1. Unit 1 Segregation and Discrimination

2. Voting Restrictions :  Literacy requirement - Some states required voters to be literate and administered a literacy test.  Blacks were given more difficult tests or given the test in a foreign language  Poll tax – annual tax that had to be paid in order to gain access to the voting booth.  Black and white share croppers couldn’t afford this  Grandfather Clause – even if a man failed literacy test or couldn’t pay poll tax, he could still vote if his father or grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1, 1867  This date was important – before that time slaves didn’t have the right to vote. The grandfather clause excluded African Americans.

3. Jim Crow Laws  Jim Crow Laws - laws passed in the Southern states by state and local gov’t  Separated white and black people in public and private facilities  Segregation – was the word used to describe this system of separating people based on race  Racial segregation developed in schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems throughout the South

5. Plessy v. Ferguson  Homer A. Plessy, who was classified African American because he was 1/8 black,was denied a seat in a railroad car that was reserved for white passengers.  He challenged segregation laws in court and said he was denied his rights under the Constitution.  The railroad argued that the separate facilities for black people were just as good as the ones for whites.  The Court’s Decision :  Separation of the races in public accommodations did not violate the 14 th amendment  Established the doctrine “separate but equal”  The decision permitted legalized racial segregation for almost 60 years

6. Race Relations  Racial etiquette - Informal rules and customs that discriminated against African Americans  Examples of racial etiquette  Blacks and whites never shook hands  Blacks had to yield the sidewalk to white pedestrians  Black men always had to remove their hats for whites Violence  African Americans who did not follow these rules were severely punished or killed  Between 1880’s – 1890’s more than 1400 African American men and women were shot, burned, or hanged without trial in the south

7. Discrimination in the North MMany African Americans migrated North in search of social equality and better jobs FFound the same discrimination as in the South. African Americans were: FForced into segregated neighborhoods PPrevented from moving into white neighborhoods by local residents and realtors DDenied membership in Labor unions OOnly hired by employers as a last resort FFired before white employees CCompetition between working class whites and African Americans became violent NNew York City Race Riot of 1900

8. Discrimination in the West  Mexican workers were hired by the railroad managers to construct rail lines in AZ, CA, NM, and NV  They were forced to work for less money  Also a major source for agricultural labor in the Southwest  Debt peonage – system of involuntary servitude in which a laborer is forced to work of a debt  Continued until 1911 when Congress declared it a violation of the 13 th amendment

9. Excluding the Chinese CChinese population went from 7,000 to 100,000 and they formed a major part of the workforce TTranscontinental railroad MMade up:  more than ½ of all shoemakers 44/5 of all cigar makers 11/3 of all woolen-mill operators

10. WWhites feared losing out in job competion with them. As a result: CChinese were pushed into segregated schools and neighborhoods SStrong anti-Chinese immigration movement began CChinese Exclusion Act of 1882 pprohibited all further immigration of Chinese to the US SSuspended naturalization for Chinese who were already present in the US