depth study: gilded age Flashcards
what 2 promises to AA were unfulfilled - late 19th century
promise of emancipation/reconstruction
4 main points in reconstruction
- freedman’s bureau = support economic condition of former slaves
- sharecropping - state of debt peonage
- president andrew johnson = wanted to undermine AA progess - his negligence led southern states to employ black codes
- black codes = maintain white dominance in south/ensure cheap labour - many prevented AA from voting eg. poll tax
what did southern blacks suffer from - late 19th century
- horrific violence
- political disenfranchisement
- economic discrimination
- legal segregation
what were the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments
1965 - 13th amendment = abolished slavery in US
1968 - 14th amendment = protected black citizenship
1975 (?) - 15th amendment = gave AA men the right to vote
what were poor southern black farmers generally forced into
sharecropping - borrowed money to plant years crop and used future crop as collateral on the loan
–> led to state of debt peonage (slavery)
how many AA lived in the rural south
90%
what did AA men/women who had moved to southern/northern cities do for work
- women worked as domestic servants
- men worked in urban factories
what were these jobs like
menial and low paying - often dangerous for men in factories too
what did they also face a great deal of racism from and what was the impact of this
labour unions
- limited ability to secure high-paying, skilled jobs
which labour unions were open to AA
- knights of labour
- united mine workers
which labour union was not open to blacks and why was this a problem
- american federation of labour
- it was the largest skilled worker union
examples of violence AA suffered
- brutal lynching’s or executions by angry white mobs
- hangings
- burnings
- shootings
- mutilations
statistic for lynching
1882 = 52 recorded lynching’s
1892 = 241 recorded lynching’s
what broke out in southern/northern cities due to this voilence
race riots which resulted in dozens of death & property damage
what did the supreme court do to overrule the 13,14 & 15 amendments
- made succession of rulings
eg. slaughterhouse case gave states more control and reversed the impact of the 14th amendment
describe williams v. mississippi (1898)
- supreme court ruled discriminatory voter laws were constitutional
- meant southern states could continue to disenfranchise AA
methods to disenfranchise AA
- poll tax = charge tax to vote which few sharecroppers/poor AA could afford
- literacy test = few former slaves could pass & many white clerks had already agreed to fail them
- grandfather clauses = anyone whose father/grandfather had right to vote previous to civil war could vote
one of the most visible signs of racism during this period
rise of informal/legal segregation
what did southern states pass
jim crow laws
what did the jim crow laws deny AA equal access to
- hotels
- restaurants
- parks
- swimming pools
- southern schools/public transport had inferior facilities for AA
- housing devices etc. kept blacks in other neighbourhoods
what did AA in the north also suffer from due to philosophy of jim crow laws
informal residential segregation & economic discrimination in jobs
plessy v. ferguson (1896)
- homer plessy challenged Louisiana’s jim crow law requiring separate railroad passenger cars
what did justice brown decide in the case and what did it allow^^
- stated segregation did not violate the constitution as long as facilities provided were equal
- allowed states to create separate facilities in schools, trains, buses, restaurants, parks & drinking taps
what began in the early 20th century
progressive era
who were progressives
group of reformers who believed that the industrialised, urbanised USA in the 19th century had outgrown its 18th century constitution
what did the progressives embrace
- idea of social Darwinism (some races are superior -whites) & eugenics
–> most advanced science/social science taught in universities/ scientific circles
what did social darwinism portray as seen by progressives
scientific basis for segregation
exceptions of progressives & what did they found
- jane adams
- black progressives: W.E.B dubois
- founded NAACP (national association for the advancement of coloured people
examples of progressive presidents
- woodrow wilson
- theodore roosevelt
what did theodore roosevelt do to support AA (even though he supported segragationist order)
- invited AA leader booker t. washington into the white house & condemned lynching
-discharged 170 black soldier due to race riot in brownsville, texas (1906)
negative things woodrow wilson did regarding AA
- administration fired many black federal employees
- segregated federal departments
who was ida b. wells regarding civil rights activism
- worked for civil rights as teacher, writer, co-owner of newspaper, investigative journalist & speaker after rust college
- co-founder of NAACP
- worked tirelessly to expose evils of lynching - anti-lynching crusade
- challenged segregation by refusing to change seats on train
another leading campaigner was booker t. washington - what did he do?
- former slave who founded tuskegee institute for blacks in 1880s
- advocated AA should achieve racial equality via patience/ accommodation
- thought AA should be trained industrial educate & show virtues of hard work, thrift & self-respect
- ^show they deserved equal rights/opportunity
who criticised washingtons views
W.E.B dubois
what did W.E.B dubois believe/do
- AA should win equality by liberal arts education & fighting for political/civil equality
- he/other black leaders organised the niagra movement which fought segregation, lynching & disenfranchisement
what did the leaders of the niagra movement found in 1909
NAACP
- dubois edited its journal name ‘the crisis’ and wrote on issues affecting AA
