Race and Ethnicity in the U S 11 7 Reconstruction Era American Civil War 1861 1865 Aka o War between the states o War between the north and south o War of northern aggression o War for southern independence o War of the rebellion Reconstruction period was from 1865 1877 Reconstruction impacts the entire country o We are concerned with how reconstruction affects the south and how it shapes Jim crow Purpose of reconstruction o States who are apart of the confederacy are labeled as traders o The purpose was to decide how to let these states back into the country o The southern states will have to prove their trustworthiness and their loyalty to the federal government o Not to mention that the war destroyed most of the southern states infrastructure businesses economy o The federal government will help to assist theses states to rebuild these things o The federal government sends many people down to these southern states to assist and aide the local governments 3 constitutional amendments during R E 13th end of slavery 14th blacks could become citizens equal protection 15th blacks could vote Both 14th and 15th impacted African Americans all over the country slave and free alike Freedman s Bureau Its purpose is to help the freed blacks in the south A federal agency that runs a variety of federal programs 1865 1869 Helps ensure newly freed African Americans Food rations housing and legal Struggles for funding help Bureau and Black Education The freedman s bureau is most associated with its impact on education Oliver O Howard o Helped develop public education programs in the south o There was a lot of resistance to this because many white people did not want to send their children to school with black students o Thousands of people are helped children and adults blacks and whites o Children go to school in the daytime and many blacks and poor rural whites went to school in the evenings to learn how to read and write Before the civil war not a single southern state had a public education system Thousands helped both children s and adults Backlash to Reconstruction White supremacy groups began to develop Their purposes are generally to terrify African Americans and White Republicans in the south to keep them from voting They want to ensure that southern democrats get any available local and state federal government jobs White League began in 1874 o Largely in the state of Louisiana o Made up of mostly young confederate veterans o These men did not act in secret They had meetings in the open They wore certain colors badges and pins to show their allegiance Red Shirts began in 1875 o Mostly in South Carolina in Mississippi o Like the White League they worked openly KKK began in 1860s o Still alive and acting today o Operated in secrecy o Have different goals More about terrifying people About coercion and manipulation Burning a cross in someone s front yard not only shows that they are not wanted but also that they do not value that particular church of denomination o Many people were a member of more than one of these groups at once o Many threats murder and lynching pressure Example African American Man would try to go and vote and because of this his employer fires him He can no longer pay his rent He gets kicked out of his apartment o This was the kind of pressure system that the KKK created End of Reconstruction Compromise of 1877 o Corrupt Bargain Republican nominee Rutherford B Hayes had 184 federal votes Democratic party nominee Samuel Tilden had 164 federal There were 20 votes that were not accounted for and it was anticipated that these votes would go to the democratic votes nominee The current president Ulysses S Grant bargains with southern states and promises that he will remove the troops from the states if they will ensure that the 20 votes will go towards the republican nominee Historians argue that Reconstruction failed because the southern states have many ways to prevent African Americans from voting Booker T Washington Freed by the 13th amendment Born as a slave Purpose of reconstruction emphasizing political means and civil rights acts Largely affected by reconstruction Started a traditionally largely rather than economic means and self determination Jim Crow era 1876 1965 Du jure racial segregation o This means having racial segregation in every day life Separate entrances bathrooms water fountains busses etc Many of these ideas come from the north interesting Political disenfranchisement o Another term that keeps African Americans from voting or from their Economic suppression multigenerational poverty votes counting o Sharecropping A way of farming A way of keeping multigenerational poverty in tact Before the war there were large plantations and smaller farms that are owned and operate by white families and the majority of the labor force is slaves There is still a work force needed to tend to these plantations A plantation owner will offer former slaves a place to live and some land to tend to and in return the African American person has to pay the plantation owner for this usually something like 80 of what they grow Plessy vs Ferguson 1896 o In 1890 the state of Louisiana decided to have segregated rail road cars but they argue that the different cars are equally as good as one o The segregated citizens Plessy 1 8th black decide to test this o Plessy is not visibly black and is able to buy a ticket for the white o Once he sits down on the white car he declares that he is partially another railroad car black o He is arrested and the case goes all the way up to the supreme court Comes from the song Jump Jim Crow about African Americans No legal protection for African American people or sympathizers o If you are a white person and you openly sympathize for African Americans you can be punished Lynch Mobs 5 000 between 1870s and 1960s o A lynch mob is when someone has decided that a particular person has disobeyed a law or a social system and they take justice into their o 3 500 blacks and 1 500 whites o 1935 Ft Lauderdale Rubin Stacey o 1930 Indiana Thomas Ship and Abram Smith accused of kissing a own hands white women o A regular practice is taking family pictures at a lynching and passing these pictures from generation to generation o Another regular practice is cutting off the lynched mans hands and leaving them at his wife s doorstep o Most of the people that are committing lynches are in the lower middle class or the working poor These social classes are very
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