Political and Social Change in the South

Political and Social Change in the South Chapters 15 and 16

Politics • The South was overwhelmingly Democratic, and the Republican party rarely nominated a candidate • The People’s party, also known as Populists, was defeated in the 1892 congressional election because the Democrats charged that voting for the Populist candidate would split the white vote and allow a black to win

Politics • Populists called on black and white farmers to unite against merchants, bankers, and lawyers • Progressives were the most successful in promoting white supremacy

Women’s Suffrage • Suffrage – the right to vote • In Georgia, the movement was led by Rebecca Felton

Literacy Test • A constitutional amendment that states that people who vote must be able to read and write • Directly limits the number of freed slaves who could vote since learning to read and write was illegal for slaves

Literacy Test • Certain voters didn’t have to take the test, were exempt from it: • People of good character who understood the duties of citizenship • Anyone who owned 40 acres of land • Veterans and their descendants (known as the grandfather clause)

Rural Free Delivery • Tom Watson sponsored Rural Free Delivery • Allowed farm families to receive mail, instead of traveling miles to town to pick up their mail • In the late 1800s, most Georgians earned their living by farming • Georgia did not build up industry (like the north) because it did not have the capital (money) to build factories

Farming • Tenant farmer and/or sharecropper always supplied labor • The most valuable possession of any farmer was his crop

Cotton and Industry • Most cotton mills were located along Fall Line • This was also known as Black Belt, since there was a high percentage of black residents living there • The great cotton exposition was to encourage business to build industries in the state • Most northern companies built textile mills in Georgia because of its low taxes, mild climate, and cheap labor

Disfranchisement • Disfranchisement – taking away the right to vote • Georgia politicians disfranchised the blacks by enforcing poll taxes, literacy tests, and holding white primaries (where only whites could vote)

Jim Crow Laws • Laws designed to keep the members of the races apart • Georgia’s first Jim Crow law required railroads to provide separate passenger cars for blacks and whites

Prohibition • Prohibition is forbidding the manufacturing and sale of alcoholic beverages • The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot led to statewide prohibition • The violence of the riot was typical of violence by whites against blacks

The Atlanta Compromise • An idea that social and political equality would come only after blacks learned a skill and became self-sufficient • As reaction to discrimination in the early 1900s, African Americans began leaving in large numbers for jobs in the North

Efforts to Improve Lives of African Americans • W.E.B. DuBois – helped establish the NAACP • John Hope – president of Morehouse College and Atlanta University (traditionally black schools) • Booker T. Washington – founder of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama

Education • More state and local money went to educate white children than black children

Political and Social Change in the South