The Rise of Disfranchisement and Segregation Black America 10 4 12 The Negro Question President Hayes abandoned the colored people in the South to the people intimidating and lynching them President Garfield Arthur and Cleveland all put this on the back burner and didn t pay much attention to it Arthur and Cleveland hired blacks Negro Jobs Minister to Haiti Minister to Liberia Reopening of question dealing with blacks under President Harrison Situation with blacks actually got worse because of efforts to improve their condition Disfranchisement Nullify black political strength 14th amendment 15th amendment Southern states didn t want to draw attention from the federal government by violating these amendments so they found other means violence and intimidation When Blacks did vote they were often forced to vote for certain candidates Black districts were gerrymandered Mississippi first Southern state to effectively disfranchise Blacks by the Constitution they found legal ways to keep Blacks from voting 1890 Constitutional Convention Imposed poll tax Disfranchised voters convicted for petty crimes Literacy test disfranchised those who couldn t read and interpret constitution Isaiah Montgomery only Black man at the Convention Disfranchised 23 000 Blacks but only 11 000 whites Called for addition to the permanent registration list the names of all males whose fathers and grandfathers had been eligible to vote on January 1 1867 this included no Black men Tennessee passed law to segregate public facilities in 1865 and prohibited intermarriage other states followed Louisiana 1898 Grandfather Clause Segregation Jim Crow Laws White Democratic Rule Disfranchisement Segregation Lynching 1882 1891 1 483 Blacks lynched The North Negative stereotypes of Blacks portrayed them as petty thieves etc Lynching Federal Government Blacks could not look to federal government for assistance Both political parties abandoned them although whites said the right things Civil Rights Act 1875 Guaranteed equal rights in public places inns conveyances theaters without distinction of color Prohibited exclusion of Blacks from jury duty Civil Rights Cases 1883 Involved 5 different cases 2 originated in the South Supreme Court declared 8 to 1 Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional because it protected social rather than political rights John Marshall Harlan a former slave owner from Kentucky wrote the only dissenting opinion This ruling made discrimination a state matter Plessy v Ferguson Separate Car Law passed in Louisiana in 1890 Separate but equal train cars Citizens Committee organized to test the constitutionality of the Separate Car Law 1892 Plessy an octoroon 1 8 Black was the petitioner having sat in a white car and told the ticket collector he was Black to get arrested John Howard Ferguson was the first judge the case was seen by at state level State upheld that the state law was constitutional that as long as accommodations were equal segregation did not constitute discrimination Went to Supreme Court and was upheld John Marshall Harlan again wrote the dissenting opinion saying The Constitution is colorblind Not overturned until 1854 in Brown v Board of Ed 10 9 12 Black Leadership Booker T Washington Born a slave in Virginia 9 years before the Civil War started Whites anointed him the leader of Black America Too much attention had been placed on voting and running for office and not enough on preparing for citizenship Blacks had to destroy the stereotypes that had been placed on them had to earn respect Blacks needed more than liberal education needed industrial education so that they could earn a living but stay in their place Built from the ground up Tuskegee Institute in 1881 Carnegie and other robber barons became very good friends with Washington and contribute millions of dollars to the institute to train workers W E B Du Bois Became Washington s most important critic saying that Washington promoted the economic side of things rather than the higher things in life that Washington preached accommodation acceptance of what s being given Had a liberal studies education got a PhD was opposed to Washington s industrial education stance Believed in the Talented Tenth the top tenth of the Black race should pursue a liberal education Prejudice can be fought if frankly faced Involved in forming the Niagara Movement in 1905 blacks and whites working together for blacks evolved into NAACP large contingent of Jews both of which Washington opposed NAACP Mass meetings Investigations especially lynching Publicity Organ of NAACP The Crisis magazine Editor Du Bois Considered the most successful of Civil Rights groups
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