The Jim Crow Era

1. The Jim Crow Era

2. The Jim Crow Era • When: approximately from the end of Reconstruction (1877) until the mid-1950s • What: an era in American history when segregation laws, rules, and customs made African Americans second-class citizens • Where: primarily, but not exclusively, in southern states. • Not just a series of laws, but a way of life

3. I. Guiding Question • What were the origins of the Jim Crow era in the United States?

4. Overview • Reconstruction: A Summary • (Re-) Creating White Supremacy (1865-1890) • Economic • Political and Social • Congressional Reconstruction (1866-1877) • Reconstruction Collapses: • The Compromise of 1877 • Supreme Court • Voting Restrictions • Violence

5. II. Reconstruction: A Summary • Reconstruction (1865-1877): the period after the Civil War during which the federal government attempted to integrate freed slaves into the social and economic life of Southern states • Federal laws and constitutional amendments aimed at reducing racial discrimination and increasing political power of blacks and Republicans in the South • Republican party leaders supported; most white southerners opposed • Radical Republicans wanted to punish the former Confederate states • Moderate Republicans wanted to return the South to the Union as quickly as possible

6. III. (Re-)Creating White Supremacy (1865-1890) • Three immediate questions after the Civil War: • Economic: How should former slaves earn a living in the South? • Political: What kinds of rights and powers should blacks have? • Social: How should blacks and whites relate to each other?

7. III. (Re-)Creating White Supremacy: Economic • Most freedmen lacked land, money, or education • Sharecropping (1870s-1950s): a system in which poor farmers (white and black) worked a plot of land for white landholders in return for a share of the crop

8. III. (Re-)Creating White Supremacy: Political and Social • Black Codes (1865-1867): laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War that severely limited civil rights for blacks • NOT Jim Crow laws! • Restricted freedmen’s political rights – voting, jury service, testifying against whites • Vagrancy laws allowed police to arrest unemployed blacks and hire them out to white landowners • Ultimate Goal: Control African-Americans and ensure that they do not claim social equality

9. IV. Congressional Reconstruction (1866-1877) • Radical Republicans • Civil Rights Act (1866): Federal government guarantees that all persons born in US are citizens and have the same civil rights.

10. IV. Congressional Reconstruction Amendments • Thirteenth Amendment (1865): abolishes slavery • Fourteenth Amendment(1868): guarantees citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and prohibits states from passing laws to take away a citizen’s rights • Fifteenth Amendment(1870): no citizen can be denied the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” • Enforcement Acts (1870-1871): enforce these amendments using Northern troops in each Southern state

11. IV. Congressional Reconstruction: Improvements • African Americans held local, state, and federal offices • Public schools and universities established for African Americans • Voting and political participation

12. V. Reconstruction Collapses: The Compromise of 1877 • Rutherford Hayes (Compromise of 1877) • Federal government abandons attempt to enforce 14th and 15th Amendments • Federal troops withdrawn from Southern states; Democrats regained control

13. V. Reconstruction Collapses: The Supreme Court • Civil Rights Cases (1883): Supreme Court reviewed 5 complaints • Held that Congress had no power to stop private individuals and businesses from racial discrimination • Chief Justice Joseph Bradley: it was time for blacks to assume “the ranks of a mere citizen” and stop being the “special favorite of the laws.”

14. V. Reconstruction Collapses: Voting Restrictions • Fifteenth Amendment: qualification for voting • Poll tax • Literacy tests • Grandfather clauses • Result: # registered to vote fell from 130,000 in 1894 to 1,300 in 1904. In 1940, only 3% of all African Americans in the South could vote

16. V. Reconstruction Collapses: Violence • White Southerners formed terrorist groups to resist Reconstruction by force • Ku Klux Klan (formed 1866): secret organization whose members used violence against black and white citizens to enforce racial inequality

18. Exit Ticket On a sheet of scrap paper (I will collect), write your name, section number, and the following: • 2 ways government contributed to constructing Jim Crow South • 1 way average Americans contributed to constructing Jim Crow South • 1 way you knew what was important in lecture

19. Clarifying Questions • What were the 3 major goals of Reconstruction? • How did the Black Codes legally disenfranchise African Americans? • What are the similarities between Jim Crow laws and Black Codes? What are the differences?

20. Clarifying Questions 4. What is the difference between a Jim Crow law and Jim Crow etiquette? Is one “stricter” than the other? 5. What are 3 examples of Jim Crow laws? What are 3 examples of Jim Crow etiquette? 6. When the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875, how did that affect the rights of African Americans?

21. Clarifying Questions • What does “separate but equal” is constitutional mean? (ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson)