Segregation and Discrimination

1
Segregation and Discrimination

• Poll Tax
• Jim Crow Laws
• Plessey vs. Ferguson
• Womens Suffrage
• Susan B. Anthony

2
Poll Tax

• African Americans were kept out of the political
  process by 1900
• Voting was limited in the Southern states
• Had to read
• Poll Tax
• Annual tax that had to be paid before one could
  vote
• Many were too poor to pay

3
Poll Tax cont.

• Whites were grandfathered
• If whites fathers or grandfathers were eligible
  to vote before Jan. 1, 1867 he could vote without
  paying the tax

4
Jim Crow Laws

• Legal racial separation laws
• Mostly in the South

5
Plessey vs. Ferguson

• 1892
• Homer Plessey (black man) took a seat on a
  whites only train car in New Orleans
• Arrested, tried, and convicted of breaking the
  segregation law
• Took case to the Supreme Court

6
Plessey cont.

• Court ruled that segregation laws did not violate
  the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th
  Amendment
• No state shall make or enforce any law which
  shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
  citizens of the United States nor shall any
  state deprive any person of life, liberty, or
  property without due process of law nor deny to
  any person within its jurisdiction the equal
  protection of the laws

7
Plessey Cont.

• Plessey decision allowed for Separate but
  Equal laws
• Legalized segregation for 60 years
• African-Americans had to stay in their place
• 1882-1892
• 1,400 African Americans were lynched

8
Plessey cont.

• Segregation was not limited to the South
• North was segregated in housing and jobs
• Chinese and Mexicans also had issues in the West

9
Womens Suffrage

• More and more women at this time were working for
  the right to vote
• Susan B. Anthony
• Leader of the National Womens Suffrage
  Association
• People feared women voting
• Liquor industry feared they would favor
  prohibition
• Textile industry feared they would oppose child
  labor

10
Suffrage cont.

• Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado terr. allowed
  women to vote
• Took the issue to the Supreme Court in 1871 under
  the 14th amendment
• Women were citizens-Court denied that all
  citizens could vote
• Protested in front of the White House
• 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote (1919)