War I Museum. 1919 Red Summer
5. Lynching in America Report by the Equal Justice Initiative, Third Edition, 2017. Read pp. 48-55. Note: The Equal Justice Initiative, led by lawyer Bryan Stevenson, is an excellent social justice organization. I recommend looking at their other materials beyond this report. Lynching in America
