Big Picture

Questions

1. In what year was the Thirteenth Amendment, which brought an end to the institution of slavery in the United States, passed?
2. In which region of the United States did the vast majority of African Americans live in the beginning of the twentieth century?
3. What did the “Double V” in the “Double V” campaign declared by black leaders during World War II refer to?
4. How did Hitler affect international perceptions of racism and anti-Semitism?
5. What role did foreign relations play in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court case regarding school desegregation?
6. Who was the chief organizer of the March on Washington?

Answers

1. 1865.
2. In the South. Nearly 90% of the nation’s black population lived there.
3. Two victories: victory over their enemies at home and victory over their enemies on the battlefields abroad.
4. Before World War II, both anti-Semitism in particular and racism in general had (sadly) been widely accepted, "normal" features of life in most Western nations, including the United States. But the manifest evil of the Nazis' crimes against the Jews generated worldwide horror and disgust, forcing people everywhere to confront the nightmarish consequences of aggressive ideologies of white superiority. Hitler gave anti-Semitism (and racism more broadly) a bad name.
5. In its monumental ruling in Brown v. Board, the Court agreed with the NAACP lawyers who argued that each and every decision regarding the lives of African Americans could have great repercussions in the Cold War world, including fueling Communist propaganda mills and raising doubts among friendly nations regarding American devotion to democracy.
6. A.Philip Randolph.