Chapter 7-8: Gilded Age Politics & Segregation

Question 1

Booker T. Washington

Answer 1

• believed blacks need to prove their economic value to society to end racism
• head Tuskegee Institute, which provided blacks jobs training for skilled industries
? thought segregation was ok for now, so whites could adjust living with blacks

Question 2

W.E.B. DuBois

Answer 2

• was born free in the North & first black to get a PhD from Harvard
• believed “talented tenth” should use their knowledge to prove to society that blacks were equal
? thought segregation should be stopped immediately

Question 3

Voting restrictions

Answer 3

• poor couldn’t afford poll taxes & blacks were given biased literacy tests
• Grandfather clause prevented most blacks from voting because their grandfather was a slave and couldn’t vote
? states found ways to pass discriminating voting laws that were legal

Question 4

Jim Crow laws

Answer 4

• laws that separated blacks & whites in public & private facilities
• used in parks, schools, transportation systems, bathrooms, & many more places
? many blacks had lost their voting rights from voting restrictions & now they faced legal segregation that would last for more than half a century

Question 5

Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer 5

• in 1896, Supreme Court ruled segregation was legal & didn’t violate the 14th amendment
• establish separate but equal- segregation as legal as long as everyone had equal service
? allowed legal segregation for the next 60 years

Question 6

Political machines

Answer 6

• organized groups that controlled activities within political parties, especially during elections
• offered service to voters in exchange for financial/political support
? created mutual relationship between voters & politicans, but also gave rise to corruption & fraud

Question 7

Patronage

Answer 7

• the giving of jobs to people who had helped candidate get elected
• many gov officials weren’t qualified for their jobs & used them for personal gain
? reformers believed that jobs should be based on a merit system, resulting in the Pendleton Act

Question 8

Pendleton Act

Answer 8

• President Charles Arthur pushed for act to be passed in 1883
• offered gov jobs based on merit system - whether candidate was qualified enough
? overall refined the gov but resulting in politicians getting support from big businesses, which strengthened the bond between the two