Silvia Pagano-Lewis HIS 300---African American History FINAL EXAMINATION 1.

Why did seven southern states secede from the Union within three months after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860? Lincoln's name was not even on the ballot in most southern states, because his candidacy was based on the Republican party's adamant opposition to the expansion of slavery into any western territory. Although Lincoln took pains to reassure white Southerners that slavery would continue in states where it already existed, they were not in the least persuaded. Although they were less opposed to Lincoln than white Southerners, black Northerners and white abolitionists were not eager to see him become president. When South Carolina seceded in 1860 it began a procession of souther states out of the Union (which formed the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama). Lincoln tried to persuade the seceding states to reconsider, and added the only dispute between the North and the South was over the expansion of slavery. He assure white Southerners he would not tamper with slavery in the states where it was already legal and warned them he would not permit secession. However, Southern whites did not heed him; slavery was too essential to give up to merely preserve the Union. Barely a month after Lincoln's inauguration, the fist state seceded and shortly after that four more followed; within three months from Lincoln being elected a total of seven southern states seceded: the Civil War had begun. (notes/book) 2. What was the purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation? Why was it issued? Exactly what did it accomplish? The Emancipation proclamation was not the first step towards freedom, as since 1861 several thousand slaves had already freed themselves, but it was the first significant effort by the Union authorities to assure freedom to nearly four million people of African descent who, with their ancestors, had been enslaved for 250 years in North America. The Civil War was not a war to make people free. (book) The Emancipation Proclamation: did not free any slaves when issued since the only areas that emancipation pertained to were those in which Lincoln had no authority. Additionally, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves of the border states, nor it freed the slaves in areas of the South which the Union army occupied. The Emancipation Proclamation did not, in and of itself, free southern slaves when it was issued. (notes). 3. Why did black men gain the right to vote, but not possession of land? To people who had endured and survived 250 of enslavement in America, freedom meant many things,

one which was the right to vote (and having the same rights as white people). In July 1865 the Circular 13 was issued (which ordered to set aside forty acres plots for freedmen); however, the allocation had hardly begun when the order was revoked and that the land which had already been distributed was to be returned to its previous white owners. The reason for this reversal in policy was due to the fact President Johnson began to pardon the thousand of former Confederates and restore their lands to them. Black Southerners were able to gain citizenship and access to the political system not because white people suddenly abandoned their racist beliefs; the advances that African Americans achieved fit into a series of complex political developments after the Civil War. Black people themselves had fought and died to preserve the Union and had earned the respect of many white people. White Northerners, led by Republicans were convinced President Johnson had made a serious error in supporting policies that permitted white southerners to retain pre-Civil war leaders while black codes virtually made freedmen slaves again. The right to vote, Republican reasoned, would give black people the means to deal more effectively with white southerners, while simultaneously strengthening the Republican Party in the South. (notes/book) 4. Why was it so difficult for the Republican Party to maintain control of southern state governments during Reconstruction?
While Republicans remained deeply divided in the South during the period of Reconstruction, this could not be said about the Democrats, who largely retained the same supporters as they had in the time of their pre-war rule. Disagreements among black

leaders paled in comparison to the internal conflicts that divided the Republican party during Reconstruction. Black and white Republicans often disagreed on political issues and strategy, but the lack of party cohesion and discipline was even more harmful. Additionally, the Republican party in the South was constantly split into factions as group leaders fought each other. Most of their disagreements were over who should run for and hold office; these bitter arguments were not only based on race, but mainly on the fact that since most Republicans (both black and white) were not well off financially, they both relied heavily on the desire to get into office and gain a modest salary. These factional disputes led to a high turnover in political leadership, therefore, inexperienced leadership was added to the list of Republican woes. (book/notes). 5.What legal and ethical arguments did white Americans use to justify segregation? Although the word segregation was almost never used before the 20th century, since the Reconstruction schools, hospitals, asylums and even cemeteries had been segregated. What became to known as the Jim Crow law had not yet become legally embedded in the southern way of life, however, many black people already did not venture where they did not feel welcome and/or were it was likely for the to meet

hostility. In the decades following slaver's demise, segregation evolved gradually as an arrangement to enforce white control and domination. Many white Southerners resented the presence of white people in public facilities, places of entertainment and/or business establishments. According to white people, black people were a subordinate race, therefore, their proximity to shops, parks and even trains suggested an unacceptable equality in public life. Moreover, many black people acquiesced in some facets of racial separation; during the Reconstruction black people formed their own churches and social organizations; obviously they felt comfortable around people of their own race. Furthermore, black people accepted separate seating in theaters, concert halls and other facilities which in the past had been closed to them; segregation was an improvement over exclusion. Although Plessy vs. Ferguson required separate but equal facilities for black and white people, when facilities were made available to black people they were usually inferior in quality (and often times no facilities at all were provided to black people-they were simply excluded). Since slavery white people had insisted that black people act in an obedient and subservient manner; such behavior made white dominance clear. After emancipation white southerners sought to maintain that dominance through a complex pattern of racial etiquette. White people clearly regarded black Americans as an inferior race not entitled those rights that the Constitution so emphatically set forth. (notes/book) 6. How and why did ragtime, jazz and blues emerge and become popular during this time period? In the half century after the Civil War, music created and performed by Black people evolved in the uniquely American art forms of ragtime, jazz and blues. Some late 19th century music can be traced to African musical forms and rhythms; one source is slave work songs, another is the spirituals of the slavery era. Ragtime emerged in the 1890's was composed music, written down for performance on the piano; ragtime pieces were not accompanied by lyrics and not meant to be sung. Jazz gradually replaced ragtime in popularity in the early 20th century. Unlike ragtime, jazz was most improvised and not composed , nor confined to the piano. Jazz incorporated African and European musical elements drawn from such diverse sources (plantations bands, minstrel shows, Irish and Scottish folk tunes). The first jazz bands emerged around New Orleans and played at funerals, clubs and parades. In rural, isolated areas of the South, poor black people composed and sang songs about their lives and experiences. By 1920 two forms of American music were well along in their evolution: jazz and the blues. Both drew on African and American musical elements, as well as, on European styles. Most of all jazz and blues represented the experiences of African Americans. (notes). The urban development of black music in the 20th century owed a lot to the sin cities of the south: New Orleans, Kansas City and Memphis. Their saloons, clubs, brothels, steamboats and speakeasies sponsored countless black musicians who migrated from the countryside. (book)

New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi river, the old French city that had exhibited an amoral opulence before the Civil War, was a melting pot with no equals in the south (Blacks, Italians, Caribbeans, French-speaking white and black Creoles, native Americans, Mexicans, and descendants of the Europeans). Its port was an infinite source of cultural exchanges with the rest of the world. Like most seaports, New Orleans boasted a colorful night life of prostitution, gambling and entertainment ("dixies"); and the "laissez faire" (laid-back) attitude of the Caribbean-French population made it even more tolerant than most seaports. Untouched by the industrial revolution and less socially stressed than other plantation-oriented economies, New Orleans was able to retain the traditions of the various ethnic groups while they were rapidly being annihilated in the rest of the USA. Exoteric rituals, tribal dances, pagan festivals, funeral marches and all sorts of parties continued to exist well into the 20th century. Its "Mardi Gras" carnival was a hybrid musical celebration that mixed African, French and Native traditions in its colorful parades and marching bands. New Orleans, a commercial city, was more tolerant towards the blacks than the other southern cities. When the blacks were emancipated, it was a much friendlier place to be for a black musician than most of the South. In 1897 the puritan government of the city had created "Storyville", the red-light district, nicknamed after the politician who had the idea, a district that quickly became a city within the city. Since most establishments had a musician entertaining the customers, "Storyville" became the biggest employer of black musicians outside of Broadway. When "Storyville" was shut down in 1917, black musicians spread all over the country, bringing with them bits and pieces of New Orleans' sound. One of New Orleans' bands, the Original Creole Band, exported a new kind of music that would be called "jazz". (book) 7. Discuss circumstances that contributed to race riots and violence throughout the WWI era. Despite the reformist impulse of the progressive era and the democratic ideals trumpeted as the United States went to war against Germany, most white Americans clung to social Darwinism and white supremacy. White people reacted with contempt and violence to demands by black people for fairer treatment and equal opportunities in American society. In the decade immediately preceding World War I, a pattern of racial violence began to emerge in which white mob assaults were directed against entire Black communities. These race riots were the product of white societys desire to maintain its superiority over Blacks, vent its frustrations in times of distress, and attack those least able to defend themselves. In these race riots, white mobs invaded Black neighborhoods, beat and killed large numbers of Blacks and destroyed Black property. In most instances, Blacks fought back and there were many casualties on both sides, though most of the dead were Black. (notes) Gunnar Myrdal opposed the use of the term riots to describe these interracial conflicts. He preferred to call this phenomena a terrorization or massacre, and (considered) it a magnified, or mass, lynching. Race riots occurred in both the North and South, but

were more characteristic of the North. They were primarily urban phenomena, while lynching was primarily a rural phenomenon. Although lynchings were decreasing slightly by the turn of the century, race riots were perceptibly on the increase. Large-scale interracial violence became almost epidemic, as increasing numbers of Blacks migrated to Northern cities. The greatest number of race riots occurred during and just after World War I. During this period the North was concerned with the tremendous migration of Blacks from the South, and the displacement of some whites by Blacks in jobs and residences, which escalated social tensions between the races. The Black American community responded to white mob violence in several ways. Black people resisted this oppression. This resistance was expressed in three ways: retaliatory violence, Northward migration, and organized non-violent protest. (notes/book) 8.Discuss whether or not you believe black writers, artists, and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance created distinctive work, essentially apart of American culture, or separate from it. The rapid modernization of the African-American population during the early 20th century, the byproduct of migration, urbanization, industrialization, the First World War, and a volatile racial climate, forged a national consciousness and sense of community. Efforts to make American society acknowledge the full citizenship of black Americans occurred on multiple fronts, coalescing into the so-called New Negro Movement. Socio-economic circumstances had engendered a distinctive, self-determined identity and culture, manifested not only in political activity but also at the personal level, through the carefully cultivated presentation of the body by means of attire, coiffure, cosmetics, and comportment. The figure of the New Negro epitomized the modern sensibility that African-Americans claimed, and deployed to counteract the derogatory caricatures that pervaded the American imagination. (notes) The names given to this movement reveal its essential features. Certainly the words "black" and "Negro" mean that this movement centered on African Americans, and the term "renaissance" indicates that something new was born or, more accurately, that a cultural spirit was reawakened in African American cultural life. Although most historians remember the Harlem Renaissance as a literary movement, in fact, African Americans during the 1920s also made great strides in musical and visual arts, as well as science. Finally, the focus on Harlem (an old Dutch-built neighborhood of New York City) indicates that this "renaissance" was something of an urban phenomenon. In fact, the exciting developments in African American cultural life of the 1920s were not limited to Harlem, but also had roots in other urban communities where black Americans migrated in great numbers: East St. Louis, Illinois; Chicago's south side; and Washington, D.C. The Harlem Renaissance as a movement represented a rebirth of African American culture in the United

States. As a product of black urban migration and black Americans' disappointment with racism in the United States, the renaissance was aimed at revitalizing black culture with pride. In political life, literature, music, visual art, and other cultural areas, African Americans in the 1920s put forth their individual and collective sense of dignity in the face of an American culture that often considered them second-class citizens. (book). The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural awakening in literature and the arts that was unprecedented in African-American history. Words just poured from the mouths of poets, essayists and novelists; although at times they disagreed on the purposes of black art, the writers and artists who were part of the Harlem Renaissance had an enduring impact. This movement allowed thoughtful and creative men and women to grapple what it meant to be black in a society in which the white majority had defined the black minority as inferior, culturally backwards and incapable. Hereafter, African Americans were less likely to let other people characterized them in demeaning ways. Black entertainers, dancers, musicians, singers, writers made a name for themselves and contributed to popular culture in a mostly urban environment. As the nation moved into the 1930's, it remained to be seen whether the modest (but real) progress of the 1920s would be sustained. (notes) 9.Discuss the roles of racism and bigotry as they played out through the Scottsboro Case and Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. The 1930's marked the rising prominence of black scholars and intellectuals, but, paradoxically, this decade also witnessed the worst manifestation of racism in American science. The worst case of bigotry and racial mistreatment took place in Alabama. The Tuskegee Study was called a treatment program, but it turned out to be an experiment, designed to chart the progression and development of a potentially fatal disease. It was an immoral policy,but racism and bigotry played a huge part in the decision to go ahead with the project. It was just one more act of discrimination, and was totally illegal. The 'justification' was that it was a medical experiment to study the long term effects of syphilis in humans; the "subjects" were not informed that they were "Guinea Pigs" for a medical experiment.(notes) A major study on syphilis started; 622 black men, all poor and illiterate sharecroppers were recruited. Only 431 of these men were infected with an advanced case of syphilis, there rest were free of the disease and served as controls for comparison. The government doctors hired a black nurse to gain the trust of the men she advised them they had bad blood and needed special treatment. Although penicillin became available in the 1940s these men never received it; the sharecroppers were given ineffective placebos which were told would cure them. They men were observed for over 40 years, although the experiment was supposed to last only six to twelve months.(book/notes)

The case of the Scottsboro Boys v. the state of Alabama became a cause celebre, as a major precursor of the U.S. civil rights movement and led to two landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings that enhanced fundamental rights for all Americans. The case also was a sobering reminder that rights enshrined in written constitutions are rarely immediate realities, but instead evolve over time in the light of judicial interpretation and review. In March 1931, nine young black males, aged 13 to 21, riding in an open freight car through rural Alabama were jailed and put on trial after being accused of raping two white women, (Ruby Bates and Victoria Price) who also were aboard the train. The place was Scottsboro, a small hitherto little-known town that was to give its name to one of the most famous civil rights cases in American history, a story of racism, stereotypes and sexual taboos played out in the heart of a then rigidly segregated South. Eight of the nine young men were hastily convicted and sentenced to death. Roy Wright, who was just 13 years old, was spared the ultimate penalty. (notes/book). 10.How did Hollywood films portray black Americas during the 1930s and 1940s? How did these images affect white Americans attitudes and behavior toward black Americans? How did these representations contribute to the emergence of an alternative or independent black cinema? In the 1930s and 1940s 9after the introduction of sound/motion pictures), black and white producers began to make what were known as race films for African American audiences. Except for these race films, white film executives, from the beginning of the film industry, had cast black men/women in roles which were designed to reassure, comfort and entertain white audiences. Continuing on with this trend, Hollywood movies of the 1930s were usually cast in servile roles (as some sort of servant, or maid, with a big smile,obedient and subservient, and a times as buffoons).eventually during and after WWII Hollywood developed more sophisticates race-directed movies. Of particular significance was the positive (poetically romanticized) portrayal of black Americans in a movie financed by the War Department to gain support among African Americans for the U.S role in WWII. (The Negro Soldier). To succeed commercially, African Americans filmmakers had to disguise their dissent or create art purely for other black people. Black culture existed within and was shaped by (while simultaneously transforming), American culture; to the degree that black Americans had been assimilated, white American culture was their culture as well. (book/notes) 11. How did WWII alter the status of African Americans? What were some of the consequences of so many black servicemen fighting in Europe against fascism and Nazism? As the economy pulled out of the Great Depression through military mobilization, black Americans gained newfound opportunities, although these did not come without struggle, protest, and violence in

cities such as Detroit. Black men and women made substantial gains in the military during the war years as demonstrated by the famous Tuskegee Airmen. At the beginning of World War II, both the Marine Corps and Army Air Corps, two branches of the United States military, refused to accept black servicemen. During World War II: Approximately fifteen percent of the black population left the South; Black men left agricultural labor in significant numbers; and Black women increasingly found work outside the laundry and domestic service During WWII there were also some examples of the beginning of desegregation within the military; the Marine Corps began accepting African Americans in 1942; the Navy allowed African Americans into officer training schools by 1943; and the Army and Navy Nurse Corps opened themselves to all applicants without regard to race. (notes/book). A moral recoil from the savage racial policies of the Nazis drove the issue of black equality to the forefront of national politics. Moreover, hundred of thousands of black men/women learned new skills and ideas while serving in the armed forces and many resolved to come home and claim their rights. (book) 12. What role did ordinary and everyday people play in the Civil Rights Movement? How did children contribute to the overall struggle for social change? The everyday and ordinary people played a vital role in the Civil Rights Movement as there could not simply be one leader/prominent figure (i.e. MLK) without an organized group of people. These ordinary people had been training for the right time/opportunity for years (Rosa Parks who was portrayed as simply a tired black woman on a bus had been training for these types of challenges). Peaceful resistance and sit-ins were rehearsed in order to prepare the everyday man/woman to withstand the worst possibly imaginable brutality. Beginning 1960s motivated black college students adapted a strategy that CORE used in the 1940s (the sit-ins); they emerged as the dynamic vanguard of the civil right movement. Their distinctive, independent contributions to the black protest movement accelerated the pace of social change. Before long the movement would inspire an even larger number of both northern black and white young students. (book) By early 1963 the movement appeared to be stalled; the Birmingham movement was beginning to lose momentum because many of the protesters were either in jail or could not risk to be arrested any longer. At this point the movement proposed to use school children to continue the protest; observers criticized the idea and, but Doctor King and other leaders believed it was necessary to risk harming the children in order to ensure their freedom. Therefore, on May 2 and 3, 1963 a children crusade involving thousand of children, (as young as 6 years old), marched. Following that day (which resulted in violence against the children), both the children and the adults started fighting back; as violence escalated, white businessmen started becoming corned and soon the city came to the bargaining table. (book)

13. Discuss the implications and consequences associated with the Gary Convention and the black political agenda of the early 1970s. In your estimation, were tangible gains made, or just symbolic, why, why not? By 1974 there were 1, 593 black elected officials outside the south a d by 1980 the number had risen to 2, 455 (book). Although black people in the northern cities had been able to vote for a century, they had not been able to command an equal voice in city governance. The rise of black power and the inspiration of Voting Right Act signaled a new departure. Victories were possible because of one of the most significant events in recent black political history, the Gary convention of 1972. The Gary Convention marked the zenith of the Black Power movement. Most of the important strands of the Black Power movement were represented by delegates and by their components of the political platform, the National Black Political Agenda. However, the convention was nit homogeneous and no unified black consensus emerged. The Gary convention was important because it signaled a shift in the political focus of the black community toward electoral politics ans aways from mass demonstrations and protest measures. (book)