Handout: Zion Presbyterian Church, “Memorial to the Senate and House of Representatives” (1865)

1. Thurs, 10/2/14 Handout: Zion Presbyterian Church, “Memorial to the Senate and House of Representatives” (1865) • Read the handout and answer the following: • (1) What rights did African Americans argue for? • (2) Which rights did they gain during Reconstruction? • (3) Which of these rights did they not gain?

2. SLO - Students will be able to understand the failure of Reconstruction: identifying rights gained by African Americans during this time, as well as how they were taken away.

3. What Were Rights Gained By African Americans During Reconstruction?

4. What Were Rights Gained By African Americans During Reconstruction? • Freedmen’s Bureau • 14th Amendment • 15th Amendment • Civil Rights Act of 1875

5. Civil Rights Act of 1875 • Sometimes called the “Enforcement Act” was passed during Reconstruction. • Guaranteed equal treatment of African Americans in public accommodations, public transportation, and prohibited exclusion from jury service. • Movie - Remember the Titans

6. How Did Reconstruction End? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJLBrDSTgng • What were rights gained by African Americans during Reconstruction? • How did the Ku Klux Klan and other paramilitary groups discourage African American participation in Southern society? • How did Reconstruction come to an end?

7. Most of These Rights Are Undermined • Freedmen’s Bureau - Right to Education, establishing contracts, health care & legal services • 14th Amendment – Equal Citizenship • 15th Amendment – Right to Vote • Civil Rights Act of 1875 – Equal Treatment in Public Accommodations

8. African American Representation Achievements • Hiram Revels (1870 – 71) – from Mississippi, first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate. • Blanche Bruce (1875 – 81) – Also from Mississippi • Five African Americans elected in South from 1889 to 1897. • 1973 – next African Americans elected to Congress from the South.

9. How Did Reconstruction End? • What were rights gained by African Americans during Reconstruction? • How did the Ku Klux Klan and other paramilitary groups discourage African American participation in Southern society? • How did Reconstruction come to an end?

10. How did the Era of Reconstruction End? • (1) White Southerner Intimidation • (2) Disenfranchisement of African Americans • (3) Panic of 1873 & Economic problems • (4) Compromise of 1877 and loss of support from Northern Republicans

11. Lynchings = Intimidation

14. Voter Intimidation “It was in the state of Georgia, in 1946, that a young Negro veteran named Maceo Snipes learned that by the Supreme Court ruling he had a right to vote. No Negro had voted in his county since Reconstruction, but Maceo Snipes went down and registered. The following morning he was sitting on his porch and a white man came up and killed him with a shotgun. His funeral was held the next day and in the midst of the funeral oration, Maceo’s mother rose and moved up through the crowd, up to his coffin, where they waited to lower it into the earth. And she asked her second son to come forth. He was 17. And she said to him, ‘Put your hand on this coffin, and swear on the body of your brother than when you get to be 21, you’re going down to the courthouse to do what he did — to vote.’ ” - Henry Wallace - Progressive Party Candidate for President - “Radio Address,” September, 1948

15. African Americans Disenfranchised • From 1890 to 1908, Southern states passed new constitutions, constitutional amendments, and laws to disenfranchise African Americans. • Beginning of 1870’s, 100,000’s of African American are registered to vote in each state. • By the 1890’s, only 4,000 to 5,000 African Americans are registered to vote in each state.

16. Poll Tax • Georgia created first poll tax in 1877. • Soon followed by the states of Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and other states of American South. • In many cases, it was a $2 poll charge.

17. Other Forms of Disqualification • “Good character clause” • Literacy test • Grandfather clause – only if your ancestor previously voted

18. Supreme Court Decision (1883) * Five court cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, voted 8 to 1. • Decides that “no state” can deny citizens equal protection, but private entities can discriminate – hotels, theaters, railroads, restaurants, etc. • This leads to racial segregation & Jim Crow laws!! - United States v. Stanley - United States v. Ryan - United States v. Nichols - United States v. Singleton - Robinson v. Memphis & Charleston Railroad