GILDED AGE AFRICAN AMERICANS Flashcards
1
Q
Ways federal govt helped
A
- 1871 - third enforcement act -> kkk activities federal offence
- more progress made when all govt branches work together - eg reconstruction (southern states didn’t have much power)
2
Q
Ways black Americans themselves helped
A
- Black Americans setting up own businesses/autonomy - all black unions, 1544 schools in Georgia (11000 students), all black universities (1867 Howard, 1881 Tuskegee)
- 1877 deal between hayes and Tilden to remove federal troops from south - done in black owned hotel
- 1816 - African Methodist episcopal church established
Black American businesses had guaranteed market - black people excluded from white services -> eg 1898 North Carolina mutual life assurance group life insurance for black Americans - Economic success in northern states
- Black American cowboy (Nat love) - wrote about adventures, known as deadwood dick
- Mary field - reputation as stagecoach driver
- Bass reeves - deputy us Marshall, reputation for arresting thousands of criminals, shooting 14 outlaws
- Ida wells - openly carried 2 guns for protection
- 1884 - rape was not reason for lynching, white women werent all innocent
- 1886 - protested against after being taken of segregated train carriage
- 1896 - formed national association of coloured women
- Everett waring - lawyer for mutual brotherhood of liberty -> against segregation and lynching
- Formed savings banks for black Americans and was first black American to be judge in Baltimore
- Booker t Washington - prioritised economic/educational development -> white people worried about domination by uneducated class
- Main leader/spokesperson for black Americans, powerful contacts
- Helped emergence of others (eg mlk), cooperation with white people did work eventually, criticised for being uncle tom
- Du bois - more radical than Washington, better speaker
- Talented 10th - elites that would lead black Americans to social/political equality -> campaigned against lynching, 1905 - formed niagra movement to oppose segregation (foundation for naacp)
- Black newspapers/reporters - growing literacy rates
- 10% of black Americans moved north - formed ghetto in Harlem New York -> 20000 moved to north to be coal miners - able join united mine workers
- Less opportunities although no legal discrimination
- Chicago centre of black political/intellectual life - Lucy parsons organised Chicago working womens union, publishing newspaper ‘freedom’ in 1891
- Ohio had many black voters - politicians supported interracial marriage, desegregating schools
3
Q
Other ways helped
A
- Indiana passed antilynching law in 1899 but still outlawed interracial marriage
4
Q
Ways federal govt hindered
A
- South was important economically (raw materials), govt cant alienate them -> lets them have segregation 1896 plessy v Ferguson (separate but equal)
5
Q
Ways Supreme Court hindered
A
- Literacy tests for voter registration declared constitutional
- 1898 - Wilkins v Mississippi -> voter registration laws fine (poll tax) as they didn’t explicitly mention race
6
Q
Ways white people/southern states hindered
A
- Sharecropping - still forced to grow cotton/tobacco -> more vulnerable to insects, damaged crops
- White democrats used intimidation to regain control of south
- More lynchings, Jim Crow laws - preventing black Americans from assimilating
- 1865 - kkk founded
- 1867 - coordination, confederate general Nathan forest made leader -> operated in groups not nationally
- violence towards black Americans - job rivalry, fear of changing communities
- Institutionalised racism in south - encouraged to accept white supremacy, reduced civil rights
- Interracial relationships banned in some states
7
Q
Ways black Americans themselves hindered
A
- Movement towards ownership of land - 1875 3million acres, 1910 15 million acres -> but 75% still sharecropping
- Booker t Washington - dip your bucket -> encouraged to accept lower position of black Americans in society, disregarded important of vote/segregation
8
Q
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