1. 6-7: The Nadir of Race Relations, 1877-1920s

2. Learning Objectives
NAT 2.0 Explain how interpretations of the Constitution and debates over rights, liberties, and definitions of citizenship have affected American values, politics, and society.
POL 3.0 Explain how different beliefs about the federal government’s role in U.S. social and economic life have affected political debates and policies.

3. Key Concept
The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights.

4. Election of 1876 Results Compromise of 1877
185 votes needed for majority
Hayes (R)—165 votes
Tilden (D)—184 votes
20 votes undecided
Compromise of 1877
All contested votes go to Republicans
Reconstruction ends
Troops withdrawn from South
Civil rights laws not enforced

5. Segregation and Violence
Loss of Civil Rights
Jim Crow Laws
Literacy Tests and Poll Taxes
Gerrymandering and White Primaries
Black eligible voters 1896 (LA): 130,000
Black eligible voters 1904 (LA): 1,342
Discrimination and the Supreme Court
1873 Slaughterhouse cases—narrowed 14th Amendment
1883 Civil Rights cases—civil rights only protected against government abuse
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson—“separate but equal legalized”

6. Segregation and Violence
Responding to Segregation
Increased violence, discrimination, and scientific theories about race
Reactions
Exodusters—westward migration
Booker T. Washington—vocational education
W.E.B. Du Bois—legal action/NAACP