Issues of the Gilded Age

1. Issues of the Gilded Age Race, Politics and the Rise of Populism 1877-1900

2. African Americans Loose Freedoms • After Reconstruction African American voting rights taken away in southern states • Jim Crow Laws- Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses to limit voting • Black participation in voting drops

3. New Laws Force Segregation • Across south segregation part of everyday life • 1870 Supreme Court cases undermine rights of African Americans • Plessey v. Ferguson (1896) court upheld constitutionality of Jim Crow Laws • As long as facilities “separate but equal”, did not violate 15th amendment • Supreme Court rulings kept African-Americans from having equal access in society

4. African American Oppose Injustices Booker T. Washington- • African Americans needed to establish themselves as hardworking citizens, not fight to overturn segregation • Founded Tuskegee Institute to provide industrial education

5. African American Oppose Injustices • W.E.B. Du Bois- Did not want to accommodate whites, wanted full equality, • Did not think blacks should limit themselves to vocational education

6. African American Oppose Injustices • Ida Wells – established a newspaper in Memphis that criticized mistreatment of African Americans, helped establish NAACP 1909 • Many African American newspapers, political and social originations, schools, colleges established to secure freedom

7. Chinese Immigrants face Discrimination • Many Chinese came to the U.S. to work on the RR’s and goldfields • Faced racial prejudice on the west coast, blamed for taking “white jobs” during economic downturn 1870’s • 1879 Chinese banned from employment in California • Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) prohibited Chinese from entering country

8. Chinese Immigrants face Discrimination • Chinese fought discrimination in court • 1886 Yik Wo v. Hopkins- Supreme Court ruled Chinese could not be banned from employment • 1896 Chinese born in America could not be stripped of citizenship • Upheld Chinese Exclusion Act, other discriminatory practices

9. Mexican Americans Struggle in the West • Center of Mexican American struggle was land • End of Mexican- American War (1848)property rights guaranteed • Had to prove ownership- poor records, idea of communal land ownership made this difficult

10. Mexican Americans Struggle in the West • Anglo Americans used the federal government to control land • Mexicans had no representation in Washington, D.C. to challenge power • Las GorrasBlancas- Hispanic group that fought for land rights. Cut fences, burned houses • Supported by national labor organizations • Increased anti- Mexican feelings across the west

11. Women Make Gains and Suffer Setbacks • During Gilded Age women began to fight for the right to vote, own property, education • Right to vote for women not included in 14th or 15th Amendment • 1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton established National Women's Suffrage Association to gain constitutional amendment that granted women right to vote

12. Women Make Gains and Suffer Setbacks • By 1906 only four western states granted women right to vote • Women had success in fields of college attendance, public health and welfare reform