THE ERA OF JIM CROW

Outcomes of Reconstruction

1. Most Southern whites regained their political rights immediately merely by taking an oath of loyalty

2. Most Confederate leaders were pardoned within 7 years

3. No Confederate leaders were tried or executed for treason

4. Except for the loss of their slaves, southern whites were not subjected to any economic penalties

5. The Confederate states endured military rule for from 2 to 10 years

6. Most former slaves remained on the plantations as sharecroppers

7. After passage of the 15th Amendment, blacks became active in the political process

The Post-Reconstruction South

By the turn of the century, “[t]he white South had achieved what it once had under

slavery – the creation of a work force it could control.”

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

POLITICS

Following the Civil War, African Americans in the South were represented at every level of government - local, state and

national.

THE LOSS OF POLITICAL POWER

• Last black Congressman from the South left Congress in 1901

• The next, Andrew Young of Georgia, was elected in 1967

• The South Carolina legislature had 30 blacks in 1877, 6 in 1880 and none by 1900.

Disenfranchisement of Black Voters

• Election fraud

– Stuffing the ballot boxes

– Throwing out the ballots of black voters

– Issuing false election returns

• Use of violence and terror

• Discriminatory voting laws

– Poll tax (24th Amendment banned in 1964)

– Literacy and understanding tests

– Required voters to hold a certain value of land or property

– “Grandfather clause” – enabled a voter to forego the poll tax if his ancestor had voted in 1860

SEGREGATION

• Began with public schools, which were never integrated– By 1900, schools for white pupils received

twice as many funds as those for blacks

– University level: had to emphasize vocational education in order to get support from northern philanthropists

• Spread to public transportation and other public places, like hotels, restaurants and theaters

THE SUPREME COURT

AND SEGREGATION:

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

– Facts: Louisiana law required separate seating arrangements for the races on railroads. Homer Plessy, who was 1/8th black and thus classified as black under Louisiana law, was arrested for refusing to move from the whites-only coach

– Ruling: Separate accommodations do not deprive blacks of equal rights if the accommodations are equal

Plessy Court

VIOLENCE

• As radical racism grew more prevalent in white thinking, white violence against blacks became more frequent. 

• Racial violence took a number of forms. 

• Race Riots: There was an epidemic of race riots, particularly in the 1890s, in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Wilmington. 

The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

The Dead

• The official estimate: 10 whites and 26 blacks killed

• The Commission’s estimate: hundreds

Property Damage

• More than 1,200 buildings – homes, businesses, churches, schools and a hospital – were damaged in the town’s black section, a largely poor but industrious community known as Greenwood

• Gone was the entire business district, which included America’s largest black-owned hotel

• Property damage was estimated at between $1.5 million and $1.8 million – or between $15 and $18 million in today’s $

• No one was prosecuted – a city investigation and local judge blamed the riot on a “Negro uprising”

• The victims were never compensated

• Late 1990’s Commission:– Found relevant pages excised from the

newspaper archives– Blamed the riot on white racists– But, instead of money as originally discussed,

gave each survivor a gold-plated medal with the state seal

LYNCHINGS

• Lynchings, which reached their peak in the 1890s, were the most common act of violence against blacks

• Between 1889 and 1941, an estimated 3,811 lynchings took place in the U.S.

• In the 1890s, lynchings reached near epidemic proportions – 187 per year, with 80% of them in the South

• The most celebrated occurred in cities and towns where large, well-organized mobs seized black prisoners from jail and hanged them in public rituals. 

• Entire families traveled many miles to witness the spectacles

• Much more common and dangerous, though, were the less visible or predictable lynchings performed by small vigilante groups, often composed of friends or relatives of the victim (or supposed victim) of the crime

Although most lynchings were in the South, even the North suffered from a rash of white vigilante violence

ter ror ism⋅ ⋅1. The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for

political purposes.2. The state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or

terrorization.3. A terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

www.dictionary.com

Definition preferred by The State Department:

Terrorism—Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience

Does lynching constitute terrorism?

• 1892: Ida B. Wells, a black journalist, launched an international anti-lynching

campaign after the lynching

of three of her friends in

Memphis

•  Early 20th century: Movement for a federal anti-lynching law gained momentum, with support from whites in both the North and South.

• No bill, however, ever successfully passed in Congress as Southern Congressman argued that lynchings were a necessity to protect the white women of the South.

CONCLUSION

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.”

W.E.B. du Bois