TKAM Context

TKAM Context

1. Race Relations in the 1930s

   • Race Relations: Refers to the forms of behaviour which arise from the interaction of people of a different race
   • During the Great Depression
   • More than 50% of African Americans faced unemployment as opposed to the 30% of white Americans
   • African American wages were 30% lower than white Americans'
   • Many white Americans blamed African Americans for the Great Depression
   • African Americans were denied jobs with the Works Project Administration because they weren't allowed to have the same amount of pay as white Americans

2. Lynch Law

   • Lynching: Punishment or execution, without due process, for real or alleged crimes, bypassing the The law
   • After African Americans were granted full rights of citizenship, many white Americans resented being on equal footing as a black man which led to groups like the Ku Klux Klan adn the Knights of the White Camelia forming
   • Most lynchings were just hangings, but other forms included burning, shooting, beaten with clubs, or even dismemberment

3. Jim Crow laws

   • During the short period after the civil war, all blacks were freed from their slavery and earned civilian rights
   • Many white Americans, especially those from the south, were enraged adn used their power in local and state government to manipulate blacks into being the "secondary" race
   • The Jim Crow laws lasted from about the 1870s through to the mid 1960s
   • The laws actual intention was to suppress the rights of blacks while appearing to be a means of avoiding conflict between the races
   • When an African American resisted, they were more than often killed, or even lunched
   • A black man could not offer his hand for a handshake. This would imply them being socially equal
   • A black man could not offer any part of his body to a white women otherwise he would be accused of rape
   • Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together
   • Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another because it would "offend" whites
   • Blacks were to be introduced to whites, never whites to blacks
   • Blacks were to refer to white people with courtesy titles, ie Mr., Mrs, Miss etc.
   • Never assert that a white person is lying!