- The document discusses racial segregation and inequality in the United States, including anti-miscegenation laws that banned interracial marriage and the 1896 Supreme Court ruling that legalized segregation. - It presents quotes from Abraham Lincoln and others that express support for white supremacy and the view that black and white races should not live as equals. - The decline in black voter registration after laws were passed in Mississippi and Louisiana in the late 19th century demonstrates how segregationist policies disenfranchised African Americans.

1. ?
• Conservative
• Focus on a black elite
• Acceptance of ‘true
womanhood’
• Capitulation to middle
class values
• Sentimental and
unchallenging
• Legitimizes inequality

6. Miscegenation
• Anti-miscegenation
laws in US until 1967
• Criminalised inter-racial
marriage
• Sometimes banned
cohabitation or sexual
relations
• Ruled as
unconstitutional by
supreme court in 1967

9. May 18, 1896:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation
in America was constitutional.

10. In Mississippi, fewer than
9,000 of the 147,000
voting-age African
Americans were registered
after 1890.
In Louisiana, where more
than 130,000 black voters
had been registered in
1896, the number had
plummeted to 1,342 by
1904.

11. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have
been, in favor of bringing about in any way
the social and political equality of the white
and black races, that I am not, nor ever have
been, in favor of making voters or jurors of
negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office,
nor to intermarry with white people; and I will
say in addition to this that there is a physical
difference between the white and black races
which I believe will forever forbid the two
races living together on terms of social and
political equality. And inasmuch as they
cannot so live, while they do remain together
there must be the position of superior and
inferior, and I as much as any other man am in
favor of having the superior position assigned
to the white race.
Abraham Lincoln in the first Lincoln-Douglas
debate, 1858.

12. “white” is not a self-evident category
Noel Ignatiev, ‘Immigrants and Whites’

14. “The problem of the nation”, continued Dr Gresham, “is not
what men will do with the negro, but what will they do with
the reckless, lawless white men who murder, lynch and burn
their fellow-citizens.”

15. “To be,” continued Iola, “the leader of a race to higher planes of
thought and action, to teach men clearer views of life and duty,
and to inspire their souls with loftier aims, is a far greater
privilege than it is to open the gates of material prosperity and
fill every home with sensuous enjoyment.”

16. “But it does rile me ter see dese mean white men
comin' down yere an' settin' up dere grog-shops,
tryin' to fedder dere nests sellin' licker to pore
culled people. Deys de bery kine ob men dat used
ter keep dorgs to ketch de runaways. I'd be chokin'
fer a drink 'fore I'd eber spen' a cent wid dem, a
spreadin' dere traps to git de black folks' money.”

17. “To be born white in this
country is to be born to
an inheritance of privileges, to
hold in your
hands the keys that open
before you the doors
of every occupation,
advantage, opportunity,
and achievement.”