620 CHAPTER 21

ONE AMERICAN’S STORYAfrican-American sisters Bessie and Sadie Delany grew up

in North Carolina in the early 20th century. Almost 100

years later, they described their first taste of racial

discrimination, different treatment on the basis of race.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

We were about five and seven years old. . . . Mama andPapa used to take us to Pullen Park . . . and thatparticular day, the trolley driver told us to go to theback. We children objected loudly, because we alwaysliked to sit in the front. . . . But Mama and Papa justgently told us to hush and took us to the back.

Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany, Having Our Say

As you will read in this section, racial discrimination was common

throughout the United States.

Racism Causes DiscriminationAs you read in earlier chapters, racist attitudes had been developing inAmerica since the introduction of slavery. The low social rank held byslaves led many whites to believe that whites were superior to blacks.Most whites held similar attitudes toward Asians, Native Americans, andLatin Americans. Even most scientists of the day believed that whiteswere superior to nonwhites. However, no scientists believe this today.

Such attitudes led whites to discriminate against nonwhites across thecountry. The most obvious example of racial discrimination was in theSouth. Southern blacks had their first taste of political power duringReconstruction. (See Chapter 18.) But when Reconstruction ended in1877, Southern states began to restrict African Americans’ rights.

Bessie (left) andSadie Delany

MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

33

Segregation and Discrimination

Changes in American Life

Racial discrimination ran through

American society in the late 19th

and early 20th centuries.

Modern American society continues

to face the problems caused by

racism and discrimination.

racialdiscrimination

Jim Crow

segregation

Plessy v. Ferguson

Booker T.Washington

W. E. B. Du Bois

NAACP

Ida B. Wells

Taking Notes

Use your chart totake notes about changes in civilrights.

Segregation Expands in the SouthOne way for whites to weaken African-American political power was torestrict their voting rights. For example, Southern states passed laws thatset up literacy, or reading, tests and poll taxes to prevent AfricanAmericans from voting. White officials made sure that blacks failed lit-eracy tests by giving unfair exams. For example, white officials some-times gave blacks tests written in Latin. Poll taxes kept many blacksfrom voting because they didn’t have enough cash to pay the tax.

Such laws threatened to prevent poor whites from voting, too. Tokeep them from losing the vote, several Southern states added grandfa-ther clauses to their constitutions. Grandfather clauses stated that a mancould vote if he or an ancestor, such as a grandfather, had been eligibleto vote before 1867. Before that date, most African Americans, free orenslaved, did not have the right to vote. Whites could use the grand-father clause to protect their voting rights. Blacks could not.

In addition to voting restrictions, African Americans faced Jim Crowlaws. Jim Crow laws were meant to enforce segregation, or separation,of white and black people in public places. As a result, separate schools,trolley seats, and restrooms were common throughout the South.

Plessy v. FergusonAfrican Americans resisted segregation, but they had little power to stopit. In 1892, Homer Plessy, an African American, sued a railroad company,arguing that segregated seating violated his Fourteenth Amendmentright to “equal protection of the laws.”

In 1896, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson reached the SupremeCourt. The Court ruled against Plessy. It argued that “separatebut equal” facilities did not violate the Fourteenth Amend-ment. This decision allowed Southern states to maintainsegregated institutions.

But the separate facilities were not equal. White-con-trolled governments and companies allowed the facilitiesfor African Americans to decay. African Americans wouldhave to organize to fight for equality.

621

A. RecognizingEffects What wasthe purposebehind literacytests, poll taxes,and grandfatherclauses?A. Answer toprevent AfricanAmericans fromvoting withoutpreventing poorwhites from voting

B. IdentifyingProblems Whywas a policy of“separate butequal” unfair?B. AnswerSeparate facilitieswere almostnever equal, withblack facilitiestypically beinginferior.

Segregation forcedAfrican Americansto use separateentrances fromwhites and toattend separate,usually inferior,schools like theone shown below.

African Americans OrganizeBooker T. Washington was an early leader in the effort to achieve equal-ity. He had been born into slavery. But after the Civil War, he became ateacher. In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to helpAfrican Americans learn trades and gain economic strength. Washingtonhired talented teachers and scholars, such as George Washington Carver.

To gain white support for Tuskegee, Washington did not openly chal-lenge segregation. As he said in an 1895 speech in Atlanta, in “purelysocial matters” whites and blacks “can be as separate as the fingers, yetone as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

However, some blacks disagreed with Washington’sviews. W. E. B. Du Bois (doo•BOYS) encouragedAfrican Americans to reject segregation.

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

Is it possible . . . that nine millions of men can makeeffective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights? . . . If history and reason give any distinctanswer to these questions, it is an emphatic No.

W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

In 1909, Du Bois and other reformers founded theNational Association for the Advancement of ColoredPeople, or the NAACP. The NAACP played a majorrole in ending segregation in the 20th century.

Violence in the South and NorthBesides discrimination, African Americans in the Southalso faced violence. The Ku Klux Klan, which firstappeared during Reconstruction, used violence to keepblacks from challenging segregation. More than 2,500African Americans were lynched between 1885 and 1900.

Ida B. Wells, an African-American journalist fromMemphis, led the fight against lynching. After three ofher friends were lynched in 1892, she mounted an anti-lynching campaign in her newspaper. When whites calledfor Wells herself to be lynched, she moved to Chicago.But she continued her work against lynching. (See Inter-active Primary Sources, page 624.)

Like Wells, many blacks moved north to escape dis-crimination. Public facilities there were not segregatedby law. But Northern whites still discriminated againstblacks. Blacks could not get housing in white neighbor-

hoods and usually were denied good jobs. Anti-black feelings amongwhites sometimes led to violence. In 1908, whites in Springfield,Illinois, attacked blacks who had moved there. The whites lynched twoblacks within a half mile of Abraham Lincoln’s home.

622 CHAPTER 21

W. E. B. DU BOIS

1868–1963

W. E. B. Du Bois grew up in amiddle-class home. He went tocollege and earned his doctorateat Harvard. Du Bois became oneof the most distinguished scholars of the 20th century.

Du Bois fought against segre-gation. He believed that the bestway to end it would be to haveeducated African Americans leadthe fight. He referred to thisgroup of educated AfricanAmericans as the “TalentedTenth”—the most educated 10 percent of African Americans.

Why do you think Du Boisbelieved the Talented Tenthshould lead the fight againstsegregation?

C. MakingInferences Inwhat way didWashington andDu Bois disagreeabout how toachieve African-Americanprogress? C. PossibleResponseWashingtonemphasized eco-nomic growthover social equal-ity. Du Boisthought it wasmore importantto end segrega-tion immediately.

BackgroundCarver madeimportant discov-eries to improvefarming.

Racism in the WestChinese immigrants who came to the West in the 1800s also facedsevere discrimination. Chinese laborers received lower wages thanwhites for the same work.Sometimes, Chinese workersfaced violence. In 1885, whiteworkers in Rock Springs,Wyoming, refused to work inthe same mine as Chineseworkers. The whites stormedthrough the Chinese part oftown, shooting Chinese peo-ple and burning buildings.During the attack, 28 Chinesepeople were killed and 15 werewounded.

At the same time, Mex-icans and African Americanswho came to the AmericanSouthwest were forced intopeonage (PEE•uh•nihj). In this system of labor, people are forced towork until they have paid off debts. Congress outlawed peonage in 1867,but some workers were still forced to work to repay debts. In 1911, theU.S. Supreme Court declared such labor to be the same as peonage. Asa result, the Court struck down such forms of labor as a violation of theThirteenth Amendment.

Despite the problems caused by racism, many Americans had newopportunities to enjoy their lives at the turn of the century. In the nextsection, you will learn about changes in people’s daily lives.

Changes in American Life 623

2. Using GraphicsUse a chart to identify people and events related to racialdiscrimination at the turn of the century.

Which person do you thinkdid the most to end racial discrimination?

3. Main Ideasa. What were Jim Crow laws?

b. How did discriminationagainst African Americans inthe North differ from discrim-ination in the South?

c. What did Chinese immi-grants and Mexican immi-grants have in common?

4. Critical ThinkingSolving Problems Whatcould have been done to endracial discrimination againstnonwhites in the United Statesat the turn of the century?

THINK ABOUT• attitudes of whites about

nonwhites• the efforts of nonwhites

to find jobs and security• competition for jobs

1. Terms & NamesExplain the

significance of:• racial discrimination• Jim Crow• segregation• Plessy v. Ferguson• Booker T.

Washington• W. E. B. Du Bois• NAACP• Ida B. Wells

Section Assessment

ACTIVITY OPTIONS

LANGUAGE ARTSTECHNOLOGY

Research a civil rights leader from the turn of the century. Write a short biographyof that person or design a Web site devoted to the work of that person.

3

The Workingmen’sParty of Californiaproduced this anti-Chinese posterduring the 1880s.

BackgroundThe ThirteenthAmendmentbanned “involun-tary servitude”—another term for slavery.

People

Events