Bourbon Triumvirate A group of three politicians Joseph

Bourbon Triumvirate • A group of three politicians (Joseph E. Brown, Alfred H. Colquitt, and John B. Gordon) who controlled Georgia politics for twenty years after the Civil War. • Held common economic goals through the railroad and mining industries in Georgia. • Wanted preserve the “old ways” of white supremacy by serving the interests of wealth land owners • Supported the Convict Lease System • Wanted Georgia to grow economically through industry • Believed in lower taxes and less government spending on public services, including less spending on public schools • Emphasized States’ Rights

Joseph E Brown (1821 -1894) • He was a member of the Bourbon Triumvirate • Elected Governor of Georgia in 1857 and stayed during the Civil War. • Was a strong “State’s Rights” Governor • Supported the Reconstruction efforts • Briefly joined the Republican party during Reconstruction • U. S. Senator from 1880 -1890 as a Democrat • Was head of a company that leased land to the Western and Atlantic Railroad

Alfred H Colquitt (18241894) • Member of the Bourbon Triumvirate • Member of the Georgia Secession Convention in 1861 • Georgia’s governor 1876 -1882 • While governor reduced state’s war debts • Helped Georgia approved new state constitution in 1877 • U. S. Senator 1883 - 1894

John B Gordon (18321904) • • Member of the Bourbon Triumvirate Outspoken opponent of Reconstruction Leader of the Georgia KKK Head of the Western & Atlantic RR Elected governor in 1886 for 2 terms Reduced state’s war debt Brought in new industry to the state

Henry Grady (1850 - 1889) • Known as the voice of the “New South” • Managing editor of the Atlanta Journal • Spoke on his views of industrialization of the South, diversification of agriculture, and northern investors to help the south. • International Cotton Expositions and Georgia Tech. • Helped to bring jobs, recognition, and investment to Georgia. • Portrayed race relations as changing in Georgia.

Tom Watson and the Populist • Early law and political career supporting poor tenant farmer and sharecropper of both races. • 1882 Georgia General Assembly – supported the end of convict lease system and supported public education for all Georgians. • 1890 – Farmers Alliance and then the Populist party – lower taxes for farmers • Rural Free Delivery Act • Presidential candidate in 1904 and 1908 Populist party • 1904 progressive views change, become white supremacist • Wrote the newspaper The Jeffersonian • 1920 elected US Senate – Rebecca Latimer Fleton will replace him.

Atlanta Race Riot--1906 • Sept. 22, 1906: over 5000 whites and African Americans had gathered on Decatur Street • Lasted 2 days: martial law declared • 18 African Americans killed • 3 whites killed • Hundreds injured • Value of property destroyed very high • How did propaganda contribute to the riot? • Tom Watson: spread racial fears • Hoke Smith: used racial fears to gain votes during the governor’s race that year • Atlanta Newspapers: printed story after story of African American violence against whites • Effects: • City becomes deeply segregated • More of an economic divide in African American social class • Booker T Washington’s theory of economic success = equality will be proven wrong.

• “Separate but equal” • Laws passed to establish facilities for whites and blacks • Resulted in separate bathrooms, water fountains, railroad cars, waiting rooms, schools • 1889: Georgia General Assembly segregated public facilities • Always separate—rarely equal Jim Crow laws • African Americans protested the laws in public meetings • Henry Mc. Neal Turner: the civil rights laws and segregation that followed them was ‘barbarous’.

• The years between 1877 and 1918 were a time of both great social and economic successes and failures in Georgia’s history New South era • The New South period after Reconstruction is where political and community leaders in the South sought to diversify Georgia’s economy and bring Northern technology and/or investments into the state and dealt with changing social relations in the South.

Plessy v. Ferguson • Staged as a way to test the constitutionality of the Jim Crow laws (Jim Crow Car Act of 1890) • Homer Plessy: 7/8 white, 1/8 black took a seat in the ‘whites only’ car of a train • When he refused to move, he was arrested under the above act which required separate but equal accommodations on train cars • Heard by the US Supreme Court in 1896 • Upheld by a 7 -1 vote (single dissenting vote: John Marshall Harlan, a Southerner) • Plessy v. Ferguson gave states the right to control social discrimination and promote segregation

Disenfranchisement • 1900: African-Americans make up 47% of Georgia’s population • Despite 15 th amendment, laws were passed with the sole purpose of keeping them from voting • 1908: Grandfather clause—stated that only men whose fathers or grandfathers had been eligible to vote in 1867 were eligible to vote (b/c so few African Americans had been able to vote in 1867 it kept most of GA’s Af. Amer from voting) • Poll tax: a tax to be able to vote • Other requirements: own property, pass literacy tests • Literacy tests were very subjective—could be asked anything (explain antidisestablishmentarianism) • Gerrymander: a way of drawing up an election district to benefit a certain group (racial, political, special interest) • White Primary- did not allow blacks to vote in all-important primary elections In 1812, the US portrait painter, Gilbert Stuart, known for his portraits of the great US presidents, noticed a map in a newspaper office. The map showed a voting district that had been created by the Democratically dominated Massachusetts Assembly when Elbridge Gerry (17441814) was governor. The district had a peculiar shape that assured that any election in that district would favor the Democrats. Stuart drew eyes, claws, and wings on the outline of the district because it looked like a salamander. Someone in the office watched him and blended Gerry with salamander on the spot to create the word, gerrymander which survived to this today.

Booker T. Washington • Important civil rights leader • President of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama • Believed that economic independence was the only road to social and political equality • African Americans should focus on learning skills and gaining economic strength • Urged white Southerners to remember that the African American workforce had created the wealth of the South—feared that African Americans would be cast aside for immigrant labor • Speech: Atlanta’s Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895 -condoned social segregation of the races, provided that educational and economic opportunities were equal.

W. E. B. Dubois • Disagreed with Washington • Called for social and political integration • Talented 10 th: higher education for 10% of the African American population—this group could become leaders for the community • Thought Washington was making decisions that affected all blacks negatively • Disagreed that blacks who became economically successful and waited long enough would help improve race relations

Alonzo Herndon (1858 - 1927) • Born a slave to a white master and a slave mother. • After the Civil War became a sharecropper • Moved to the city to learn a trade – became a barber • Opened three barber shops in Atlanta – on Peachtree Street – Crystal Chandelier • Invested in real estate • Founded Atlanta Mutual Life Insurance Co. • Atlanta’s first black millionaire

Leo Frank case: 1913/1915 • Leo Frank – Accused of killing Mary Phagan. • Very little evidence against him but Frank was found guilty and sentenced to death. • Frank was convicted of the murder, but his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Gov. Slaton • Two months later, Frank was taken from the prison by an angry mob, brought back to Marietta, and lynched by a group calling themselves the Knights of Mary Phagan. • Resulted in the rebirth of the KKK • Nov. 1915: Atlanta preacher William Simmons and 34 others climbed to the top of Stone Mountain, lit torches, circled a burning cross, and rallied

• Used to promote Atlanta’s rebuilding and it’s industrial capabilities • Lure northern investments into the region • Booker T. Washington – The Atlanta Compromise speech – urged African Americans to focus on economic improvement as opposed to political and social rights. International Cotton Exposition 1895 • Displayed Atlanta as a “Phoenix” – rising from the ashes and established it as the leading city in the New South.