OCR A-Level History A H505
Y101: Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016Unit group 1
Y102: Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest 1035–1107Unit group 1
Y103: England 1199–1272Unit group 1
Y104: England 1377–1455Unit group 1
Y105: England 1445–1509: Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VIIUnit group 1
Y106: England 1485–1558: The Early TudorsUnit group 1
Y107: England 1547–1603: The Later TudorsUnit group 1
Y108: The Early Stuarts and the Origins of the Civil War 1603–1660Unit group 1
Y109: The Making of Georgian Britain 1678–c.1760Unit group 1
Y110: From Pitt to Peel 1783–1853Unit group 1
Y111: Liberals, Conservatives and the Rise of Labour 1846–1918Unit group 1
Y112: Britain 1900–1951Unit group 1
Y113: Britain 1930–1997Unit group 1
Y201: The Rise of Islam c.550–750Unit group 2
Y202: Charlemagne 768–814Unit group 2
Y203: The Crusades and the Crusader States 1095–1192Unit group 2
Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion From the Steppes c.1167–1405Unit group 2
Y205: Exploration, Encounters and Empire 1445–1570Unit group 2
Y206: Spain 1469–1556Unit group 2
Y207: The German Reformation and the Rule of Charles v 1500–1559Unit group 2
Y208: Philip II 1556–1598Unit group 2
Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: Four Case StudiesUnit group 2
Y210: Russia 1645–1741Unit group 2
Y211: The Rise and Decline of the Mughal Empire in India 1526–1739Unit group 2
Y212: The American Revolution 1740–1796Unit group 2
Y213: The French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon 1774–1815Unit group 2
Y214: France 1814–1870Unit group 2
Y215: Italy and Unification 1789–1896Unit group 2
Y216: The USA in the 19th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803–c.1890Unit group 2
Y217: Japan 1853–1937Unit group 2
Y218: International Relations 1890–1941Unit group 2
Y219: Russia 1894–1941Unit group 2
Y220: Italy 1896–1943Unit group 2
Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963Unit group 2
Y222: The Cold War in Asia 1945–1993Unit group 2
Y223: The Cold War in Europe 1941–1995Unit group 2
Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948–1999Unit group 2
Y301: The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800Unit group 3
Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066Unit group 3
Y303: English Government and the Church 1066–1216Unit group 3
Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437Unit group 3
Y305: The Renaissance c.1400–c.1600Unit group 3
Y306: Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y307: Tudor Foreign Policy 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y308: The Catholic Reformation 1492–1610Unit group 3
Y309: The Ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire 1453–1606Unit group 3
Y310: The Development of the Nation State: France 1498–1610Unit group 3
Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783Unit group 3
Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16th and 17th CenturiesUnit group 3
Y313: The Ascendancy of France 1610–1715Unit group 3
Y314: The Challenge of German Nationalism 1789–1919Unit group 3
Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945Unit group 3
Y316: Britain and Ireland 1791–1921Unit group 3
Y317: China and Its Rulers 1839–1989Unit group 3
Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855–1964Unit group 3
Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992Unit group 3
Y320: From Colonialism to Independence: The British Empire 1857–1965Unit group 3
Y321: The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab SpringUnit group 3
Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992
Depth study: Civil rights in the ‘Gilded Age’ c.1875–c.1895 — Nature and extent of progress
- 1 thing to know
- Unit group 3
Overview
Recall questions on nature and extent of progress in civil rights in this era, the varied impact of industrialisation on women.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Why is the period from the mid-1870s to the mid-1890s called the Gilded Age, and what does the label imply about civil rights?
Model answer
The name comes from the novel Twain and Warner published in 1873, and it implies a thin layer of gold over base metal: spectacular industrial wealth and constitutional promises of equality concealing corruption, poverty and the collapse of the rights supposedly secured by the Reconstruction amendments.
- 2
What is the case that African Americans went backwards in this era?
Model answer
Federal protection was withdrawn after 1877, the Supreme Court gutted the enforcement of the Reconstruction amendments, Mississippi began systematic disfranchisement in 1890, convict leasing and the crop lien tightened, and lynching reached its peak in 1892 with well over 200 recorded killings, which is why Rayford Logan described the years around the turn of the century as the nadir of American race relations.
- 3
Explain what the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 decided and why the ruling mattered.
Model answer
The Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 by ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment restrained only state action and gave Congress no power over discrimination by private hotels, theatres and railways, which left segregation in daily life beyond federal reach for eighty years.
- 4
Explain C Vann Woodward's argument about the origins of Jim Crow and how later historians have challenged it.
Model answer
Woodward argued that rigid statutory segregation was not the automatic successor to slavery but a later creation of the 1890s, after a period of fluid and varied race relations, implying that things could have turned out otherwise; critics such as Joel Williamson and Howard Rabinowitz replied that separation was already the practical rule from the 1860s and that the alternative to segregated facilities was usually no facilities at all.
- 5
Assess the effectiveness of federal and state government policy on civil rights in the Gilded Age.
Model answer
Federal effort collapsed: Hayes bought the presidency by abandoning the South, Cleveland was openly unsympathetic, and although Harrison backed the Lodge Bill of 1890 to restore federal supervision of elections its defeat in the Senate ended any serious attempt until the twentieth century; at state level Redeemer governments in the South actively dismantled rights through disfranchising constitutions, convict leasing and the starving of Black schools, while some western states extended the vote to women, so state governments were the decisive actors in both directions.
- 6
How did the Supreme Court's use of the Fourteenth Amendment differ for freedpeople and for corporations?
Model answer
In the Slaughterhouse Cases of 1873, United States v Cruikshank in 1876 and the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 the Court read the amendment so narrowly that it protected almost no Black citizen from violence or exclusion, yet from Santa Clara in 1886 it treated corporations as persons entitled to due process and used the same clause to strike down state regulation of business.
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