 starter activity

1. starter activity Why might other ethnic minorities, like Native Indians, have found it harder to make progress on civil rights issues compared with Black Americans?

2. Problems campaigning • Lack legitimacy – e.g. Chicanos often illegal immigrants • Isolated – e.g. Native American Indian reservations often widely dispersed • Language differences • Suspicions over national security • Smaller voting blocs

3. Did black Americans steal the limelight?  Aims To assess the impact of the Civil Rights movement on other ethnic groups

4.  Your task • Read Paterson p.103-6 and note down the conditions of Japanese-Americans, Native Americans and Hispanic (Mexican) Americans after WWII

5. Japanese-Americans • All Japanese assets frozen • Curfew imposed • Relocation camps • Racism, e.g. ‘slap the Jap off the map’ • Supreme court rulings supported curfew & relocation camps

7. Japanese relocation camps

11. Mexican Americans • Increased demand for cheap Mexican labour during WWII • 1942, Bracero Agreement • Chicanos often illegal immigrants, making it harder to campaign for better rights

14. Native Americans • 1944, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) • Copied techniques of NAACP, e.g. pursuit of legal rulings • Poor social status and living conditions: occupied infertile land, often seen as welfare-dependent

15. Native Americans served in US army

17.  Your task • Read Sanders p.156 -7 and Paterson p.308-317 and complete a table similar to the one below

18.  Plenary • How far did civil rights advance for ethnic minorities compared with black Americans? • Why do you think rights for ethnic minorities other than blacks did not advance as quickly?