HIST 222 AMU week 8 lesson Course Conclusion American Military University
The aftermath of the Civil War ended slavery, but the fight for equal rights was just beginning for African Americans. Battling segregation, discrimination, and other barriers to success and equality, black Americans were able to distinguish themselves and grow politically, socially, and culturally through the beginning of the twentieth-first century.
After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the events, circumstances, causes, and effects of the significant events of African-American since 1877 through thorough reflections and synthesis of course material.
Lesson 1 Review
African Americans After the Civil War
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, opposing forces struggled over what direction the reunited country would take. President Lincoln favored a plan that would allow Southern states to rejoin the Union quickly, but would hold Confederate leaders responsible for the rebellion. After Lincoln’s assassination, though, President Johnson—who favored leniency toward the South—was overruled by Radical Republicans in Congress, who
wanted to see the South punished for secession.
During Reconstruction, former slaves sought to establish new lives, and were aided by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and by other laws, such as the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and Civil Rights Act. However, violence toward black people and white Republicans in the South made this difficult, and the Compromise of 1877 ended the period of Reconstruction.
Lesson 2 Review
Race and Politics at the end of the 19th century
This lesson discussed the overwhelming racial segregation and discrimination faced by African Americans after Reconstruction and into the twentieth century. All southern states passed new state constitutions skirting federal laws and disenfranchising African Americans. Additionally, Jim Crow laws segregated blacks and whites in public spaces throughout the nation. Racial etiquette carried over centuries-long unspoken behaviour that placed whites above blacks regardless of income or gender. Extralegal measures such as rape and lynching would occur to ensure rules were followed. Through education and church, some African Americans carved out a modicum of success under these harsh conditions.
Lesson 3 Review
W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, the NAACP, the Urban League, and numerous other people and groups were active in protecting black rights in the early twentieth century. There were serious disagreements, however, on how to best do so. While DuBois and the NAACP favored intellectual growth and legal action to advance equal rights, Booker T. Washington favored vocational training and quiet civic virtue as a way to eventually earn black people the respect of white Americans. Black women worked at community support and social reform through the club movement, and black workers created unions to lobby for their rights on the job. Meanwhile, black elites sought to create an exclusive society, and musicians shared black culture with wider audiences. Black men fought for the United States in the Punitive Expedition sent to Mexico and in World War I, despite discrimination. The continued escalation of white supremacist violence, largely through the Ku Klux Klan, nevertheless, led to the rise of black nationalism, which called for a separate black nation; and they helped contribute to the Great Migration.
Lesson 4 Review
Race, Discrimination, and the Great Depression
We all know that the Great Depression was economically devastating for all of America’s citizens. However, how did race impact the way that New Deal programs were implemented? The Scottsboro Boys was a notorious case because it helped expose the dual standards of justice. This case is often categorized as a legal lynching – using the criminal justice system to impose social control. In this case, the Scottsboro Boys had been accused of raping white women and sex between the races was still quite taboo. However, the Scottsboro Boys did help advance the cause for civil rights with two important Supreme Court rulings affirming the need for judicial equality. The Tuskegee Experiments showed the the gross inequities in medical care. To this day, it is not uncommon for African Americans to forgo seeking medical attention because of the legacy of this case.
Lesson 5 Review
Victory on Two Fronts: African Americans in World War II
World War II accelerated progress toward the civil rights movement of the 1960s. While the military remained segregated at the beginning of the war, pressure from black leaders and soldiers led President Roosevelt to
establish the Committee on Negro Troop Policies; the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses also worked for integration; propaganda films used famous black athletes, musicians, and actors to support this effort. After Pearl Harbor, the need for more manpower was an impetus toward integration as well. Black men like Dorie Miller and the Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves in military service. Meanwhile, new protest groups, including A. Philip Randolph’s planned March on Washington, led to efforts like the Committee on Fair Employment Practice that were intended to examine and stop discrimination on the home front. While some of these efforts were only marginally successful because of racist sentiments at home, and the Cold War exposed black leftists to suspicion, the 1940s set up the possibility of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Lesson 6 Review
The Struggle for Civil Rights
During the 1950s and ‘60s the struggle for civil rights accelerated. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated civil disobedience, the most famous instance of which was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Black Panthers
took a more violent approach to defending black communities. Others, such as Fred D. Gray fought for racial justice in court. The Brown v. Board of Education verdict declared “separate but equal” to be discrimination, and was a landmark victory for civil rights. Nevertheless, racism continued to make life oppressive for black Americans, and stereotypes of black activists as violent, or as radical communists, made government support hard to win.
Lesson 7 Review
African American Culture in a Post-Racial America
Since the end of the 1960s, much progress has been made toward making equality a reality for black Americans. Black men and women have achieved much in business, politics, and scholarship, and black artists are at the center of American music culture today. Black studies departments in colleges and universities have deliberately sought to formalize and redefine the study of black life and to address challenges faced by the African Diaspora. Nevertheless, poverty and incarceration rates remain high among black Americans, who were disproportionately impacted by the Great Recession. Despite talk of a “post-racial” America—much discussed after President Obama’s 2004 election—race remains a complicated and controversial issue in American politics and society.