Meagan Tirado & Tyler May

*African Americans face hostile and violent opposition from whites as they exercise there new political and social rights during reconstruction. – Although laws were put into place restricting their civil rights & classifying them as second class citizens, they refused to stop fighting for equality. Voting Restrictions – By the end of the 19 th century African Americans in the south continued to vote and hold office. To weaken the African American political power southern states had adopted a broad system of legal politics of racial discrimination. – Some states made new voting restrictions such as having voters be literate. They did so by administering a literacy test, which could have been in a foreign language. – There was also a annual tax that had to be paid to have access to vote, (poll tax) However for the people that couldn’t pay the poll tax or pass the literacy test some states added a grandfather clause

Jim Crow laws: Laws that the southern state and the local Government passed to separate white and black people in public and private facilities. This stated that even if a man failed the literacy test or couldn’t afford the poll tax he still had the right to vote if he, his grandfather, or his father had been eligible to vote before Jan 1, 1867.

Tested whether segregation was constitutional or not. It started when Homer A. Plessy a “black man” in the south that was 1/8 African American. He was denied a seat in a railroad car that was reserved for white passengers. After that event Plessy challenged Louisiana law that had Railroad companies segregate white and black passengers. Plessy argued the law denied him his rights under Louisiana Constitution, the railroad contended the fact that separate facilities for black people were just as good as white ones. The Supreme Court sided with the Railroad and ruled that separation of the race in public accommodations was legal and didn’t violate the 14th amendment. They then established a doctrine “separate but equal” which allowed states to maintain segregation facilities as long as there was equal service

African Americans faced racial etiquette,or informal rules and customs, that regulated relationships between black and whites. Reformers such as Booker T. Washington advocated gradual improvements for African Americans he thought it best to avoid demands for legal equality and commentate on creating economic opportunities. Whites later supported Washington because he accepted segregation while suggesting whites and blacks work together for social progress. Washington improved economic skills of African Americans and hoped to pave the way for long-term gains.

Mexican Workers violations to racial etiquette could provoke serious and mainly violent responses. In more cases then usual African Americans were wrongly accused of violating etiquette and were lynched. Women and men were shot, burned, or hanged without trial in the south between 1885 and If African Americans showed signs of becoming successful or showing to little respect for whites they were lynched. Discrimination in the north The North was believed to have harmonious race relations. However African Americans that migrated to the northern cities in search of better paying jobs and social equality experienced instead racial discrimination similar to that in the south. They found themselves in segregated neighborhoods, discrimination in the workplace, labor unions denied them membership, and they were hired as a last resort and fired before whites. Competition between African Americans and the white working class became especially violent in the NYC race riot of 1900 It started when Arthur J. Harris, a young black man, killed a white police officer who he believed was mistreating his wife. As whites heard the news of the killing they demanded revenge

not only white Americans populated the west. Also native Americans continued to live in the western territories, & Asians traveled to the coast in search of wealth and work Communities were culturally diverse as people of the differing ethnic and racial groups worked and lived side by side. In the 1880’s and 1890’s railroad managers hired more Mexicans then any other ethnic group. Not only because they were accustom to the climate but also they were forced to work for less money then the other ethnic groups. Mexicans provided a major source of agricultural labor when the 1902 national reclamation act, the Newlands act, provided assistance for irrigation projects. Debt peonage, a system of voluntary servitude in which the laborer is forced to work off a debt. African Americans and Mexicans were forced to work off debt and not until 1911 did the supreme court declare involuntary peonage to be a violation of the 13 th amendment. Between 1850 and 1880 the Chinese immigrant population grew to more then 100,000. These Chinese helped build the transcontinental railroad and were indispensible to industries in California. Chinese people often found themselves segregated in schools and neighbor hoods Anti-Chinese immigration movement developed. Congress pass the Chinese exclusion act in 1882, this act prohibited the further immigration of Chinese in the U.S.