Georgia Georgia and the American Experienceand the American Experience

Chapter 10:Chapter 10:

The Progressive EraThe Progressive Era

©2005 Clairmont Press

Terms to Know:

• Separate but Equal

• Jim Crow

• Plessy v. Ferguson

• Grandfather Clauses

• Poll tax

• Gerrymandering

• Zimmerman Telegram

Separate But EqualSeparate But Equal• Civil Rights: rights a person has as a citizen

• “Jim Crow” laws passed to separate blacks and whites

• Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court decision which approved Jim Crow laws – decision in place until 1954

• Cummings V. Richmond County Board of Education: Supreme Court decision supporting segregated schools in Georgia

A Loss of Voting RightsA Loss of Voting Rights• Laws created to keep African Americans in Georgia from

voting– Grandfather clause: only those men whose fathers or

grandfathers were eligible to vote in 1867 could vote– Poll tax: a tax paid to vote– Voters had to own property– Voters had to pass a literacy test (which was

determined by the poll worker and could be different for different people)

– Gerrymandering (try to get extra votes unfairly: to manipulate an electoral area, usually by altering its boundaries, in order to gain an unfair political advantage in an election) election districts drawn up to divide the African American voters

African Americans OrganizeAfrican Americans Organize

• NAACP (1909): worked for the rights of African Americans

• W.E.B. DuBois left Atlanta to work for the NAACP in New York

• National Urban League formed in 1910– Worked to solve social problems of African

Americans in cities– Assisted people moving from rural South to

urban North

The United States Enters the The United States Enters the WarWar

• President Wilson worked to keep the US out of the war

• 1915: German submarine sank passenger ship Lusitania killing 128 Americans

• 1917: sub attacks resumed sinking American ships

• Zimmerman telegram: Germany tried to get Mexico to attack the US

• Wilson finally joined the Allied powers

Georgia and World War IGeorgia and World War I• ±100,000 Georgians volunteered to join

the US armed forces

• Training in Georgia at Camp Benning, Fort McPherson, and Camp Gordon helped Georgia economy

• Georgians contributed manufactured goods and farm produce

• 3,000 young Georgians killed in the war

• Ended November 11, 1918

Atlanta FireAtlanta Fire

• May 21, 1917

• Lasted 10-12 hours

• Seventy city blocks destroyed

• 6,000-10,000 people left homeless

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