Aminat Awosanya American Government Civil Rights Movement Assignment Dr. S.

Waymon

1. What historical event happened in Jamestown, Virginia 1619? The House of Burgesses assembled for the first time, along with events of the first shipments of slaves arriving in August. On December 38 colonists arrived from England bringing out the holiday known as Thanksgiving. 2. Write a brief summary about the institution of African American Slavery in America? What was the common life for most African American Slaves during this period? In what way(s) did this institution impact the U.S.? Slavery has existed from the early colonial period, which was mainly due to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies requiring more labor due to the limited Natives and so more indentured servants were needed to work for landowners and so many were being shipped from Africa. As the tobacco market boomed in the 1670s with less natives and Africans willing to work, the importation of slaves rapidly grew. Slavery became very brutal institutions; slaves were treated as property children were being forced to work on plantations at the age of 12 all day from sunrise to sunset. Pregnant slaves were still expected to work during their pregnancy and after the birth of their child. Living in poor conditioned homes not able to protect them from the cold weather. As some slaves worked on the plantation other slaves were house slaves, who had to cook, clean, serve and take care of the masters children. Slavery helped boost the economy mostly in southern states and brought about discrimination of African American in the society. Slavery brought about the Civil War as America became divided between the North and the South. Although slavery has been abolished, many still the black race to be inferior to the whites and there are still problems

regarding racial tensions. Slavery led to many revolutions with the white race attempting to put down the voice of black people and limiting the rights allowed to black people in many communities. Slavery has also led to many black people to discriminate against their own race, many towns are still segregated, organizations such as KKK still exist. 3. Who wrote the book entitled, Uncle Toms Cabin? Why was it so important in terms of public policy? Uncle Toms Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, with the main aim to enlighten Americans in the north to understand and note the aspects of slavery bringing more northern Americans to the attention and uprising against slavery.

4. What U.S. State would be the first to secede (leave) the Union (U.S.) and join the Confederate States of America? What was the argument concerning nullification? Why did the southern states want to leave the Union? South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union to then join the confederate in 1860. The nullification crisis occurred in South Carolina in which the state declared federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore will be nullified within the boundaries of South Carolina. As it became clear to southern states that the north wanted to eradicate slavery, this act of abolishment would bring about a decline in southern economy as the south was already thriving abundantly due to slaves working on the plantations and so the concept of leaving meant that the choices of the north would not affect the south and slavery will continue to help the southerners prosper economically. Write short brief summaries:

Crispus Attucks: An American slave of Wampanog and African descent, who was shot by the British redcoats during the Boston massacre.

John Brown: was an American abolitionist known for his radical resistance of slavery. In 1856 Brown and a few men killed five pro-slavery supporters at pottawatomie and also in 1859, brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry which was unsuccessful leading to his death sentence.

Benjamin Banneker: A free African American, who was known for being part of a group led by Major Andrew Ellicott that surveyed the borders of District of Columbia and territory of United states. He also exchanged letters with Thomas Jefferson relating to slavery and racial equality.

Frederick Douglas: A known reformer, who brought about an abolitionist movement. He was the first African American to be nominated vice president. He became one of the most popular African American men in the country to speak on the treatments on the black race and womens rights. He argued for the end of slavery and the equality of black men and women of all colors.

Cesar Chavez: A civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. His campaign was based on workers rights such as high wages; which provided support workers to fight (boycotting) for a cause against employers and bring about better changes for working conditions.

Harriet Tubman: known for her thirteen missions which was to rescue more than seventy slaves utilizing the network of antislavery activist and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Tubman also promoted the cause of womens suffrage to try and bring about equality of both men and women.

Charles Sumner & Thaddeus Stevens: They annulled Andrew Johnsons Presidential Reconstruction Plan and passed groundbreaking Civil Rights legislation and the fourteenth Amendment over his veto. Stevens led the movement to impeach Johnson.

Dr. Kenneth Clark: Clark was active during the civil rights movement after world War II, he wrote a statement on the effects of school segregation. Clark is most known for his experiment known as the doll test to study childrens perspective towards race. He testified as a witness in the case of Briggs v. Elliot, which is also under Brown v. Board of Education.

Blanche K. Bruce & Hiram Revels: Both African American men served in United States Senate. Bruce focused on protecting rights of blacks and Native Americans. He also opposed the exclusion of Chinese immigrants. Revels supported the legislation to deprive members of the former confederacy the right to vote and hold office; he largely supported desegregation of schools.

Karen Narasaki: A civil rights leader and human right activist, with the mission to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans. Under Narasakis leadership, AAJC was able to get the reauthorization of some key points of the voting rights act of 1965.

Felix Longoria: was a Mexican-American soldier, who served in the United States Army during World War II, he was killed during his service to the army and so when his body was finally returned to his family the local funeral home rejected him for a wake service because he was MexicanAmerican. As Mexican Americans were not considered white, there had been segregation of this race from school to neighborhoods.

K. Patrick Okura: Okura fought for Japanese American rights, he is also said to have influenced the U.S. governments attitude to health issues concerning Asian Pacific Americans. Shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order, authorizing the forced relocation of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.

BRIEFLY DEFINE/EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING: Missouri Compromise 1820: An agreement signed between the pro-slavery and anti- slavery leaders, which prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana territory excluding within the boundaries of Missouri. Ku Klux Klan: An organization in the U.S. that imposed white supremacy through acts of terrorism. Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854: this act repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers to decide if they wanted slavery in their territory. This act also divided west of Missouri into two parts: Kansas and Nebraska. Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896: A United States Supreme Court decision of the state laws requiring racial segregation in public locations under the doctrine of separate but equal. Dred Scott Decision (1857): decision made by U.S. Supreme Court that African descendants brought into the United States as slaves were not protected by the constitution and were not U.S. citizens. Mendez vs. Westminster 1947: A federal court case that challenged racial segregation in Orange County of Mexicans and Mexican American children into separate schools was thought to be unlawful. Emancipation Proclamation: an executive order issued to executive agencies of the U.S. by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, at the time of the American Civil War, proclaiming all slaves in Confederate territory to be free. Brown vs. Board of Education 1954: U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional, this ruling paved the way for integration.

Civil War Amendments: These are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to black men. The Fifteenth Amendment granted voting rights to all regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Texas vs. Hernandez 1954: A United States Supreme Court case that decided that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Freedmans Bureau: A U.S. federal government agency, appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to aid freed slaves during the Reconstruction era.

Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955: This was a Civil Rights movement against racial segregation on the public bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that the Alabama and Montgomery law of segregated bus system was unconstitutional.

Black Codes: These were laws aimed to limit the basic human and civil rights of blacks. Civil Rights Act of 1964: A legislation enacted in the United States outlawing major forms discriminations such as race, ethnicity and religious minorities.

Jim Crow Laws: Under this rigid law African Americans were presumed to be second-class citizens, it was designed to prevent black people from attempting to exercise their limited basic rights and also improve their status in terms of being high-income earners.

Voting Rights Act of 1965: this legislation prohibits state from denying citizens of all color and ethnicity the right to vote.

Black Panther Party: an African American organization led by Huey P. Newton towards protecting black people from police brutality.

W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He attended Fisk University, which was also where he experienced the rulings of the Jim Crow laws. He studied at Harvard University and became the first African American to graduate with a doctorate from Harvard. Du Bois was the co-founder of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). When he began working as a professor at Atlanta University, he began to publicly oppose and criticize Booker T. Washingtons opinion of allowing white supremacy therefore leading to the inferiority complex developed by many blacks at that time. Booker T. Washington was born in the late mid-1850s to a slave and so therefore he was categorized as a slave. He became a leader in the black community from 1890 to 1915.

Washington attended Hampton University; he was later named the leader of Tuskegee Institute of Alabama in 1881. He became known for his Atlanta Address (1895) making him the spokesman for people of the black community, he was also able to win support from some white liberal leaders. His philosophy was to work alongside white people and so this gave him the ability to raise funds and establish institutions of higher education for black people. Booker T. Washington agreed to an unwritten deal, known as the Atlanta Compromise with southern white leaders, due to the failure of the Reconstruction. In this agreement, southern blacks would basic give up their basic rights such as voting and even allow discrimination in exchange for the opportunity to basic education and justice with the legal system. Du Bois opposed Washingtons plan, he believed that blacks should continuously fight for their all rights being withheld from their rather submitting to segregation and discrimination. Another opposed viewpoint between Du Bois and Washington is Washingtons belief that black students should limit themselves to industrial education such as agriculture, while Du Bois believed that black schools should also provide a curriculum with liberal arts in order to a develop a leadership elite.

Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Malcolm x was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska; his father was the leader of Universal Negro Improvement Association his family faced many violent harassment from white groups. Malcolm is known to be a Muslim African American human rights activist. After being chartered off to numerous foster homes, he moved to Boston and was arrested and jailed for stealing from wealthy white families, during his imprisonment he met John Bembry, who helped

him develop a yearning to learn. Where he worked with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad.

Dr. Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. King was both a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist. Martin Luther King Sr. (father) fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, because he considered racism and segregation to be against God's will. King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944; earning a sociology degree from Morehouse; King Jr. came under the influence of theologian Reinhold Niebbuhr, who was able to challenge Kings theologies

As the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X supported an ideology of complete segregation of African-Americans from whites. He also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, advocating that black people use any necessary means of self-defense; which is known to be in many of Dr. Kings speech to avoid all forms of violent acts. He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment, and he once described Dr. Martin Luther King as a "chump". Dr. King was highly critical of what he viewed as Malcolm X being an agitator. "I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice," he said. Malcolm did later change his views and became non-violent, King always spoke out for non violence and called for equality continuously through out the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X was known to be every suspicious of whites and willing to make use of any means necessary.