Discrimination and Segregation Against African Americans

Key Ideas In the late 19th century (1800 ’ s) discrimination and segregation against African Americans INTENSIFIED and took on NEW FORMS African Americans disagreed about how to respond

Laws to Limit African American Freedoms -Poll Tax -Literacy Test -Grandfather Clause

The Problem JIM CROW laws were passed forcing the separation of the races in public places

The laws were named after a black man in a southern song who sang and danced for white people

Intimidation and crimes were often directed against African Americans (KKK, etc) The laws were enforced by both local police and mob violence that sometimes led to the lynching of blacks

African Americans looked to the courts to protect their rights and enforce the Civil Rights Amendments (13 th, 14 th & 15 th ).

Homer Plessy tried to challenge the idea that his equal protection under the law was being violated when he had to use separate public facilities

But, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled “ separate but equal ” did not violate the 14 th Amendment The Jim Crow laws stayed in effect

During the early 20 th century African Americans began what became known as the “ Great Migration ”

With the lure of jobs and promises from the North, many African Americans left the South and settled in Northern cities like Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit But they still experienced racial discrimination

This was a time when African Americans faced great injustices and they disagreed about how to respond to the discrimination

Ida B. Wells Led an anti-lynching crusade and called on the federal government to take action! Between 1882 and 1930 almost 5,000 people were lynched in the U.S. Most lynching were against blacks in the south, though some were white or Asian She spoke out and wrote against this injustice

Booker T. Washington Believed the way to equality was through vocational education and economic success. He accepted social separation. Believed in industrial education for blacks and provided it at his Tuskegee Institute. Felt that blacks could achieve good lives if they were properly prepared for the industrial jobs in demand. A man “ of his times ”

Getting educated at Tuskegee Institute

W.E.B. Du Bois Believed that education was meaningless without equality. Supported political equality for African Americans by helping to form the National Association of Advancement for Colored People Disagreed with Washington ’ s plan of blacks settling for low class industrial jobs Didn ’ t think blacks would achieve their potential or compete with whites with only factory jobs. Was a “ man ahead of his times ”

Du Bois supported his desire for political equality for African Americans by helping to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).