The End of Reconstruction

1. The End of Reconstruction

2. Amnesty Act of 1872: All white Southern ex-Confederates can vote and hold public office. ***What will be the impact on voting in the South?? A White Southern Democrat holding his nose as African Americans go to vote

3. The Election of 1876 The House gave all electoral votes to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. The South did not mind because Hayes had secretly agreed to end Reconstruction

4. New Industries in the South Coal Mining Above: Tobacco farming Below: Textile Mills Cotton farming returns

5. Restricting the Rights of African Americans • Poll Tax: Voters have to pay a fee when they show up to vote at the polls • Most blacks could not afford the tax

6. Literacy Tests: This required voters to read and explain a section of the Constitution The Catch: Most blacks at the time could not read, and so they failed the test Grandfather Clause: If a person’s father or grandfather was eligible to vote on January 1st, 1867, the voter did not have to take the Literacy Test The Catch: No blacks could vote before 1868 Literacy Tests and the Grandfather Clause

7. Segregation: Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1892 • This Supreme Court case determined that separating blacks and whites was legal, as long as the facilities were equal • “Separate but equal”

8. Jim Crow Laws • Laws passed by Southern states that separated blacks and whites in schools, restaurants, theatres, trains, street cars, playgrounds, hospitals, and cemeteries • (On left) A racist depiction of blacks dancing through a field