C H A P T E R 6 S E C T I O N 5

The Rise of Segregation

Resistance and Repression

Big Ideas:

White Southerners refused to accept the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

Whites created two separate societies in the south.

One white and privileged

One black and restricted

Resistance and Repression

After the end of reconstruction many African Americans moved west to Kansas to escape the oppression of southern whites.

This was the beginning of the Great Migration, an exodus of black Americans from the south that lasted from the 1870s to the 1970s.

Resistance and Repression

Many African Americans joined the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance.

By 1890 the organization had 1.2 million members.

Many poor whites and blacks in the south joined the new Populist Party when it formed in 1891.

Resistance and Repression

To win back support from poor whites, the Democratic leaders appealed to the white population’s fear of African Americans. Democrats warned that the Populists would bring back reconstruction.

The Democrats also passed laws to make it harder for blacks to vote.

Imposing Segregation

The 15th Amendment prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote based on race.

To get around the 15th Amendment, Southern states created other means to make it difficult or impossible to vote.

Some states required a $2 poll tax be paid in order to register to vote.

Imposing Segregation

Another tactic that was used was a literacy test.

Since many blacks were unable to attend school, they had difficulty reading and writing.

The number of black people voting in Alabama fell from 181,000 in 1890 to just 3,700 in 1900.

Imposing Segregation

While there was also racism in the North, Southern whites wanted a more severe separation of the races and passed laws to make segregation a government supported initiative.

Laws separating blacks and whites were known as Jim Crow laws, and they began showing up all over the South.

Imposing Segregation

In 1883 the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that prohibited discrimination based on race in public places and for jury selection.

The Court also stated that the 14th Amendment only effected the states and not private establishments.

These rulings encouraged racial segregation in nearly every public place imaginable.

Imposing Segregation

The most famous court cased involved an African American, Homer Plessy, who challenged a Louisiana law that forced him to ride in a blacks-only railroad car.

The court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal facilities” were legal.

The African American Response

Big Ideas: White Southerners used violence and intimidation to impose

their will on the blacks in their communities.

These atrocities were not done in secret but unashamed and in the open.

From 1865 – 1910 more than 6,500 blacks were lynched.

If it is necessary, every Negro in the state will be lynched,” James K. Vardaman – Governer of Mississippi and US Senator

The African American Response

African Americans took a variety of tactics in response to racism and violence.

In 1892 Ida B. Wells of Tennessee launched a crusade against lynching.

The African American Response

Booker T. Washington proposed that African Americans focus on achieving academic goals before attempting to take on political battles.

He encouraged postponing the fight for civil rights in favor of education and training.

The African American Response

W. E. B. Du Bois countered Booker T. Washington’s compromise and advocated waging a constant effort to get blacks voting again and expose the barbaric nature of racism.