Political Opportunities and the US Black MovementTime Line1860-1865 US Civil WarSlavery Abolished1865 – 1876 ReconstructionCivil Rights AmendmentsUnion Army occupies the SouthSome progress for Blacks1877-1920 White Counter-RevolutionWhite racial superiority recreated under new rules1920-1954 Building Resources and Capacity1954 – 1965 Civil Rights Era1966 – 2000 Post Civil Rights EraConstitutional Amendments 186513th: abolishes slavery “except as punishment for a crime”14th: all persons born or naturalized in the US have rights of citizenship regardless of race, religion, national origin, or previous condition of servitude15th: right of men to vote regardless of race etc.1865-1876 ReconstructionUnion army occupies the south.Blacks vote. Whites who have been in Rebel army cannot. Black elected officials.Some reforms. Some improvement for Blacks. Some land reform (has future effects)Much turmoil, resistance. Attempts by Whites to re-create racial dominationConflicts around 15th amendment disrupt the previous coalition between feminists and supporters of African-American rights.The End of ReconstructionCompromise of 1876 ends Reconstruction to break election deadlock, elect Hayes.Union army leaves the south, agreement to let southerners do what they will about race. White southerners can vote again.“Healing” White nation by sacrificing BlacksDenials that the war was about slavery[Later, Confederate soldiers are even made eligible for US veterans’ pensions with the same standing as Union soldiers]1877 - 1920 Era of Explicit RacismSlavery was over, but a new racial order was createdIt was created by using proxies for race, circumventing the strictures of the 14th amendmentOrigins teach you how a system was built, once in place hard to see why things are as they are1870s-1890s90% of all Blacks live in rural areas, 90% in southmost in cotton farming, dependent on landowners, subject to violent repression.Lynchings and KKK terrorism increaseKKK = local White authorities in sheetsBlacks demand reparations for slavery immediately after the war. (Whites ignore.)Some emigrationism, 500+ actually emigrate to Liberia. Most want to stay.Creating the New Racial Order1880s - 1890s Southern states pass Jim Crow segregation laws.1893 Plessey vs Furgeson, "Separate but Equal," US Supreme Court effectively guts the 14th amendment.Failure of land reform. White elites reconsolidate class privilegePolitics & RaceDemocratic Party = alliance of southern White planters and northern industrialists and working class.Republican Party anti-slavery in 1850s (Lincoln).1876-1891 debate whether to support Black rightsafter 1891 abandon Black rights entirelyPopulist movement threatens trans-racial alliance among southern working classelite Whites work to disenfranchise Blacks (and working class) to eliminate threat.Black DisenfranchisementNo disguise, overt White efforts to disenfranchise Blacks, but accomplish racial goals without explicitly using race (which is illegal)Example: Louisiana, 130,344 Blacks registered in 1895, after constitution rewritten, only 5,000 in 1898 and 1,772 in 1916.Poll taxes, literacy requirements, personal and periodic registration at difficult-to-reach places, White primaries. “Grandfather clause” protects Whites.Same tools in the north disenfranchise White workers especially immigrants.Blacks lose all political power.1895-1920 Virulent RacismPresidents Taft and Wilson are explicit racistsUS Supreme Court decisions gut the 14th amendmentHundreds of African Americans are lynched (murdered) in the south."Scientific racism" is taught in college science classrooms. This ideology distinguishes northern Aryan from southern Europeans, as well as what we now understand as "races."Explicit opposition to any form of mixing of "races.“ Intermarriage illegalBlack Resistance 1880-1920There is resistance to Jim Crow.Bus boycotts & consumer boycotts against segregation in the cities.Petitions, speeches. Rhetoric of citizenship, equality.Northern, educated Blacks speak out for equality, citizenship.But lose 1880-1920Counter-TrendsPockets of Black developmentBlack migration (cowboys; movements into cities)Black schools, collegesBlack political movementsToo weak in this era to win, but set up the future (we will return to these)1910s-1920s1916-1925 Marcus Garvey. Back to Africa. Militant separatist, Black capitalist. Black religious icons.1919 Bloody race riots in many cities, Whites attacking and killing Blacks.1920s NAACP under James Weldon Johnson begins the concerted campaign of lawsuits to chip away at segregation,begin the path towards Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954).Early victories provide resources that increase Black education.1920s-1930s1920s - 1940s. A. Philip Randolph. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Strong Black union, political platform.1920s - 1930s Blacks shift voting patterns, become potential swing voters.From “knee-jerk Republicans” (holdover from 19th century, Republicans anti-slavery, Lincoln freed the slaves) to willing to vote for whomever supports them and their issues.1936 Blacks play a key role in Roosevelt’s New Deal Coalition. Become significant political players.1940-19601941 threatened March on Washington, led by Randolph. Called off when FDR agrees to ban racial discrimination in war industries.1942-1945 World War II. Political watershed1945-1960. Post-war politics. Communism and anti-Communism. “Hearts and Minds” Anti-colonialism, independence for African nations. US racial policies become international embarrassment.What Changed between 1880 and 1960?Major source:Doug McAdam. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency. University of Chicago Press, 1982.The Great Migration: Rural South to Urban North & South1890 Blacks are 90% rural, 90% southern. No political leverage. Economically dependent. Illiterate. Threat of numbers in southern areas leads to extreme measures to keep them suppressed.Between 1900 and 1960 Blacks Move:South to North. From 90% southern in 1900 to 60% in 1960.Rural to Urban. Southern Blacks: from 9% urban in 1890 and 34% in 1930 to 58% in 1960. The 40% of Blacks in the north are virtually all urban.Consequences of UrbanizationVoting in North. Swing votes, parts of political machines. Black Congressmen elected.Less daily domination. More able to gather, talk politically without White oversight. Positive consequence of physical segregation.Able to support independent Black professionals