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Reconstruction to Civil Rights Day 3. Learning Targets.
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Reconstruction to Civil RightsDay 3
Learning Targets • I can evaluate the impact of the Bourbon Triumvirate, Henry Grady, International Cotton Exposition,Tom Watson and the Populists, Rebecca Latimer Felton, the 1906 Atlanta Riot, the Leo Frank Case, and the county unit system on Georgia during this period.
Learning Targets Continued... • I can analyze the denial of rights to African-Americans through Jim Crow law, Plessy vs. Ferguson, disenfranchisement, and racial violence. • I can explain the roles of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, John and Lugenia Burns Hope, and Alonzo Herndon.
Civil Rights • The rights that a person has simply because he or she is a citizen. • For example: freedom of speech, freedom of religion and press, the right to privacy, protection by due process of law, a trial by a jury of one’s peers (equals), property ownership, voting (if qualified), access to jobs, and ability to travel wherever one wishes inside the country.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the concept of white supremacy was popular not only in the South, but also in other areas of the western world. • During Reconstruction and the New South era, most whites and many African Americans accepted racial segregation as a natural way of life.
Separate but Equal Jim Crow laws were passed to establish “separate but equal” facilities for whites and blacks.
Jim Crow Laws • In 1889, the Georgia General Assembly segregated a number of public facilities including: Theatres Prison camps Water fountains Restrooms **Rarely were they equal to those set aside for whites.
African Americans Protested... • Protested the Jim Crow Laws in public meetings throughout the nation. • Henry McNeal Turner called the new civil rights laws and the segregation that followed “barbarous!”
Plessy v. Ferguson • U.S. Supreme Court decision that made segregation the law of the land. • In 1892, Homer Plessy bought a train ticket from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. Because he was 7/8 white and 1/8 black, he took a seat in the “whites only” car. When he refused to move, he was arrested under the “Jim Crow Laws” which required separate-but-equal accommodations for whites and blacks on railroad cars. • U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law and gave states the right to control social discrimination and to promote segregation of the races.
Booker T. Washington • One of the outstanding civil rights leaders of the period. • Forceful speaker, a skilled politician, and an advisor to presidents. • President of Tuskegee Institute of Alabama • Believed that economic independence was the only road to social and political equality.
Atlanta Compromise Speech • Washington spoke at the opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. • Racially mixed crowd • What he said that day shaped race relations and strongly influenced black leadership for the next 20 years. • He proposed that blacks and whites should agree to benefit from each other.
W. E. B. Dubois • Atlanta University Professor • Did not agree with Washington • At first he thought truth and knowledge would help different races understand and accept each other. • Wanted social and political integration and higher education for 10% (Talented Tenth) of African Americans.
Racial Unrest • 2,500 reported lynchings (illegal hangings, usually by mobs) or burnings at the stake of African Americans
“a scar upon my soul.” described each lynching as “a scar upon my soul.” • Decided that knowledge and truth alone were not enough. • There must be action if African Americans and whites were to understand and accept each other.
John Hope • Born in Augusta, Georgia • White father and black mother • Childhood – treated as the son of a plantation owner • Father died when he was 8 and didn’t have money or social acceptance. • 1ST Black President of Atlanta University and Morehouse University
John Hope Disagreed with Booker T. Washington... “If we are not striving for equality, in heaven’s name, for what are we living?... Now catch your breath, for I am going to use an adjective. I am going to say we demand social equality.”
Lugenia Hope • Wife of John Hope • “mover and shaker” • Well-known civic leader • Organized Neighborhood Union +Offered vocational classes for children, a health center, and clubs for boys and girls. +Provided financial aid for needy families and pressured city leaders to improve roads, lighting, and sanitation in African American neighborhoods in Atlanta.
Population • By 1900, almost 12% of the African Americans in the nation lived in Georgia. • 47% of Georgia’s population were African Americans.
Disfranchisement Taking away the right to vote • 15th Amendment had guaranteed blacks the right to vote. • So, state legislators could not disfranchise blacks outright... So they passed laws which applied to everyone but made it more difficult for blacks.
A Loss of Voting Rights • African American citizens found themselves pushed aside and without political power. • African American Leaders began to speak out, but laws continued to be passed with the sole purpose of keeping African Americans from voting.
Grandfather Clause • Stated that only those men whose fathers or grandfathers had been eligible to vote in 1867 were eligible to vote. • Because few African Americans Were able to vote in 1867, this clause kept most of Georgia’s African Americans from voting.
Additional Qualifications • Even those who could pass the standards of the grandfather clause faced problems in the voting booth. • Additional qualifications: + own property + pay a poll tax (tax to vote) + pass literacy tests
Literacy Tests • Not Standard • Questions could contain almost anything the voting clerk thought would stump the potential voter.
Gerrymander • To draw up an election district in such a way that it benefits a certain group. • Another tactic to prevent African Americans from voting. • Districts were drawn up to benefit racial groups, political parties, and special interest groups. • In Georgia and other southern states, voting districts were drawn specifically to weaken African American voting power.
On the afternoon of Saturday, September 22, local newspaper headlines carried false reports of black assaults. • By 9 a.m., a crowd of over 5,000 whites and African Americans had gathered. • Some accounts reported that thousands of whites brought guns and began to roam through the downtown area. • Fears grew, and the attacks became real. • Riot lasted for 2 days. • At least 18 African Americans & 3 Whites were killed and hundreds injured.
African Americans Organize THE NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People --Work for the rights of African Americans • The National Urban League • --Interracial group which worked to solve social problems facing African Americans who lived in the cities.
Trial of Leo Frank • 29 years old • Jewish • From Brooklyn and had moved to Atlanta to work as superintendent of the National Pencil Company factory. • Charged with the murder of Mary Phagan (14 year old employee) • With little evidence, Frank was convicted and sentenced to death. • Mainly because of the testimony of Jim Conley (factory’s African American janitor).
Trial of Leo Frank • Frank’s lawyer appealed the case to the state supreme court. • Georgia’s Governor John Slaton was under pressure to pardon Frank. • The day before his term ended, he changed his sentence from death to life imprisonment.
Trial of Leo Frank • Two months later, 25 armed men walked into the state penitentiary in Milledgeville and took Frank from his prison cell. • They drove to Marietta (the home of Mary Phagan) and hanged Frank from a tree.
Klan Reborn • In July 1915, amid the anti-Jewish feelings and continuing racial unrest of the Leo Frank case, the Ku Klux Klan received a charter from the Fulton County Superior Court. • The Knights of Mary Phagan gathered on top of Stone Mountain and lit torches as they circled a burning cross.
The County Unit System 1917: Neil Primary Act created “county unit system” Plan designed to give small counties more power in state government Smaller counties had more county unit “votes” even though they had fewer voters People could be elected to office without getting a majority of votes Declared unconstitutional in 1962
Alonzo Herndon Former Slave from Social Circle Barber and Entrepreneur Founder and president of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Worked with Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois At the time of his death in 1927, he was also Atlanta’s wealthiest black citizen, owning more property than any other African American.
