The Practice of Freedom
382 soru
Read the excerpt below from the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896):
"We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it."
Which of the following statements best describes the constitutional rationale used by the Supreme Court majority in this decision to justify legal segregation?
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Southern states developed legal structures to disenfranchise Black voters while avoiding direct violations of the federal Constitution. When the U.S. Supreme Court in *Guinn v. United States* (1915) struck down Oklahoma's grandfather clause because it implicitly used pre-Reconstruction voting status as a racial proxy, Southern states continued to successfully disenfranchise Black citizens through literacy tests and poll taxes. Which of the following best explains why these latter mechanisms remained legally viable despite the ruling in *Guinn*?
Excerpt from a report by the National Urban League, 1917:
"The Negroes of the South are not leaving because they are restless... They are going because they have been made to feel that there is no hope for them in the South. They are going because of the low wages, the lack of educational facilities, the crop-lien system, and the constant fear of violence. But they are also drawn by the promise of the North: the industrial jobs left open by the war, the chance to vote, and the hope of social equality."
Based on the excerpt, which of the following best explains how both push and pull factors shaped the demographic shifts of the Great Migration?
Read the following excerpt from a 1915 essay by educator Nannie Helen Burroughs:
"If the Negro is to be saved from his own low estimation of himself, he must be taught his own history. He must know how he has contributed to the civilization of the world... We must teach him to believe in himself, to respect himself, and to value his own racial heritage."
Based on the excerpt, which of the following best describes how Burroughs's educational philosophy differed from traditional industrial education models of the Jim Crow era?
Read the following excerpt from Alain Locke's introductory essay "The New Negro" (1925):
"For generations in the mind of America, the Negro has been more of a formula than a human being —a something to be argued about, condemned or defended, to be 'kept down,' or 'in his place,' or 'helped up,' to be worried with or worried over, harassed or patronized... But care and worry, the pins of patronage, are as false to the real relations of to-day as the stereotypes of prejudice."
Based on the excerpt, which of the following best describes the shift in identity represented by the concept of the "New Negro"?
Read the excerpt below from a 1915 Alabama state statute:
'It shall be unlawful for a white person and a negro to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards.'
Which of the following terms best describes the system of racial separation enforced by this type of statute?
Following the end of Reconstruction, African Americans faced systemic segregation across the United States. Which of the following best describes the primary structural difference between the systems of racial separation established in the South under Jim Crow and those that developed in Northern cities during the same era?
In 1919, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) published *Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States: 1889–1918*, a statistical study compiled from newspapers and court records. The study included the following data on the alleged causes of lynchings:
| Alleged Cause | Number of Victims | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Murder | 1,137 | 35.3% |
| Rape and Attacks on Women | 618 | 19.2% |
| Other Crimes (Arson, Theft, etc.) | 891 | 27.6% |
| No Crime (Insubordination, Economic Disputes, etc.) | 578 | 17.9% |
| Total | 3,224 | 100.0% |
Based on the table and the historical context of the anti-lynching movement, which of the following best analyzes the significance of this data in challenging contemporary justifications for racial terror?
The following is an excerpt from the proceedings of the Colored National Convention held in Rochester, New York, in 1853:
'Our churches, our fraternal associations, and our press are not mere symbols of our progress; they are the machinery of our preservation. While the laws of this land seek to deny us a political voice, our pulpits serve as legislative halls, our mutual aid societies function as our public treasuries, and our press stands as our public advocate. In these institutions, we find the only spheres where we may exercise the rights of self-government and organize for the retrieval of our liberty.'
Based on the excerpt, which of the following best characterizes the broader socio-political function of early African American institution-building?
In the late nineteenth century, several Southern states introduced 'grandfather clauses' into their constitutions alongside literacy tests and poll taxes. How did these grandfather clauses function to restrict the political participation of African Americans?
Read the following excerpt from a speech delivered by educator John Hope in 1896:
"If we are not striving for equality, in heaven’s name for what are we living? I regret that there are some of us who are willing to compromise, who are willing to accept less than equality... Now, mind you, I do not believe that as a race we should drop the industries. But I do believe that we should not allow the industries to crowd out the colleges... Let us cry out for the highest education of our youth, for the training of our leaders, for the development of our thinkers..."
Based on this excerpt, which of the following statements best describes how John Hope’s perspective contributes to the late-nineteenth-century debate over Black education?
The table below shows the demographic change in the African American population of Los Angeles, California, between 1940 and 1970:
| Year | African American Population in Los Angeles |
|---|---|
| 1940 | 63,774 |
| 1950 | 171,209 |
| 1960 | 334,916 |
| 1970 | 503,606 |
Based on the table and your knowledge of African American history, which of the following was a primary 'pull' factor that attracted African American migrants to Western cities like Los Angeles during the Second Great Migration?
Read the following excerpt from Ida B. Wells's 1892 pamphlet, *Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases*:
"The South is angry because the Negro is no longer a slave, and is making rapid strides in education, wealth, and influence... The white man's dollar is his god, and to secure this he will violate every law in the book. He cannot control the Negro’s vote, nor compete with him in business, nor prevent him from acquiring wealth, and so he resorts to the lawless mob to murder, terrorize, and subjugate."
Based on the excerpt, which of the following best explains how Wells's analysis of racial terror challenged the dominant white Southern narrative of her era?
Read the following excerpt from a document published in 1905:
"We urge upon Congress the enactment of proper legislation for the enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments... and we especially complain against the denial of equal opportunities in the common carrier system, and the discrimination in public accommodations, which is a disgrace to a Christian nation."
Based on this excerpt and your knowledge of early civil rights activism, which of the following represents a key structural or strategic distinction between the Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)?
In her 1892 collection of essays, *A Voice from the South*, educator and activist Anna Julia Cooper wrote:
'Only the BLACK WOMAN can say "when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me."
Based on this passage, which of the following best analyzes Cooper’s perspective on the relationship between Black women's activism and racial progress?
During the campaign for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill in the early 1920s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) published advertisements detailing statistical evidence that refuted the common justification that lynching was a necessary response to criminal behavior. Which of the following statements best explains the strategic purpose of publicizing these statistics?
During the nineteenth century, independent Black churches emerged as foundational institutions within African American communities. In addition to offering spiritual guidance, what major role did these churches play in the lives of free and newly emancipated African Americans?
Read the following excerpt from T. Thomas Fortune's address at the founding of the National Afro-American League in 1890:
"We propose to organize a National Afro-American League... to combat the denial of our constitutional rights. We shall not resort to physical force, but we shall utilize the weapons of persistent agitation, test cases in the courts, and political pressure to secure the full rights of American citizenship. We must stand together, for organized oppression can only be defeated by organized resistance."
The strategies outlined in the excerpt most directly prefigured the methodology of which of the following early twentieth-century initiatives?
Read the following excerpt from Ida B. Wells's pamphlet *A Red Record* (1895):
'We demand a fair trial by law for those accused of crime, and punishment prescribed by law, when proven guilty. The government which had power to confederate the states and free the slaves, now admits that it has no power to protect the lives of the citizens within its borders.'
Based on the excerpt and your knowledge of the anti-lynching movement, which of the following did Wells-Barnett identify as the central failure of the American legal system?
Read the following excerpt from an editorial by W.E.B. Du Bois in *The Crisis*, the official magazine of the NAACP, published in 1917:
"The Negro migration is a massive, quiet, and determined movement of people who have reached the limit of their endurance under Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement, and racial violence. But it is more than a flight from tyranny. It is an active quest for the opportunities created by the sudden labor shortage in Northern industries, where wages are higher, and where the Black press has long signaled the dawn of a new social and political status."
Which of the following historical conclusions is best supported by Du Bois's analysis of the Great Migration?