The United States from 1877 to 1914

Progressivism: For whites only

• Many progressives were racists• Supported progressive reforms at the same

time that they supported Jim Crow laws• Some claimed they supported Jim Crow

segregation as the only realistic means to protect black people from white violence

• Supported eugenics sterilization laws• Supported city commission and “at large”

voting systems to weaken immigrant votes

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Ways to stop the voting

• Poll taxes, 1 or 2 dollars, paid in advance of the election

• No assistants allowed for illiterate voters• Literacy tests requiring elaborate

recitation of state constitutions• Grandfather clauses (did your

grandfather vote before the Civil War?)

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Race riot: Wilmington, North Carolina, 1898

The United States from 1877 to 1914Disenfranchisement in the

South (by percentage of adult male population eligible to

vote)1876 1900 1912

Alabama 72% 38% 22%

Georgia 63% 22% 18%

Louisiana 74% 20% 18%

Mississippi

80% 18% 17%

South Carolina

100% 20% 17%

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Booker T. Washington

• Born in Virginia just

before the Civil War

• 1881 founded the Tuskegee

Normal and Industrial Institute

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Race riot: Atlanta, Georgia, 1906

• 25 blacks killed• 1 white killed• 4 blacks beaten

to death

The United States from 1877 to 1914

DuBois’ three questions for Booker T. Washington, 1903

• How can blacks advance themselves economically if they have no political power?

• How can blacks have pride in themselves if they are second class citizens?

• How can blacks maintain good common schools without teachers trained in colleges and universities?

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Ida Wells Barnett, 1862-1931

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Race riot: Springfield, Illinois, 1908

• 4000 national guard troops brought in to stop the riot

• NAACP founded a year later

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• New Orleans black community sends Homer Plessy to test Louisiana train segregation law

• Supreme Court rules seven to one to uphold the “Separate Car Act” as long as there were equal accommodations for everyone

• Harlan’s lone dissent: “The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race . . . Is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and equality before the law . . . “

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Monroe Trotter, Fredrick McGhee, and the “Trotter group”

The United States from 1877 to 1914

The Niagara Movement meeting of 1905 and public concern over the Springfield riot of 1908 resulted in the founding of the NAACP in 1909.

Niagara civil rights meeting of 1905

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Themes of The Souls of Black Folk (1903)• Challenge to Booker T. Washington• Challenge to the William Dunning School of

Reconstruction at Columbia University• “The problem of the twentieth century is the

problem of the color line.”• Argument that Black people possess a “double

consciousness” (both American and Black)• Call for a “talented tenth” to come forward• Questions the extent to which self-help can

further the African-America community.• Questions the extent to which commercial

ambitions can help the black community