| The Politics of Segregation: Jim Crow and Disenfranchisment (1876-1957) |
|
Sections:- The Election of 1876
- The Racist Climate of 19th Century America
- Lynching
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman
- Jim Crow Laws
- Tom Watson
- Ida B. Wells
- Jack Johnson
- Early Civil Rights Movement: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois
|
| Historical Context
The Election of 1876 virtually ended in a tie. Democrat Samuel Tilden, the governor of New York, narrowly won the popular vote but, with several states still in dispute, remained one vote shy of winning the electoral college vote. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes needed twenty electoral votes, a sweep of the disputed states, to win the election. As the term of President Grant was set to expire, a compromise was reached that handed Hayes the White House. In exchange, Hayes ended Reconstruction and returned the former Confederate states to home rule. As a practical matter, this ended federal supervision of race relations and ushered in the political and social system of white supremacy known as Jim Crow.
Attached Documents
The electoral map shows the discrepancy between the popular and electoral vote.
Robert Smalls was an African American man, born a slave, who, after the Civil War, was elected to the House of Representatives five times from South Carolina. This essay decries the sorts of fraud practiced against Republicans in the state. Southern whites voted overwhelmingly Democratic while Southern African Americans voted heavily Republican. Smalls speaks of measures designed to discourage Republican voters, which disproportionately impact black voters. In the coming years, many of these same techniques were refined beyond party affiliation and concentrated exclusively on race. This, and other more drastic legal measures, disenfranchised nearly all black voters.
Questions to Consider
1. How would the end of Reconstruction affect American Americans and Republicans in the South?
2. How were Republican voters discouraged from voting in the South? Which tactics were used by election authorities and which were used by private citizens or groups?
|
| | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Americans in the late 19th and early 20th Century were accustomed to thinking of life in racial terms. Europeans and persons of European descent saw their society as being far more advanced and sophisticated than other world societies. Social philosophers, such as Herbert Spencer, combined this observation along with a misapplication of the new study of evolution to compose an understanding of the world built on racial characteristics. Since these studies were conceived to demonstrate the supremacy of white Anglo Saxon Europeans, that is exactly what they found. All other races were deemed inferior and were treated as such.
Attached Documents
Below are a selection of products, advertisements, and packaging from the 19th Century from popular culture demonstrating prevalent attitudes about race.
Questions to Consider
1. Do you think that a person growing up in a culture permeated by racism is responsible for his or her views on other races? Explain your answer.
|
| | | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Lynching was a common act of violence and terrorism used in 19th and 20th Century America. The victim, typically a black man accused of a sexual or violent crime, was usually taken from the jail, courthouse, or his home by a mob, beaten, tortured, and murdered. A number of people were burned alive. Between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 people were lynched in America. Every state experienced at least one lynching, though they were most common in the South.Attached Documents
The first document below is a table of lynching statistics over the 75 year period between 1882 and 1968. Immediately following the statistical table are two maps. The first map depicts the total number of lynchings in each states. The second map shows the lynchings in which the victim was black for each state. The first photograph below shows the body of Willie Brown. On 28 September 1919, Willie Brown, accused of sexually assaulting a white woman, was lynched outside of the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska. Brown was hanged and shot repeatedly. When the mayor attempted to intervene, he was hanged from a tree, though a policeman was able to cut him down before he was seriously injured. Brown’s body was dragged behind an automobile through downtown Omaha and, eventually, burned at the intersection of 17th and Dodge Streets. The second photograph shows the aftermath of the lynchings of three black circus workers were accused of raping a local teenage white girl from Duluth, Minnesota in 1920. Although no evidence of rape was found, rumors spread and by the end of the day a mob formed outside of the Duluth jail. The police, who were not allowed to use guns, unenthusiastically resisted the mob, which easily broke through their ranks, drug out Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, convicted them of rape in a false trial, and lynched them in the street. The third photograph shows the body of Lige Daniels surrounded by his murderers. The 16 year old boy was accused of killing an elderly white women. He, like the others, had been in jail, but not protected by the police and was drug to the edge of town where he was strung up in a tree. The citizens of Center, Texas had a photograph taken of their smiling faces beneath his body turned into a postcard. The final photograph is of the NAACP headquarters in New York displaying a banner, as they did after every known lynching in order to raise awareness. Questions to Consider
1. Why are people smiling in these photos?
2. Does the mood strike you as being particularly somber?
3. Were lynchings an effective means to terrorize a community? |
| | | | | | | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Plessy v. Ferguson was an 1896 Supreme Court decision allowing seperate facilities on the basis of race, a doctrine which became known as "separate but equal." The case originated when Homer Plessy, an African American, boarded a railroad card reserved for white passengers, thus violating a Louisiana statute. The Court upheld the state law.
Attached Documents
The majority opinion upholding the constitutionality of this decision is below.
Also included is Justice Harlan's dissent in the case.
Questions to Consider
1. How does the Plessy decision reflect the predominant racial views of the time?
2. Do you think that the majority of Americans would have agreed with Morrison's majority opinion or Harlan's dissent?
3. Do you think it is feasible for communities and businesses to maintain separate but equal facilities? Explain your answer. |
| | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
“Pitchfork” Ben Tillman was the governor and, eventually, a Senator from South Carolina. He received the nickname after he threatened to impale President Grover Cleveland on the farm implement in a dispute over monetary policy. Tillman’s time as governor was marked by his use of racial tensions for his own political purposes. While campaigning, he boasted that if a black man were accused of raping a white woman he, as governor, would be the first in the lynch mob.
Attached Documents
In 1895, Tillman presided over the South Carolina Constitutional Convention that disenfranchised African Americans in the state. "Tillman on Lynch Laws" is a section of an exchange between Tillman and Wisconsin Senator Spooner in which Tillman justifies racial violence and explains the motivation behind the Jim Crow laws. A statue of Tillman stands before the South Carolina capitol.
The Tillman pieces clearly articulate the Southern view on Jim Crow.
Questions to Consider
1. Would Jim Crow laws be a logical extension for a person with Tillman's beliefs? How factual do you think he is being in his testimony? |
| | | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Based upon the racial understanding of the time, the protection of white political power and bloodlines became paramount. White people of the time could not conceive subordination to what they considered a lesser race nor the dilution or tainting of their white blood. Therefore, Jim Crow laws were constructed to insure white power and govern relationships between the races. These laws were built on the constitutional precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson. However, the "separate but equal" standard from Plessy was no more than a legal fiction as these laws were heavily tilted to the advantage of white people.
Attached Documents
"Selection of Jim Crow Laws" contains a sampling of statues from various states enacted to legally enforce racial segregation.
"Nebraska Jim Crow Laws" criminalized "miscegenation" (interracial marriage)while forbidding segregation in places of public accommodation.
The photos in this section illustrate the daily reminders to African Americans that they were utterly unwelcome and mistrusted in white society.
Questions to Consider
1. After reading the Jim Crow laws and viewing the photos, discuss the fears, misconceptions, and prejudices that you think led to racist legislation.
2. How are Jim Crow laws related to the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson? |
| | | | | | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Tom Watson was a populist politician from Georgia in the late 19th Century. Though he would later be known for his stridently racist and anti-Semitic writings and he was instrumental in the 1913 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory owner accused of murder, he began his career urging conciliation between the races.
Attached Documents
In “The Negro Problem in the South,” Watson argued that poor people in the South share common interests regardless of race and that, if they could be persuaded to set aside their racial animosities, they could become a potent political force. A statue of Watson stands in front of the Georgia capitol.
Questions to Consider
1. Did Watson have any prospect of success with his vision of political unity between poor whites and blacks?
2. In "The Strange Career of Jim Crow," historian C. Vann Woodward argued that the Jim Crow system developed as a means to perpetuate elite control over Southern politics. According to Woodward's theory, established politicians saw a potential challenge from people like Watson and instituted the Jim Crow system to insure that poor whites and blacks would never unite on the basis of economic interest. Does this seem realistic? Compare this with the writings of Tom Watson and Ben Tillman. Which seems the most plausible explanation for racial segregation?
3. How would you sum up the "negro problem," as expressed by Tom Watson?
4. According to Watson, what were the political and social implications of the North's victory in the Civil War? Do you think his account is accurate? Why or why not? |
| | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Ida Wells was a journalist living in Memphis, Tennessee who wrote a series of editorials following the lynching of three of her friends. Following the publication, the newspaper office was ransacked. Wells moved to New York and became an anti-lynching advocate. Wells became a sought after and forceful speaker. In 1895, published the first statistical analysis of lynching.
Attached Documents
In "Wells Protests a Black Post Master's Murder," Wells makes bold appeal to the national government to combat lynching with federal legislation.
Included is a 1902 fund raising solicitation for the Anti-Lynching Bureau, in which Wells entreats members to shake their apathy and reinvigorate the organization.
Questions to Consider
1. Did Wells put herself in danger by speaking out about lynchings while in Tennessee?
2. What kind concerns does Wells address in her appeal to members of the Anti-Lynching Bureau?
3. What anti-lynching action does Wells propose on the part of the federal government? How, according to Wells, has the government justified its inaction in this matter? |
| | | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Jack Johnson was the first black man to become heavy weight boxing champion of the world. In 1908, after overcoming a conspiracy among title holders to deny the belt to a black fighter, Johnson defeated Tommy Burns to win the championship. Johnson took advantage of all that his title offered him; spending vast amounts of money, dressing extravagantly, buying expensive automobiles, and, unpardonably in his time, he married, at various times, four white women. This was too much for turn of the century America. Newsreels of Johnson’s fights were censored for fear of sparking race riots, and Johnson was convicted of a violation of the Mann Act, taking an unmarried woman across state lines for immoral purposes, due to his affinity for prostitutes. It was said that Johnson integrated more brothels than any man alive. Before he could be sentenced however, Johnson fled the country for France. Johnson returned to America bankrupt after losing the title in Cuba. He served one year in prison on the Mann Act charge. After his release from prison, Johnson wrote his memoirs, "Mes Combats," in French. Johnson died in a car accident in 1946.Johnson was the subject of Ken Burn's 2004 documentary "Unforgivable Blackness."
Questions to Consider
1. With the racial attitudes of the time, what did it mean for black America and white America to have a black heavy weight champion? Would people see this as a threat or a challenge to their beliefs? Compare this with Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
2. Discuss the apprehensions and fears surrounding interracial relationships in the era of Jim Crow. Why do you think this was such a prevalent concern for white America? How has popular opinion changed in regard to interracial relationships? What has not changed? |
| | | | Citations: | |
|
| Historical Context
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois [note: "DuBois" used an anglicized pronunciation of his name, "Du-Boys"] were the two most significant early leaders in the modern Civil Rights movement. However, they were very different men with very different approaches to fighting the Jim Crow system. Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Institute, believed that Jim Crow was the reality and that, for the time being, African Americans should focus on self improvement through education and economic strength separate from whites. In one of his most famous speeches, Washington used the metaphor of a hand, saying that whites and blacks could be as separate as the fingers but, when needed, as united as a fist. DuBois, the first African American to receive a PhD from Harvard, believed that Jim Crow should be opposed with every means available. To this end, he was one of the founders of the NAACP, which offered legal challenges to the Jim Crow system. Although seeking the same ends, Washington and DuBois shared a rivalry through the early part of the twentieth century.
Attached Documents
Questions to Consider
1. Washington was from the South while DuBois was from the North. How might that have impacted their thinking on the subject?
|
| | | | | | Citations: | |
|
| Back To Module List Back to Sections |
