2. After the Civil War… Most African Americans are sharecroppers… Basically another form of slavery… Poor whites were beginning to take out their frustrations on blacks
4. Life should have been better… 15th amendment gave blacks the right to vote Whites found ways to intimidate blacks to keep them from voting 1866—KKK is formed Most white men in the south were VERY POOR. While economically equal to the black, prejudice helped them to feel more powerful.
6. The Colfax Massacre -- Easter, April 1873, a group of whites had been harassing a group of blacks A large number of blacks gather at the towns court house Whites surround the court house—many were former Civil War soldiers, were armed…even had a cannon Attacked and blacks went into hide Caught a black man and told him to light the building on fire or they would shoot him He lit it and then they shot him People ran out and were executed…others burned alive 150 died
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9. 1875 – Civil Rights Act Last-ditch effort by the Republicans to continue Reconstruction. It granted freedom of access to all public facilities regardless of race.
10. Election of 1876 Rutherford becomes president Reconstruction ends Union troops leave blacks in the hands of the white people with the money and the power
11. For blacks: “Oh crap.” Violence and prejudice is about to get worse. Should we stay or go?
18. TAKING AWAY THE RIGHT TO VOTE 15th Amendment said that no one could be denied a vote based on race…LOOPHOLE Southern states designed requirements for voting that didn’t mention race, but targeted blacks Poll tax –citizens had to pay to vote Literacy test – had to show competency of the state’s constitution Grandfather clause – said that if your grandfather had voted then you were exempt from the poll tax and literacy test
47. Homer Plessy 30 year old shoe maker 1/8th black, 7/8th white Under Louisiana law had to sit in the “black” section of the railroad car Refused and was jailed Louisiana courts upheld decisions Goes to the Supreme Court
48. Plessy v. Ferguson Establishes “separate but equal” is equal Separate but equal is NEVER equal. This legalized the systematic prejudice of blacks through poor education, medical services, etc.
49. African American Response Ida B. Wells - was from Tennessee. She fought against lynching. Lynching – hangings without proper court procedures She wrote articles for papers Went on speaking tours to Europe Eventually she was run out of Memphis and had to live in Chicago
50. African American Response Booker T. Washington was an educator who started the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Delivered the “Atlanta Compromise Speech” This college focused on the many things including inventions made from the peanut Didn’t argue for political rights…instead urge blacks to get an education—this was very controversial in the south
51. The Compromise On the one hand, Washington warned white America of the consequences of ignoring racial abuse or "efforts to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro." He said that "we shall constitute one third of the ignorance and crime of the south or one-third of its intelligence and progress. One-third to the business and prosperity...or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic." However, Washington also argued that "The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing."
57. W. E. B. Du Bois was the founder of the NAACP He clashed with Booker T. Washington Wanted more political representation for blacks to ensure civil rights Wanted an elite rich, powerful, and intellectual black class to strive to help other blacks 1st African American to earn a PhD from Harvard start the NAACP which will be discussed in Chapter 8.
