Race and Racism in Post Civil War America 1865-1965

1. Race and Racism in Post Civil War America 1865-1965

2. The Story This Far… • The Civil War ended in 1865. The CSA failed to gain independence, and the south was utterly destroyed.

3. Millions of Black people were freed when slavery was made unconstitutional in 1865. • Blacks were made citizens constitutionally with the 14th Amendment. • The 15th Amendment protected their right to participate in choosing government. (Voting) • But…..

4. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THEM? • WHAT ABOUT THE MILLIONS OF WHITES WHO FOUGHT ON BOTH SIDE IN PART TO EITHER FREE OR ENSLAVE THEM?

6. New Idea-Vocabulary 1.) RACE: Is how the physical characteristics of human groups are “read” or “interpreted” culturally by other groups to have meaning. These meanings don’t have to be good or bad. They can be either, or…even both things at once. • Race is not a scientific category. It doesn’t really exist. • Because race depends on culture, Race “works” differently in different times and places.

7. Example: What “Race” are these People?

15. New Idea-Vocabulary 2. Racism: Is when people or society make (s) “preferences” on the basis of race. Racism can be done by: • Invididuals • Institutions like businesses or the state • It doesn’t have to be related to “ignorance” or “hatred”.

16. Abner Louima

18. Vocabulary Review RACE: Is how the physical characteristics of human groups are “read” or “interpreted” culturally by other groups to have meaning. These meanings don’t have to be good or bad. They can be either, or…even both things at once. Racism: Is when people or society make (s) “preferences” based on race.

19. Institutional Racism: When the State does it. (State Racism)

20. Institutional Racism: When the State does it. (State Racism)

21. When Institutions like say, Magazines do it:

22. Ok, now that we’ve got that under our belts…Let’s get back to the End of the Civil War

23. Black Codes of the South in Reconstruction Era

24. Black Codes After the Civil War, white Southerners moved quickly to eliminate black people's newfound freedom. They wanted to return blacks, in effect, to their prewar status as slaves. In order to do this "legally," they passed new laws that appeared, on the surface, to be neutral and fair to all races. In actuality however, these laws were actually designed specifically to repress black people.

25. South Carolina Black Codes • Black Codes that were passed around this time stated: • "No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this state, unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond with two freeholders as sureties" • "Servants shall not be absent from the premises without the permission of the master" • Servants must assist their masters "in the defense of his own person, family, premises, or property" • No person of color could become an artisan, mechanic, or shopkeeper unless he obtained a license from the judge of the district court – a license that could cost $100 or more.

26. Black codes=Jim Crow Laws At first these laws were called Black Codes, but because of their deceptive nature, they eventually came to be known as the laws of Jim Crow. Jim Crow was the name of character in a minstrel show. Minstrel shows were popular during that time, and they featured white actors in "black face," or black make-up. Because of this, the name Jim Crow represented the fact that Black Codes were based on racial disguise.

27. Sheet music cover illustration with caricatures of ragged African-American musicians and dancers.

28. 1866: One of a number of highly racist posters issued as part of a smear campaign against PA Republican gubernatorial nominee John White Geary by supporters of Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer. Indicative of Clymer's white-supremacy platform, the posters attack postwar Republican efforts to pass a constitutional amendment enfranchising blacks.

29. Another in a series of racist posters attacking Radical Republican exponents of black suffrage, issued during the 1866 PA gubernatorial race.

30. November 1867: "The First Vote"--African American men, in dress indicative of their professions, in a queue waiting for their turn to vote.

31. A well-dressed African-American man, perhaps "parroting" the dress of the white middle class, converses with an actual--and chained--parrot

32. Philadelphia, 1889: Removing an African American from a Philadelphia Railway car--after the implementation of Jim Crow, the integration imposed by Reconstruction was stripped away by new laws.

33. Sign in Virginia, posted in the 1920s. Note that the term "Lynch law" began during the American Revolution and that it described punishment for somewhat political offenses even then.

34. 1899: Accounts of nine lynchings as recorded in two major Georgia newspapers as a commentary on southern white racism, together with results of a private investigation of the incidents to ascertain the facts. Wells-Barnett hoped to use this information in an appeal to stop such lawlessness.

35. Number of White And Colored Persons Lynched in United States, 1889-1918 Total White % white Negro % Negro

37. New York City, 1936: From their headquarters at 69 5th Avenue, the NAACP flew a flag to report lynchings until 1938, when the threat of losing its lease forced the association to discontinue the practice.

38. Booker T. Washington between 1890-1900.

39. Watertown, N.Y, 1870: Ku Klux Klan, Watertown Division 289. Ten men posed seated and standing, wearing hats with "KKK" in large letters, and with a skull and bones arranged on the floor in front of them.

40. Mississippi 1870s: Artist unknown. Caption: "Mississippi Ku-Klux in the disguises in which they were captured."

41. Beaumont, Texas, June 1924: "The Awakening"--A James H. Hull production for Beaumont Klan No. 7--KKK. Scene from a theatrical production showing actors as wounded soldiers and actresses as Red Cross nurses.

42. The Rex Theater for Colored People, Leland, Mississippi, 1939: Although many motion picture houses admitted both black and white patrons, they did so by segregating the audience. In such movie houses the blacks were seated upstairs in the balcony. A few theaters, like the Rex, completely separated the races, however, playing to all black audiences. The Rex was probably a black-owned theater.

43. Republic Theatre, New York City, 1947: NAACP members picketing to protest a screening of the 1915 movie "Birth of a Nation."

44. "Every Saturday morning there was a matinee at these movies, and we would pay 15 cents ... but we were separated; we went upstairs, the white kids went downstairs."

45. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, July 1939: "Colored" water fountains were fixtures throughout the South during the Jim Crow era.

46. Detroit 1944: Pallbearers with casket walking in front of sign reading "here lies Jim Crow" during the NAACP Detroit branch "Parade for Victory."

47. Example of Jim Crow Laws

48. Nurses • No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed. Alabama

49. Buses All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races. Alabama

50. Railroad The conductor of each passenger train is authorized and required to assign each passenger to the car or the division of the car, when it is divided by a partition, designated for the race to which such passenger belongs. Alabama