Title: 1877-1900 Post Reconstruction Self-Segregation
11877-1900Post Reconstruction Self-Segregation
- Black Codes during Reconstruction
- Jim Crow Laws after Reconstruction
- In rural deep south
- All black communities in some locales
- In towns, the other side of the tracks.
2Leo Frank case 1913/1915
- Leo Frank Accused of killing Mary Phagan.
- Very little evidence against him but Frank was
found guilty and sentenced to death. - Frank was convicted of the murder, but his death
sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by
Gov. Slaton - Two months later, Frank was taken from the prison
by an angry mob, brought back to Marietta, and
lynched by a group calling themselves the Knights
of Mary Phagan. - Resulted in the rebirth of the KKK
- Nov. 1915 Atlanta preacher William Simmons and
34 others climbed to the top of Stone Mountain,
lit torches, circled a burning cross, and rallied
3Jim Crow laws
- Separate but equal
- Laws passed to establish facilities for whites
and blacks - Resulted in separate bathrooms, water fountains,
railroad cars, waiting rooms, schools - 1889 Georgia General Assembly segregated public
facilities - Always separaterarely equal
- African Americans protested the laws in public
meetings - Henry McNeal Turner the civil rights laws and
segregation that followed them was barbarous.
4Plessy v. Ferguson
- Staged as a way to test the constitutionality of
the Jim Crow laws (Jim Crow Car Act of 1890) - Homer Plessy 7/8 white, 1/8 black took a seat in
the whites only car of a train - When he refused to move, he was arrested under
the above act which required separate but equal
accommodations on train cars - Heard by the US Supreme Court in 1896
- Upheld by a 7-1 vote (single dissenting vote
John Marshall Harlan, a Southerner) - Plessy v. Ferguson gave states the right to
control social discrimination and promote
segregation
5Plessy v. Ferguson
- 1899 Richmond County closed the only public high
school in Georgia for descendents of enslaved
Africanspurely for economic reasons to create
an elementary school - Parents sued the school board based on the
original Plessy v. Ferguson case that ensured
separate-but-equal facilities - Lower court agreed overturned by GA Supreme
Court - December 1899 U.S. Supreme Court ruled
- Africans had the right to be educated only to the
8th grade - Closing the white high school did not relate to
the equal rights granted by the 14th amendment - The use of funds to open the elementary school by
closing the high school was a state issue - Ruling finally overturned in 1954 with Brown V.
Board of Education which ended segregated schools
Picture Atlanta Journal-Constitution
6Disenfranchisement
- 1900 African-Americans make up 47 of Georgias
population - Despite 15th amendment, laws were passed with the
sole purpose of keeping them from voting - 1908 Grandfather clausestated that only men
whose fathers or grandfathers had been eligible
to vote in 1867 were eligible to vote (b/c so few
African Americans had been able to vote in 1867
it kept most of GAs Af. Amer from voting) - Poll tax a tax to be able to vote
- Other requirements own property, pass literacy
tests - Literacy tests were very subjectivecould be
asked anything - (explain antidisestablishmentarianism)
- Gerrymander a way of drawing up an election
district to benefit a certain group (racial,
political, special interest)
In 1812, the US portrait painter, Gilbert Stuart,
known for his portraits of the great US
presidents, noticed a map in a newspaper office.
The map showed a voting district that had been
created by the Democratically dominated
Massachusetts Assembly when Elbridge Gerry
(1744-1814) was governor. The district had a
peculiar shape that assured that any election in
that district would favor the Democrats. Stuart
drew eyes, claws, and wings on the outline of the
district because it looked like a salamander.
Someone in the office watched him and blended
Gerry with salamander on the spot to create the
word, gerrymander which survived to this today.
7Booker T. Washington
- Important civil rights leader
- President of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
- Believed that economic independence was the only
road to social and political equality - African Americans should focus on learning skills
and gaining economic strength - Urged white Southerners to remember that the
African American workforce had created the wealth
of the Southfeared that African Americans would
be cast aside for immigrant labor - Speech Atlantas Cotton States and International
Exposition in 1895--condoned social segregation
of the races, provided that educational and
economic opportunities were equal.
8W.E.B. Dubois
- Disagreed with Washington
- Called for social and political integration
- Talented 10th higher education for 10 of the
African American populationthis group could
become leaders for the community - Thought Washington was making decisions that
affected all blacks negatively - Disagreed that blacks who became economically
successful and waited long enough would help
improve race relations
9Atlanta Race Riot--1906
- Sept. 22, 1906 over 5000 whites and African
Americans had gathered on Decatur Street - Lasted 2 days martial law declared
- 18 African Americans killed
- 3 whites killed
- Hundreds injured
- Value of property destroyed very high
- How did propaganda contribute to the riot?
- Tom Watson spread racial fears
- Hoke Smith used racial fears to gain votes
during the governors race that year - Atlanta Newspapers printed story after story of
African American violence against whites
10John and Lugenia Burns Hope