Southern Resistance to Reconstruction How could Southern state

Southern Resistance to Reconstruction • How could Southern state governments deny African-Americans their rights of voting and equality?

Denying African American Voting Rights • Literacy Tests – You had to know how to read in order to vote – Is this a good idea? – Overturned by Voting Rights Act 1965 • Poll Taxes – You had to pay to vote – Is this fair? – Overturned 24 th amendment 1964 • Grandfather Clauses – Various ways to exclude poor whites from literacy test/poll taxes, etc. • • • If your grandfather was eligible to vote If your grandfather fought in a war If you were eligible to vote in 1867 Overturned by Guinn vs. United States (1915) Jim Crow Laws – – Segregation of the races in public places How was this allowed to exist as laws? Upheld by Plessy vs. Ferguson Overturned by lots of cases, laws during Civil Rights movement, Brown vs. Board of Ed was main thrust

Plessy vs. Ferguson-1896 • Background of case – La. Law-separate RR cars for races – Plessy bought a ticket to sit in the white section!!!! – Plessy hired to fight the ruling b/c he was an “octoroon” (1/8 th black), • then announce on the train that he was black • Also to show the vagaries of definitions of race!! • he was arrested, appeal went to Supreme Court

Plessy Decision • Plessy loses • “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” • Made segregation legal in the South for over ½ century • Finally overturned in Brown vs. Board of Ed. (1954)

KKK • • • Formed as a social club of Confederate Veterans-Tennessee 1866 Nathan Bedford Forest Why do they wear the outfit? – Disguise/anonymity – Confederate soldier ghosts • Methods – Intimidation/violence/burnings/lynching's – Polling places • • • Who would they target the most and why? Targeted freedmen (usually landowners more than sharecroppers)/ Republican Party Why was it successful? – Most southern leaders were either in the Klan or sympathetic towards its – Prosecution? ? What jury is going to stand up to KKK (think mob trials) – KKK acts gave federal enforcement and pretty much ended the KKK – KKK actually reached its height in 1920’s • • • 5 million members By then they were anti-everything Pres. Harding thought to be inducted into KKK in White House Governor of Indiana Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black Sen. Byrd from W. Va today (ironically, he was the Senate Minority Leader)

“Southern Redemption” • Return of Democratic Party to power • Aided by wimpy/indifferent North • Lack of federal power because of federal scandals under Grant • Amnesty Act 1872 - allowed former Confederate leaders to rejoin federal government • 1872 - Freedmen’s Bureau disbanded

Election of 1876 • Rutherford B. Hayes-Republican (“The Great Unknown”) – “Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some are born in Ohio!!” • Samuel Tilden- Democrat- Governor of NY

Results? • Tilden wins popular vote • Seemed to have electoral college count also, but Republicans charged that there were 3 Southern states where election results were fraud – Are the Republican claims realistic? • Democrats charged that Republicans using their power to fix the election • Special commission set up to count the vote in the 3 disputed states (La. Fla. S. Car. ) • 8 Republicans/7 Dems on the commission • Who wins the election? ? ? ?

“President Compromise” • Compromise of 1877 – – Hayes becomes President Troops removed from the South Hayes appoints a Southerner to cabinet Congress agrees to give $$ to rebuild South and pay for Southern Transcontinental Railroad • Who gets the better deal, North or South? ? ? • Reconstruction over!!