Jim Crow Laws Social Construction of Race Most people tend to think of race as one fixed idea There is an objective difference between race and ethnicity In most southern states having one drop of African blood meant that you were black this was known as the one drop rule South Carolina and Louisiana are the only southern states that never had a one drop rule instead they used the 1 8th rule Redeemers This was a group of southern white democrats that formed during reconstruction Their main goal was to redeem the south from black rule They supported the Mississippi plan fought populist coalition and supported cutting government spending on public facilities like schools and hospitals they didn t want to support any public facility where there could be a mixing of races They also wanted to reinstate laws like black codes and increase vagrancy laws and convict leasing They slowly gained control of state governments but it was hard for them to win over black majority districts so they redrew districts and passed laws eliminating the black vote By the 1890s every southern state had an act of laws that passed a constitutional amendment seeking to revoke black vote Jim Crow a set of laws that enforce segregation in the south The Civil Rights Cases 1883 a set of five cases where blacks sued because they were denied admittance to restaurants hotels movie theaters and train cars They were either excluded completely or segregated into black only areas These cases determined the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional Disfranchisement De Jure by law south vs De Facto by fact north o Poll Taxes made voters pay a certain amount of money before they could vote but the tax was more than most people including poor whites could afford o Literacy Tests made voters read and interpret the state constitution At that time only 13 5 of all Americans were literate so it eliminated a lot of people from the right to vote o Grandfather Clause stated that if your grandfather had the right to vote then you do as well There were plenty of ways that allowed people to get around these laws White people collected poll taxes and distributed literacy tests so they could easily allow someone to vote even if they were not technically qualified Plessy vs Ferguson 1896 final decision determined that the 14th Amendment applies to the state not private individuals corporations or the federal government Louisiana was a very racially diverse state most of the population was Creole a mixture of a number of different races and ethnicities African French Spanish Because of the mixture it was hard to determine if someone was creole black or white During the antebellum period most states determined that having black skin was evidence of being a slave However in Louisiana the courts were aware of the diversity and were much more leery of deeming a person to be a slave if they were not Louisiana refused to create any laws defining race within the state In September 1891 a group of prominent black leaders in New Orleans organized a Citizens Committee to challenge Louisiana laws requiring railroads to provide separate accommodations for races on passenger cars The committee specifically chose Homer Plessy who was only 1 8th black but looked white Plessy boarded a white s only train and then announced that he is actually black and was promptly arrested This was all a strategically planned ploy The committee hired Albion Tourgee a popular lawyer civil war veteran and radical republican who supported universal equality Tourgee argued that the Louisiana law violated the 13th and 14th Amendments because it maintained a hierarchical racial status He also argued that it violated the 14th Amendment because it denies Plessy the reputation of being white The ability of the conductor to determine who is white and who is not takes away Plessy s property and constitutional right to self identify as white Some historians think that Tourgee s argument undercuts that all African Americans deserve protection under equitable citizenship no matter what color Judge Harland believed that the constitution is color blind but he didn t agree with Tourgee s argument The Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities are legal so long as they are substantially equal and legalized Jim Crow This case makes the beginning of separate but equal Lynching there was a dramatic increase in mob violence and lynching During the 1890s 187 lynching s were recorded each year in the south however many more actually took place Most lynching s were justified as punishment for raping white women however they also served as a warning sign for other black people to make examples and simply for white entertainment o Race Riots whites gave called them race riots to suggest that blacks took part in the riots even though that wasn t true The riots usually aimed at middle and upper class blacks who were segregated but established their own buildings and businesses which angered white people so they would burn and destroy the blacks houses and businesses In Wilmington in 1898 a white republican was elected as mayor and chose several black city councilmen More than 200 white democrats from the city attacked the local black newspaper and set other businesses on fire Sixty African Americans were killed Riots also occurred in Tulsa Oklahoma and Atlanta Immigration previously most immigrants were from Western Europe but in the 1890s there was a massive shift in the nature of immigration People came from many different places like Italy and Russia and looked physically different o Nativism the belief that the native inhabitants of a nation should be favored over immigrants This belief supported a decrease in immigration and lower legal status for immigrants Xenophobia the fear of the unknown the belief that foreigners are both hostile and alien to the dominant culture and therefore will not assimilate to American culture o Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 banned all Chinese immigrants for 10 years and made all current Chinese immigrants ineligible for citizenship The law kept getting renewed until it was made permanent in 1912 The ban was eventually lifted in 1943