Post-Reconstruction America

US History

Spiconardi

White Control in the South• Black Codes

– Old slave codes aimed at keeping blacks at conditions close to slavery

• Poll Tax Tax imposed on every voter

• Literacy Tests Had to prove you could read & write before you voted.– Had to interpret the

Constitution• Grandfather Clause If your

father or grandfather was eligible to vote in 1866/1867, then you could vote even if you were illiterate or poor.

• Jim Crow– Laws that separate blacks

and whites

Sharecropping/Tenant Farming

Segregation

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Separate railroad cars for blacks and whites was constitutional – “Separate but equal”

• Segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities were equal

Booker T. & Du Bois

Booker T. Washington’s Views

• Concentrate on Vocational Education– Learn a trade or skill– Tuskegee Institute Created

• Accept “second class citizenship”– DO NOT fight against segregation– DO NOT fight for suffrage

• Concentrate on economics– Work hard– Your rights will come later

W.E.B. DuBois’ Views

• You deserve your rights now– Political, social and economic equality

• You need to send people to college

• Fight for you rights!– Use the law to guarantee your rights

• NAACP Established• Court Cases

Treatment of Native Americans

• Reservations

• Dawes Act Any Indian who gave up tribal ways would be granted deeds to their land and citizenship after 25 years

– ATTEMPT TO ASSIMILATE INDIANS

Industrialism

• Business develops and is booing during and after the Civil War

• Businesses begin to form monopolies and dominate– Rockefeller and Standard Oil Co.

• Americans feel big business hurts them

Industrialists

• Robber Barons– Businessmen who

made their riches at the expense of the poor and working class

• Captains of Industry– Business leaders

serving the country in a positive way

– Philanthropy • (Carnegie building

libraries)

Government Response

• Sherman Anti Trust Act– Prohibited monopolies

because “it restrained trade or commerce”

• Interstate Commerce Act of 1887– Allowed Congress to

regulate commerce between states and railroads