Answers to Race

Race vs. Ethnicity

Race- A group of persons characterized by common physical/biological traits that are passed down from their descendents.

Ethnicity- (ethnos- nation) Defined by similar genetic inheritances (visible to most members of that group) and held together by language, culture, group spirit (nationalism or group solidarity) and geography.

2. Indian Removal Act (1830)- Policy that forced tribes to emigrate from their places of origin. All eastern tribes had to move west of Mississippi. Many fought, many fled to Canada.

3. Dawes Act (1887)- Provided individual families with reservation lands (seemingly well intended). Whites bought most of Indian land and Indian acrage in U.S. went from 140 million acres to 50 acres.

4. Indian Reorganization Act- Ended Dawes Act and gave Indians civil and cultural rights, tribal governments and legal status in counties, and foster economic development.

5. Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act- Increased aid to reservation schools + students and gave Indians more control of administration of reservation (policing, roads, schools etc.)

6. Slave Patrols-

7. Slave Codes- Rules that enforced the institution of chattel slavery and regulated the lives of slaves (activites, contracts, physical boundaries etc.). Any slave that broke these codes (and therefore threatened slavery) suffered the harshest of consequences.

8. Black Codes- Various laws which regulated the lives of poor blacks and whites (eventually Blacks became much more bold and violent in their resistance much to the surprise of their white owners).

9. 10 Precepts of American Slavery Juriprudence-

-Inferiority -Property -Powerlessness

-Racial Purity -Manumission and Free Blacks

- Family -Education and Culture

-Religion -Liberty and Resistance

-By Any Means Possible

10. 13th Amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery, and with limited exceptions, such as those convicted of a crime, prohibits involuntary servitude. Prior to its ratification, slavery remained legal only in Delaware and Kentucky; everywhere else in the USA slaves had been freed by state action and the federal government's Emancipation Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln.

11. Convict-lease system- Allowed states to lease convict labor to private landowners (some whites but mostly blacks in the South)

12. Oliver Cox's lynching cycle-

a. Blacks getting too wealthy and racially independent (entitled in Whites minds)

b. Development (Whites continuous racist discussions build tensions)

c. Rumor of unspeakable crime by black on white (black man rape white woman)

d. The rumor being true, lynch mob hangs negro in public place (often killing other innocent blacks when it gets heated) and drags them across Negro neighborhood.

e. During lynching negroes hide in fear and hence put themselves at mercy of non militant white friends (begging for protection).

f. Within 2-3 days there is investigation (Where good whites speak out and black minister are appauled) which ends with a declaration of murder by "unknown parties."

g. Blacks are now thoroughly frightened of whites. They are obligated to white friends for saving their lives and never disgree with them(he who does is not praised but shunned).

h. In a relatively short period of time, the negroes begin to smile broadly and become eager to show white man that they intend no harm and would do no wrong and that they have no bitterness because of the horrible past. Then the cycle begins all over again.

13. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) - "Separate but equal" gave legal support to the actions of white supremecists. It also allowed the law to take action against Blacks who wanted basic services which then became reserved for Whites only.

14. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)- Declared that separate public schooling denied black children equal educational opportunities. "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" which violates the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment.

15. Scottsboro Boys