US Civil Rights: African Americans - Federal gov. help/hinder

(+) Smith v Allwright (1944) - outlawed white primaries in Texas, affecting all other states where Democrats had used the white primary rule

• Black registered votes in the US rose from 2% of AAs in 1940 to 12% in 1947
• By the late 1940s, 25 AAs had been elected to state legislatures, although none in the Deep South

(+) Brown v BoE (1954) - ended 'separate but equal'

(+) Griggs v Duke Power (1971) - upheld affirmative action in employment 

(-) Slaughterhouse Case (1873) - decided that the rights of citizens were under state control, leading to the implementation of Jim Crow

(-) Plessy v Ferguson (1896) - 'separate but equal'

(-) Mississippi v Williams (1898) - allowed state legislation that excluded AAs from the voting register

(-) University of California v Bakke (1978) - upheld affermative action but declared racial quotas unconstitutional

• Began a partial reaction away from too much affermative action

(-) Freeman v Pitts (1992) - ruled SC would not continue to aid segragation which had started to appear due to house ownership patterns amoung blacks and whites

(+) Roosevelt (1933 - 1945)

• New Deal - 1 million new jobs for AAs 
  • HOWEVER work camps still segragated
• Ended segragation in wartime industry in WW2

(+) Eisenhower (1953 - 1961)

• Little Rock
• Civil Rights Acts (1957 and 1960) - significant as first CR legislation for 82 years
  • HOWEVER criticised for being an attempt to win the black vote
  • Not know for his support of CR, just responded to problems eg. Little Rock - believed you could not force people to change their beliefs

(+) JFK (1961 - 1963)

• 'New Frontier' speech set out his pledge to tackle poverty, ignorance and prejudice
• Executive Order March 1961 created PCEEO - aimed to prevent discrimination for those doing business with the federal gov. - start of positive discrimination as places were set aside for AAs in companies wanting government contracts
• Appointed Thurgood Marshall to US Court of Appeals
• HOWEVER he mostly only seemed to react when law and order was breaking down (freedom rides, Birmingham)

(+) LBJ (1963 - 1969)

• Civil Rights Act (1964), Voting Rights Act (1965), Fair Housing Act (1968)
• Appointed Thurgood Marshall to SC
• 'Great Society' - helped northern AAs living in ghettos
• Tackled poverty and increased education HOWEVER limited by Vietnam
• Pushed through more legislation than all presidents before and after him - second Reconstruction?

(+) Nixon (1969 - 1974)

• Affirmative action - in his Philidelphia plan contractors set targets for people hiring minorities - resuled in an increase in black construction workers form 1% to 12%
• Clear that voting equality had arrived - Nixon was trying to get AA votes by improving their employment opportunities

(-) Wilson (1919 - 1921)

• Screened 'the Birth of a Nation' in the White House
• Praised KKK for defending Southern rights after civil war
• Dismissed AA advisors from the federal government 

(-) Reagan

• Reduced welfare which disproportionately impacted AAs
  • In 1980 AAs made up 11% of the population but recieved 34% of welfare aid and 35% of food stamps - AAs in poverty trap
• Tried to veto Fair Housing Act
• Appointed fewer blacks to federal government than any president since Eisenhower

(-) Bush (1989 - 1993)

• Most liberal CR record eg. had voted for the Fair Housing Act (1968)
• Less keen on 'artificial' CR eg. bussing and affirmative action
• Vetoed a CR Bill (later allowed it to become law)
• Only 6.9% of his judicial appointments were AAs

(+) Key part in Reconstruction

• President Johnson hostile to CR - initiative passed to Radical Republicans
• Unusual situation, which supporters of AA CR took advantage of 
• Program of reform not equalled until the 1960s - 13th, 14th and 15th Amendements

(+) Authority of Congress was behind the changes of the 1960s

• Previous changes had come about more by executive orders eg. Truman and the desegragation of the military 
• Wave of sympathy folling the assasination of JFK - Johnson took advantage of this

(+) Strengthened the Voting Rights Act in 1982

• Stricter law concerning discrimination against groups of voters

(+) Insisted on making MLK's birthday a national holiday (1983)

(+) Strengthened the Fair Housing Act and went against Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act in 1988

(-) Little action taken from 1876

• Due to the power of the Southern Democrats - given back control over southern racial policy

(-) Hayes-Tilden Compromise

• Marked the end of Reconstruction
• Federal troops left the south - could no longer enforce CR Amendments

(-) Southern members of Congress acted as a barrier for CR reforms until the 1960s

• Made it harder for presidents to consider comprehensive CR legislation