1. The World of Jim Crow

2. Post Civil War Reconstruction
Whites in South feared freed blacks (afraid of black majority rule), responded with strong oppression
Voting
1. Poll tax – fixed tax on every voter
2. literacy tests – have to read to vote
3. grandfather clauses – if ancestors could vote

3. Jim Crow Laws Named after a minstrel song
1st appeared in Massachusetts in 1830s RR cars
Most strong in South
1890 – all southern states had segregated public transport and schools
Schools, hospitals, churches, parks, toilets, restaurants, public buildings, transport, water fountains, cemeteries

4. What did Government say?
1883 Supreme Court overturned Civil Rights Act of 1875 – said 14th Amendment (abolishment of slavery) did NOT prevent PRIVATE organizations from discriminating against others
Plessey v. Ferguson (1896) Legalized separate facilities. Homer Plessey had been denied seat in first-class RR car, even though he had valid ticket.
“Separate but Equal” doctrine

5. Violence Violence grew
Lynching – mob hanging of a suspect – mock trial and torture/mutilation
4,743 between , 3,500 AA
People rarely punished for participating

8. Northern Conditions De facto segregation – unwritten agreements
Schools, housing, public areas, employment
Race riots and occasional lynchings

9. Solutions
Bishop Henry M. Turner (Episcopal Church) – for black pride and emigration to Africa – Liberia and Sierra Leone
Ida B. Wells – muckraker, anti-lynching, leave the South and move North: “There is therefore only one thing left that we can do; save our money and leave a town which will neither protect our lives (nor) property.”
Mary White Ovington – white social worker who helped organize NAACP

10. Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois
Born a slave, graduated from Harvard
Booker T. Washington believed that AA should concentrate on achieving economic independence, which he saw as the key to political and social equality
Urged AAs to seek practical training in trades and professions – like vocational school
Was criticized for silence on lynchings, but fought legal battles against segregation and secretly funded civil rights movements and black businesses

11. "Think about it: We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians
"Think about it: We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands...Notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, we are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe." - from Up From Slavery

12. W.E.B. DuBois
Never accept inferiority, bow to oppression, or apologize before insults
Niagara Movement
NAACP
Citizen of Ghana at 95
Du Bois argues that given the chance, African Americans would contribute to society after they had achieved self-respect and self-realization
He also argued that it is not enough for African Americans to become economically stable, and instead they must become educated
1. Political Power
2. Civil Rights
3. Higher education

13. Quiz What are Jim Crow laws?
Describe the three legal ways African-Americans were kept from voting
What was the purpose of lynching?
Explain De Facto segregation
What was B. Washington’s solution to racial problems?
What was DuBois’ solution?