Southern Resistance to Reconstruction

1. Southern Resistance to Reconstruction Do Now How could Southern state governments deny African-Americans their rights of voting and equality? (Think of 3 ways) Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

2. Denying African American Voting Rights • Literacy Tests • You had to know how to read in order to vote • Is this a good idea? • Overturned by Voting Rights Act 1965 • Poll Taxes • You had to pay to vote • Is this fair? • Overturned 24th amendment 1964 • Grandfather Clauses • If your grandfather was eligible to vote • If your grandfather fought in a war • If you were eligible to vote in 1867 etc. etc.!! • then you are excluded from the above 2 rules • What is the purpose of these exemptions? • Various ways to exclude poor whites from literacy test/poll taxes, etc. • Overturned by Guinn vs. United States (1915) • Jim Crow Laws = Segregation • How was this allowed to exist as laws? • Upheld by Plessy vs. Ferguson • Overturned by lots of cases, laws during Civil Rights movement, Brown vs. Board of Ed was main thrust Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

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7. Plessy vs. Ferguson-1896 • Background of case • La. had segregated RR cars • Plessy (black) bought ticket to white section • Sits in white car,, then announces on the train that he was black • Plessy hired to fight the law b/c he was an “octoroon” (1/8th black), • Also to show the vagaries of definitions of race!! • he was arrested, appeal went to Supreme Court Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

8. Plessy Decision • 7-1 against Plessy • Justice Brown declared, "We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it." • “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” • Made segregation legal in the South for over ½ century • Finally overturned in Brown vs. Board of Ed. (1954) Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

9. KKK • Formed as a social club of Confederate Veterans-Tennessee 1866 • Nathan Bedford Forest • Why do they wear the outfit? • Disguise/anonymity • Confederate soldier ghosts • Methods • Intimidation/violence/burnings/lynching's • Polling places • Who would they target the most and why? • Targeted freedmen (usually landowners more than sharecroppers)/ Republican Party • Why was it successful? • Most southern leaders were either in the Klan or sympathetic towards its • Prosecution?? • What jury is going to stand up to KKK (think mob trials) • KKK acts gave federal enforcement and pretty much ended the KKK • KKK actually reached its height in 1920’s Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

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14. Economic Devastation of the South • 50% of machinery destroyed • 40% livestock killed • $3.3 billion infrastructure destroyed • $1.6 billion in value of slaves lost • Huge inflation led to Confederate dollars worthless • 30%↓ wages • 25% Southern white workforce dead Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

15. “Southern Redemption” • Return of Democratic Party to power • Aided by wimpy/indifferent North • Lack of federal power because of federal scandals under Grant • Amnesty Act 1872- allowed former Confederate leaders to rejoin federal government • 1872- Freedmen’s Bureau disbanded Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

16. How does the cartoonist feel about the Freedmen’s Bureau? Cite your specific evidence to prove your argument!!

17. 2 Term Grant • Scandals, but still popular • His “boys” wanted a 3rd term, but Congress passes resolution reminding country of GW’s 2 term precedent • Specifics to come later!! Fits more with the corruption of Gilded Age (thematically speaking over timeline wise) Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

18. Election of 1876 • Rutherford B. Hayes-Republican (“The Great Unknown”) • “Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some are born in Ohio!!” • Samuel Tilden- Democrat- Governor of NY • Fame for bring down Boss Tweed Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

19. Results? • Tilden wins popular vote • Seemed to have electoral college count also, but Republicans charged that there were 3 Southern states where election results were fraud • Are the Republican claims realistic? • Democrats charged that Republicans using their power to fix the election • Special commission set up to count the vote in the 3 disputed states (La. Fla. S. Car.) • 8 Republicans/7 Dems on the commission • Who wins the election??????? Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

20. “President Compromise” • Compromise of 1877 • Hayes (Rep.) becomes President • Troops removed from the South • Hayes has Southerner in cabinet • Congress agrees to give $$ to rebuild South and pay for Southern Transcontinental RR • Who gets the better deal, North or South??? • Reconstruction over!! Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?

21. 3 sentences explaining why you believe Reconstruction was a success or failure? Aim: How did the South try to resist Reconstruction?