the jim crow era how were the 14 th and 15 th amendments systematically subverted between 1870-1960?
TRANSCRIPT
The Jim Crow Era
How were the 14th and 15th Amendments
systematically subverted between 1870-1960?
Marginalization of Blacks socially and
culturally
Political OppressionRedeemers: Firm believers in white supremacy, leaders wanted to limit the power of black citizens
1870s these racially motivated Democrats who favored segregation began to gain power in South
White voters thought the new leaders would “redeem” the South by reversing Reconstruction policies
Different Views on Race Relations
Most African Americans favored social integration , but many blacks also called for racial separation.
Many whites looked for ways to keep races separate and unequal through legalized segregation
What were Black citizen’s options when they lived in a state of persecution?
What federal judicial actions led to legal the passing of
Jim Crow laws in the South?
The Slaughterhouse Cases, 1873
•Slaughterhouse owners argued Louisiana law violated 14th Amendment rights; no state could impede the rights and privileges of its citizens to work
•Supreme Court did not agree; 14th only protected rights of national citizenship—not rights granted by states
•the 15th and 14th Amendments do not guarantee federal protection of individual rights against discrimination by their own state governments-distinction between state citizenship and national citizenship
Civil Rights Cases, 1883
• The Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875 because it held that Congress lacked the constitutional authority under the ”enforcement provisions” of the 14th Amendment to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and organizations.
• Legalized racial discrimination by hotels, railroads and other public facilities.
Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896“Separate but equal”
In landmark case the Supreme Court sided with the Louisiana court; agreed
segregation was lawful as long as blacks and whites had access to equal facilities
Long Term Results
Black Disfranchisement
New “black codes” included unfair voting laws
•Literacy tests were compulsory when many blacks had received no education
•States voting fee called a poll tax
•Poor and illiterate whites were exempted by grandfather clause; if grandfather eligible to vote, then that person could vote as well
Economic Exploitation
Sharecrop Contract, 1882
Why would any farmer agree to this contract?
What is the most outlandish clause of the contract?
Racial Violence on the Rise
Race Riots• Number of race riots increased; in cities large numbers
of whites took to the streets to punish blacks accused of crimes
• 1st major riot in Wilmington, NC in 1898, another in Atlanta, GA in 1906
Lynching
• Most common forms of racial violence in late 1800s—lynchings, murders of individuals without a trial
• Lynchings and race riots more common in the South; both occurred in the North as well
• Nearly 900 blacks lynched from 1882 to 1892; many committed no crime
• Black journalist Ida Wells- Barnett fought to expose and end the practice
Between 1882 and 1951, 4, 730 people were lynched in the United States…
•3,437 were Black
•1,293 were White
•The most lynching happened in 1892 (203). 161 were Black.
The Chicago Tribune did not start keeping record of lynching until 1882 and The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) did not start keeping records until 1912.
Jim Crow Laws
EDUCATIONFlorida: The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately.
Kentucky: The children of white and colored races committed to reform schools shall be kept entirely separate from each other.
North Carolina: School textbooks shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them.
Jim Crow LawsENTERTAINMENTAlabama: It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards.
Alabama: Every employer of white or negro males shall provide for such white or negro males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities.
Georgia: It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race.
Virginia: Any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture show or place of public entertainment which is attended by both white and colored persons shall separate the white race and the colored race.
Jim Crow LawsFREEDOM OF SPEECHMississippi: Any person guilty of printing, publishing or circulating matter urging or presenting arguments in favor of social equality or of intermarriage between whites and negroes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
HEALTH CAREAlabama: No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed.
HOUSINGLouisiana: Any person...who shall rent any part of any such building to a negro person or a negro family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a white person or white family shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Jim Crow LawsMARRIAGE
Florida: All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited.
Florida: Any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not married to each other, who habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room, shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding 12 months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.
Maryland: All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive…are forever prohibited, and shall be void.
Jim Crow LawsSERVICESGeorgia: No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls.
Georgia: The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons.
TRANSPORTATIONAlabama: All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races.
Why did Republicans permit Jim Crow to persist?
What conclusions can be drawn about American-style democracy
circa 1900?