The Triumph of Jim Crow Pt.1 Flashcards
What were the Jim Crow laws?
- Series of laws passed first in former confederate states from the 1880s onwards that introduced legal segregation
- Named after a white entertainer who used blackface and costume to impersonate and marginalise black americans
- Mostly introduced separate facilities for education, transportation and entertainment
What was the role of the supreme court in repressing black americans?
- Decided on the result of major civil rights cases
- US supreme court had the right to interpret the constitution
- Voted 8-1 in favour of declaring much of the achieved human rights legislation unconstitutional in 1883 against John M Harlan
What were the civil rights cases of 1883 and what was the outcome?
Actually brought forward as a group in November 1882 - All concerning discrimination within public sectors
- United States vs Stanley
- United States vs Ryan
- United States vs Nichols
- United States vs Singleton
- Robinson et ux Vs Memphis and Charleston Railroad
Involved the denial of entry/usage of facilities such as theatres and train cars
Citizens claimed state had no power over individual rights
Civil rights act of 1875 declared unconstitutional/13th amendment did not give US Congress power to make laws on the issue/ individual discriminations did not contravene the 13th amendment or invoke the 14th
John Harlan was the only one to disagree
Ruled on on the 15th October 1883
What was the reaction to the 1883 cases?
- Effectively legalised racial segregation and Jim Crow laws
- October 1883 Frederick Douglass compared the decision to previous unlawful and discriminatory things like the enforcement of slavery upon Kansas
How was segregation introduced and through what form did it spread?
- 1887 Florida segregated rail travel - Followed by Mississippi 1888, Texas 1889 etc
-1900 Maryland became the first non confederate state to introduce segregation
- 1906 South Carolina segregated restaurants, soon to be followed by many other public services such as hospitals and prisons
- De facto segregation came about as a result
Ideas behind racism and segregation came about through theorised Darwinism, ending cultural divides within America between North and South
- Booker T Washington and many other prominent members of the Black civil rights community accepted segregation, for example in his speech in September 1895 the Atlanta compromise
What areas of life were segregated?
- Rail cars and waiting rooms
- Restaurants, hospitals, hotels, prisons, theatres and cemeteries
- Atlanta’s Grant park in 1890 had 2 aisles in the zoo for white and black people
Describe the Atlanta compromise
Address by Booker T Washington on the 12th September 1895 in Atlanta
Willing to accept segregation and disenfranchisement if Black Americans were given access to equal education/opportunity to improve their standards of living and economical situations
Attacked by the activist Du Bois who demanded equality in all aspects of life
How were Black voting rights taken away in Mississippi?
1890 - A new state constitution was adopted - Jackson Clarion-ledger stated it was purposefully to deprive Black Americans of voting rights
Mississippi had a 55% Black population but out of the 134 delegates called forward to create it only 1 was black
- Poll tax of $2 for voter registration - poverty was high among the Black population of Mississippi so it disproportionately affected them
-Introduced a literacy test to register - but 60% of the black population were illiterate
In 1892 the percentage of voters that were black dropped from 67% to 5.7%
By 1899 82% of the white population of possible voters were registered
How were Black voting rights were taken away in Louisiana?
8th February 1898 Louisiana constitution was arranged to be changed to “exclude illiterate voters” the vast majority of whom were Black Americans
- Regulation to have a literacy test or own a certain amount of property
- As many white people didn’t meet these standards the Grandfather clause was added which stated that no man who had been eligible to vote on 1st January 1867 would be required to meet those standards - nor his son or grandson
- Removed virtually all the black voter population: 1896 - 130,000 1904 - 1342
declared unconstitutional in 1915
How were Black voting rights taken away generally in the South?
- Many Southern states implemented these regulations within the 1890s
- Main ways were poll taxes, property tests and literacy tests
- Level of poor white voters also decreased dramatically
- Overall drop of 65% in black voter participation and 26% in white
What was the major cases of the 1890s and how did they affect Black Americans?
Plessy V Ferguson 1896
- Challenged “separate but equal” as the rail car company Plessy was arrested on refused to spend extra money on another car for Black Americans
- Court upheld that the decisions and denied that it crossed the 13th/14th Amendments
- Gave Southern state governments the support to enforce legal segregation as the federal government could have no impact on individual beliefs and businesses
Williams V Mississippi 1898
- Court allowed the $2 poll taxes and literacy tests which further solidified the ability to disenfranchise Black Americans
Cumming V Richmond County Board of Education 1899
- A Black American high school was closed down and replaced by 4 Black elementary schools
- $45,000 tax was levied upon the area to fund institutions where blacks were refused admission
- Court stated it was not unconstitutional as facilities were still being provided for black people
All these cases promoted the idea of separate but equal while facilities for Black people were obviously inferior and states/individuals/businesses could run how they liked
How did the use of violence affect Black Americans in the period?
- Racial violence rose to be consistently above 187 lynchings of black people a year around 1890
- Seen as an event many white Americans would watch
- Ida Wells was an activist that studied the cases of lynching and reasons included: talking disrespectfully, slapping a white person, writing an insulting letter, being too prosperous or debt. Rumours of rape were also spread to justify it
- 1893, 10,000 people gathered to watch the torture and lynching of a Black American - publicised and photographed and put on postcards
- Constant fear of violemce and random murder made it extremely difficult for Black Americans to stand up to discrimination and violence and segregation
