v. The Rise of Segregation

Vocabularydiscriminationpoll taxsegregationJim Crow lawslynch

Guiding Question: How did African Americans resist racism and improve their way of life after Reconstruction?

Resistance and RepressionAfter Reconstruction, most

African American lived in povertyMost were SHARECROPPERS:

landless farmers who gave a large section of their crops to the landlord as rent

CYCLE OF DEBT!

Resistance and Repression1870s Benjamin “Pap”

Singleton urged African Americans to move West to from independent communities

Most went to Kansas. In two months 6,000 African Americans left the rural south for Kansas

Newspapers called it the Exodus. Migrants became known as “Exodusters”

Resistance and RepressionExodusters arrived in Kansas in

1879Others joined poor white

farmersFormed the Farmer’s Alliance1886 African Americans formed

the Colored Farmers National Alliance. 1.2 million members in 1890.

Resistance and Repression1891 many African Americans

joined the Populist PartyPosed a major challenge to the

Democratic party in the SouthIf poor whites joined the

African Americans they would be unbeatable

Democratic leaders started to appeal to racism to make it harder for African Americans to vote.

Resistance and Repression

“Some of our people, some editors especially deny that African Americans are hindered from voting; but what good is lying? They are interfered with, and we are obliged to do it, and we may as well tell the truth” – One Southern Democratic Leader

Resistance and Repression

Question: What did the Democratic Party do to prevent the Populists from gaining too much power?

Resistance and Repression

Answer: It appealed to racism among its poor white followers to prevent them from allying with African American Populists.

Imposing Segregation

Guiding Question:What laws did southern states pass to impose segregation and deny African Americans the right to vote?

Imposing Segregation

After Reconstruction ended, the rights of African Americans declined

Attempts to unify whites and African Americans failed

Movement to diminish civil rights picked up momentum

Taking Away the Vote15th Amendment prohibits

denying citizens the right to vote based on race, color, previous condition of servitude

Does not bar states from using other groundsPoll TaxLiteracy Test

Taking Away the Vote1899 Mississippi began a $2 poll tax

(expensive)Poll tax – a tax of a fixed amount that had

to be paid before a person could voteMississippi also instituted a literacy test,

required voters to be able to read and understand the state’s constitution

Few African Americans born after the Civil War had attended school. Illiterate. Even if you could read, officials would pick the hardest sections.

Other southern states adopted similar restrictions.

Between 1890 – 1900 number of registered African American voters fell.

White voters exempt

Election officials were less strict in applying tax or test to whites; however number of white voters fell significantly

Louisiana introduced the grandfather clause for whites Allowed any man to vote if an

ancestor could vote in 1867Exempted whites from most voting

restrictionsWas designed to increase the

number of white voters

Legalizing SegregationAfrican Americans faced

discrimination in the North, but in the South segregation (separation) was different in the South where laws were passed that rigidly enforced discriminationSegregation – the separation or

isolation of a race , class, or groupDiscrimination – different treatment

or preference or a bias other than individual merit

Legalizing Segregation: Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow Laws – Statues enacted to enforce segregation.1883 Supreme Court overturned the

Civil Rights Act of 1875. That law had prohibited keeping people out of public places on the basis of race and barred racial discrimination in selecting jurors.

The Supreme Court, however, ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment provided only that “no state” could deny citizens equal protection under the law. Private organizations, such as hotels, theaters, and railroads, were free to practice segregation.

Legalizing SegregationPrivate organizations,

hotels, theatres and railroads could segregate.

Southern states passed a series of laws establishing racial segregation

African Americans could no longer ride together in the railroad car

Could not drink from the same water fountain

Plessy v. Ferguson1892 Homer Plessy

challenged the Louisiana lawForced him to ride in a

separate railroad carArrested for riding in white

only car1896 Plessy v FergusonSupreme Court upheld

Louisiana law “separate but equal”. Established 50 years of racial segregation.

Legalizing SegregationWhat was the purpose of the “grandfather clause”?

Legalizing SegregationTo allow whites who could not pay the poll tax to pass literacy requirements to vote.

The African American Response

Guiding Question: How did African American community leaders respond to legalized segregation?

The African American ResponseHistorian Rayford Logan

Opening of 20th century as the low point of African American status

Responded to violence and discrimination in many waysIda B. WellsMary Church TerrellBooker T. WashingtonW.E.B. DuBois

Each used different approaches to address this

Ida B. Wells1800s mob violence increased1890 -1899 154 lynched per year

Lynched – to execute, by hanging, without lawful approval

1892 Ida B. Wells launched a crusade against lynching

A mob drove Wells out of Chicago1895 published a book

denouncing mob violenceCongress rejects anti-lynching

bill, but lynching decreased significantly in 1900s

Mary Church TerrellCollege educated. Born after the Civil WarPresident Benjamin Harrison refused to condemn

lynching, she started lifelong campaign against Lynching, Racism, Sexism

Had help from Jane Addams and Susan B. AnthonyFounded the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)Formed the Women Wage Earner’s Association

Assisted African AmericanNurses, waitresses, domestic workers

Led boycott against Washington D.C. department stores when they refused to serve African Americans

Terrell wantedFuture with promise and hope, no favors – just an equal chance

“History of the Naacp & Civil Rights” Video

Booker T. WashingtonBooker T. Washington proposed

achieving economic rather than political goals

1895 Booker’s goals in front of a mostly white audienceKnown as the Atlanta

CompromiseUrged African Americans to

postpone fight for civil rightsConcentrate on education and

vocations to achieve full equality

W.E.B. DuBoisFounded the civil rights group the Niagara

Movement which, while a failure, was the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Atlanta Compromise provoked a challenge from W.E.B. DuBois – saw no reason to postpone civil rights

New generation of activist1903 wrote the book The Souls of Black

Folk Saw no advantage to giving up rightsConcerned with protecting voting

rights

DuBois Rejects Compromise“Negroes must insist

continually, in season and out of season.” he wrote, “ that voting is necessary to proper manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism.”

Many African Americans would struggle to win the voteEnd discriminationWould be a long struggle

The African American ResponseWhat was the nature of the compromise urged by Booker T. Washington in the Atlanta Compromise speech?

The African American ResponseAfrican Americans would put on hold their fight for the right to vote; instead they would work for educational and vocational gains.