1. Problems Faced by African Americans
Racial Segregation
Jim Crow Laws
Problems Faced by African Americans
Plessey v. Ferguson
Poll Tax

2. racial segregation- African Americans had to use separate entrances,
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Obj Describe the problems faced by African Americans during the Progressive Era.
Jim Crow laws- mostly in the South, African Americans were discriminated against.
Plessey v. Ferguson- Homer Plessey (an African American) sued a railroad company saying that segregated seating was against his rights. The case went to the Supreme Court and Plessey lost.
racial segregation- African Americans had to use separate entrances,
drink from different water fountains, sit “in the back” on busses, trains…
Limits on right to vote- African Americans had to pass literacy (reading) test to vote. Whites made SURE they would fail it (some were written in Latin) so they could not vote.
Poll tax- many African Americans did not have the tax to pay at the toll to vote.

3. Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws were laws that imposed racial segregation (separation)mainly in the South, but also in Northern states too.
Railways and streetcars, public waiting rooms, restaurants, boardinghouses, theaters, and public parks were segregated; separate schools, hospitals, and other public institutions, generally of inferior quality, were designated for blacks.

5. Limits on the Right to Vote
Jim Crow Laws made it virtually impossible for African Americans to vote.
Literacy tests were used to keep people of color -- and, sometimes, poor whites -- from voting.
They were designed with failure as the goal.

6. From the PBS Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Text courtesy Kids Voting USA. (From a 1965 Alabama Literacy Test) 1. Which of the following is a right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights? _____Public Education _____Employment _____Trial by Jury _____Voting 2. The federal census of population is taken every five years. _____True _____False 3. If a person is indicted for a crime, name two rights which he has. ______________________ ________________________ 4. A U.S. senator elected at the general election in November takes office the following year on what date? _________________________________________________ 5. A President elected at the general election in November takes office the following year on what date? ______________________________________________________________________ 6. Which definition applies to the word "amendment?" _____Proposed change, as in a Constitution _____Make of peace between nationals at war _____A part of the government 7. A person appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court is appointed for a term of __________. 8. When the Constitution was approved by the original colonies, how many states had to ratify it in order for it to be in effect? _________________________________________ 9. Does enumeration affect the income tax levied on citizens in various states? __________ 10. A person opposed to swearing in an oath may say, instead: I (solemnly) ______________________________________________________________

7. If the citizen was “lucky” enough to pass the literacy test , there was still another obstacle to pass---POLL TAX! Most African Americans in the south could not afford to pay this tax!

8. Plessy v. Ferguson
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated by whites for use by white patrons only.
When Plessy refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed and convicted.
Plessy appealed to the United States Supreme Court in The court ruled against Plessy stating that as long as facilities were “equal” then segregation was legal.
The case helped cement the legal foundation for the doctrine of separate but equal.
Separate but equal the idea that segregation based on race was legal as long as facilities were of equal quality. However, Southern state governments refused to provide blacks with genuinely equal facilities.