Racism and Discrimination at the Turn of the Century

Racism and Discrimination at the Turn of the Century

13th Amendment

It abolished slavery unless you were convicted of a crime. It also gave Congress the ability to enforce this law.

14th Amendment

All people born or naturalized in the United States are citizens and states may not make laws to deprive citizens of life, liberty or property without due process or equal protections.

15th Amendment

No government or state may deny a citizens right to vote based on race, color or previous condition. Congress also has the right to enforce this law.

Despite the freedoms and rights guaranteed by these amendments, African Americans in the

South faced many challenges…

• Literacy test- can you read? This rule did not apply to everybody.

• Poll tax- did you have the ability to pay for your right to vote?

• Grandfather clauses- poor whites could not pass the tests or paying taxes. The clauses let whites vote if their fathers had voted before 1865.

Segregation:

• Jim Crow Laws- Jim Crow was a musical show exaggerating slave traits. Laws were created to separate Blacks and Whites in schools, housing, transportation, parks and hospitals.

• Plessey v. Ferguson- A mixed race man sued the railroad company because they made him sit in the Black rail car. The Supreme Court ruled that the railroad company could separate passengers if accommodations were equal. “Separate but Equal” segregation was born.

• Racial Etiquette- The unwritten code for all Blacks to obey or defer to Whites in all social settings. African Americans who violated these rules could be harassed, beaten or even lynched.

• Lynching- between 1885 and 1900 over 2500 African Americans were shot, burned or hanged without a trial in the South.

Reformers: people who wanted to change

• Booker T. Washington- Sought to work within the current system. He wanted gradual integration and to seek common ground. Criticized for not be more vocal and active.

Reformers continued...• Ida B. Wells- campaigned for an end

to violence in the South. Worked with groups to help African Americans and promote justice.

Reformers continued...• WEB Dubois- Wanted more radical

change in the South. Criticized those who wanted to work within the system. Was the founder of the NAACP.

Other racial issues around the land:

North • African Americans who moved north faced the same issues of

housing, jobs and the racial etiquette of the South. West• Native Americans were largely forgotten and put on

reservations.• Mexicans or Mexican Americans were hired for manual labor

on railroads and desert irrigation projects. Often paid less and forced into debt peonage (Owing more than what you are paid.)

• Chinese immigrants were the majority of workers in woolen mills and cigar factories. They too faced the same issues as African Americans in being considered second class citizens.

Ku Klux Klan (Oregon)

Red Summer of 1919• Begins with Chicago

• Literature fed people’s “fear.” (And so did film!)

National Film Registry• Instead of memorializing “Birth of a

Nation” in the NFR, can you think of another way to recognize the film?

• How would you present this to a modern-day audience?

Historical Films in the Classroom• Should they be used to teach?• What can be negative and positive

usages of teaching with film?• How should a student of history view a

film to allow them to gather historical value?