Life after Reconstruction After the Civil War Blacks

Life after Reconstruction

After the Civil War: Blacks make political and civil gains… • 13 th Amendment - gave 4. 3 million slaves their freedom • 14 th Amendment - African Americans given citizenship • 15 th Amendment - African American men given right to vote 2

African Americans Lost Economic Power • 40 Acres & a Mule After slavery, many African Americans thought they would get this, but didn’t • Sharecropping Instead work on land owned by whites & share profits from crops 3

African Americans Lost Political Power • Poll Tax - had to pay to vote • Literacy Test - Had to read to vote • Grandfather Clause - Could get around 1 st 2 if your grandfather could vote 4

1876 Presidential Tickets

SEGREGATION AND DISCRIMINATION • By the turn of the 20 th century, Southern States had adopted a broad system of legal discrimination • Blacks had to deal with voting restrictions, Jim Crow laws, Supreme Court set-backs, and physical violence

• Black Codes- U. S. States passed these laws to take away the Civil Rights of African Americans. » Occurred in former Confederate States in the 1860 s and the laws went on a state by state basis » Examples of Black Codes: Literacy Tests to vote Licenses required for work, marriage, weapons, property ownership, etc. NO Vagrancy, required to work, and the Codes regulated the type of work, and the hours of labor

VOTING RESTRICTIONS • All Southern states imposed new voting restrictions and denied legal equality to African Americans • Some states limited the vote to those who could read, other states had a poll tax which had to be paid prior to voting

Jim Crow Laws • The term Jim Crow comes from the minstrel show song “Jump Jim Crow” written in 1828 and performed by Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice, a white English migrant to the U. S. and the first to popularize the blackface performance. • A caricature of a shabbily dressed rural black named “Jim Crow” became a standard character in minstrel shows.

JIM CROW LAWS • Southern states passed segregation laws to separate white and black people in public and private facilities • These laws came to be known as “Jim Crow Laws”, named after an old minstrel song • Racial segregation was put into effect in schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems throughout the South

Etiquette • Blacks were expected to refer to whites with titles of superiority like BOSS, SIR, CAPTIAN, MISS, or MRS. • Whites referred to blacks using derogatory terms like BOY, LADY, GIRL and the N word. • Blacks were expected to lets whites walk of the sidewalk and signs reading things like “Negroes and Dogs Not Allowed” were common

RACE RELATIONS - 1900 • Blacks faced legal discrimination as well as informal rules and customs • Meant to humiliate these “rules” included; whites never shaking the hand of an African America, blacks had to yield the sidewalk to whites, blacks also had to remove their hats in the presence of whites

Jim Crow Violence: How else did Southern Whites enforce Jim Crow? • Ku Klux Klan secret terrorist society that beat, raped, and murdered African Americans • http: //www. pbs. org/wnet/jimcrow/stori es_org_kkk. html 16

VIOLENCE • African Americans who did not follow the racial etiquette could face severe punishment or death • Between 1882 -1892, more than 1, 400 black men and women were shot, burned, or lynched • Lynching peaked in the 1880 s and 90 s but continued well into the 20 th century

DISCRIMINATION IN THE NORTH • While most African Americans lived in the segregated South, many blacks had migrated to the North in hopes of better jobs & equality • However, the North had its own brand of racism as blacks got low paying jobs and lived in segregated neighborhoods

Plessy vs. Ferguson • Strengthened the already popular Jim Crow Laws • In 1892, 30 -year-old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in a “white” section of a railroad car • Plessy was 1/8 th black, but under Louisiana law, he was considered “colored” and was supposed to ride in the “colored car. ” • Plessy argued that his arrest was a violation of the Constitution • Ferguson, the judge, found Plessy GUILTY of refusing the leave the “white car. ”

Plessy vs. Ferguson: • What? Homer Plessey tried to sit in a whites-only train car • How did the Supreme Court Rule? Segregation is ok as long as the facilities are equal 20 • “Separate But Equal”

Plessy vs. Ferguson • After an appeal, the case went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the decision (did NOT violate the 14 th Amendment) and perpetuated the concept of “separate but equal. ” • This enabled schools, courthouses, libraries, hotels, theaters, restaurants, public transportation, etc. , to segregate “coloreds” from “whites. ”

What parts of society were segregated? Segregated Drinking Fountains 22 • Schools, cemeteries, courts, hospitals, mental institutions, orphanages, prisons, & Bibles to swear on in trials

Problem: Separate But Equal is Never Equal • Example: Whites would never fund black schools equally • Goes against 14 th Amendment (grants citizenship to everyone born in the U. S. and subject to its jurisdiction and protects civil and political liberties) 23

How else did Southern Whites enforce Jim Crow? • Lynching - a mob puts someone to death without a trial • Between 1880 -1968 nearly 5000 blacks were lynched • Why? • “incorrect behavior” • economic competition between blacks and whites 24

Jim Crow & Segregation: How did African Americans resist? • Spoke out against discrimination • Organized boycotts of segregated facilities • Tried to improve segregated facilities 25 Segregated School

How Did Washington and Du Bois Differ in Response to the Laws? W. E. B. Du Bois • He accepted social segregation • Du Bois believe equality among the races could be achieved through vocational education. • He started the Tuskegee Vocational School (1881) Booker T. Washington • He believed in total social, political, and civil rights for all African Americans. • He did not accept segregation and he wanted an end to discrimination. • He started the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)