Chapter 7

Section 1Segregation and Social Tensions

DURING RECONSTRUCTION THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SOUGHT

TO SECURE EQUAL RIGHTS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS

DURING THE GILDED AGE THEY AND OTHER MINORITIES LOST

SOME OF THOSE RIGHTS

African Americans Lose Freedoms

• 1876-President Hayes removed federal troops from the South – Allowed southern states to resume control over African Americans

• Southern states enacted measures to disenfranchise- take away voting rights from African Americans

• Also enacted Jim Crow Laws – To keep Blacks and Whites segregated

VOTING RIGHTS• 15th Amendment – prohibited states from denying

someone the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude

• Southern states got around the amendment by passing restrictive measures:

1. Poll Tax- required voters to pay a tax to vote- began in Georgia-charged $1 to $2 to vote

2. Literacy Tests- had to prove the ability to read before voting.

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•BECAUSE AFRICAN AMERICANS HAD BEEN EXPLOITED ECONOMICALLY AND DENIED AN EDUCATION, THESE RESTRICTIONS DISQUALIFIED MANY OF THEM AS VOTERS

•SOUTHERN STATES ALSO ENACTED GRANDFATHER CLAUSES - WHICH ALLOWED A PERSON TO VOTE AS LONG AS HIS ANCESTORS HAD VOTED PRIOR TO 1866 – THE ANCESTORS OF BLACK FREEDMEN DID NOT VOTE PRIOR TO THIS DATE

•GRANDFATHER CLAUSES ALLOWED POOR WHITE AND ILLITERATE WHITES TO VOTE BUT NOT BLACKS TO VOTE

•SOUTHERN STATES ALSO ESTABLISHED ALL WHITE PRIMARIES – MEANING ONLY WHITES GOT TO CHOOSE WHO GOT TO RUN IN GENERAL ELECTIONS

•AS A RESULT OF THESE MEASURES BLACK PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS FELL DRAMATICALLY

LAWS AND SEGREGATION

• Jim Crow became a way of life in the South• Some opposed Jim Crow Laws on the grounds

that if some aspects of life were segregated, all aspects would be in time and this would place a burden on society

• In Northern states Black migrants found many examples of De Facto segregation-actual segregation- like restrictions on where they could live and work

Though difficult to read here, the signs on this cartoon indicate the inequalities of life under Jim Crow. Is the point muted by the way in which the cartoonist portrays the woman?

•Supreme Court ruled in cases that undermined the Civil Rights of African Americans- PLESSY V. FERGUSON- court upheld the constitutionality of Jim Crow Laws- as long as the facilities were equal, they could be separate

AFRICAN AMERICANS OPPOSE INJUSTICES

•African Americans refused to be treated like second class citizens- established organizations, schools, and political associations to secure their freedoms

Booker T. Washington•The most famous Black leader during the late 19th century

• Argued that African Americans needed to accommodate themselves to segregation- they should not focus on overturning Jim Crow Laws- should build up their economic resources and establish their reputations as hardworking and honest citizens

Booker T. Washington•Washington poured his energies into the TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE in Macon County Alabama- under him the school became known for providing industrial education or vocational education

•Washington thought this type of education would prepare African Americans to exercise the privileges of citizenship

W.E.B. Du Bois•First African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard-criticized Washington’s willingness to accommodate southern whites

•Argued that Blacks should demand full and immediate equality and not limit themselves to vocational education

•Did not believe that the right to vote was a privilege that Blacks needed to earn

IDA B. WELLS•Owned newspaper called FREE SPEECH and wrote numerous articles that condemned the mistreatment of Blacks

•After an attack on a friend in Memphis she wrote an editorial attacking the practice of lynching in the South

•Local Whites responded to Well’s editorial by running her out of town

•She wrote three pamphlets aimed at awakening the nation to what she described as the “Southern Horrors” of legalized murder

Discrimination Against The Chinese•California barred cities from employing people of Chinese ancestry

•San Francisco established a segregated “ORIENTAL” school

•Mobs attacked Chinese workers saying they had taken “White” jobs

•Led to Congress passing the “Chinese Exclusion Act” which prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country

Women

•Women played a prominent role in many reform movements including the drive to abolish slavery

•They began to fight for their right to vote, own property, and receive an education

Susan B. Anthony

•Felt betrayed because women were not included in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments

Susan B. Anthony&

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

•In 1869 Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Women Suffrage Association to fight for a constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote

•Anthony voted in Rochester, NY in 1872 and was arrested and convicted in Federal Court

•By the time of her death in 1906, four states had given women the right to vote: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho

Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Frances Willard

Women’s Christian Temperance Movement

• Led by Frances Willard to stop the sale of liquor but also fought for women’s right to vote- she believed women needed the right to vote to stop the sale of alcohol

• Also promoted other social causes such as Public Health and Welfare Reform