1.06 us history

•Uncertain economic times and the loss of political power led many white Southerners to

lash out at African Americans. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, some whites launched a campaign of terror.

At the end of the Civil War, fewer than 10 percent of African Americans lived outside of the South. As the events of the post-Civil War years unfolded, some African Americans decided to

leave the region.

The Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Segregated Southern schools educated white students and African American students. But the white students had

new textbooks and clean, well-lighted facilities. African Americans had to make do with torn, out-of-date books. Often several grades of African American students were crowded into a single room.

•Some codes even restricted African Americans' ability to

own land. Black codes often permitted the arrest of poor, unemployed persons, usually African American, for lack of homes or money. The codes differed from state to state. They were found in the northern states as well as in southern states.

•Black codes, which passed soon after the Civil War ended, were an effort to

restrict civil rights for African Americans. They also helped maintain a cheap source of farm labor and sustained the social hierarchy. These codes made it illegal for African Americans to carry weapons or vote. They could not serve on juries, testify in court against or marry white citizens, or travel without permits.

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Ku Klux Klan

At the end of the 19th century, many southern states created racial segregation laws that separated white citizens and African Americans in

schools, hospitals, parks, and on railroads. These laws were known as Jim Crow laws, named for a white minstrel who blackened his face to create an offensive stereotype of an African American.

After Reconstruction ended in 1877, it seemed to many African Americans and white sympathizers that the government had

turned its back on them. The Supreme Court did nothing to overturn obstacles for African American voters. In fact, as African Americans were losing their voting rights, they were also being further segregated from white society.

To many people, these segregation laws violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which holds that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property." Arguments about the constitutionality of laws ensuring racial segregation finally reached the Supreme Court in 1896. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the court

upheld segregation as constitutional. As long as the services provided to white and black citizens were of equal quality, it was legal for the races to be separated. However, equality in theory was very different from equality in practice.

However, the South was not the only region troubled by racial issues. African Americans faced segregation and discrimination in many northern cities as well. Labor union leaders who did not

want them as members discriminated against African Americans, whom they feared would take their jobs. Real estate agents kept them from buying homes in particular neighborhoods. Business owners hired African Americans only if no other labor source was available. African American workers were often the first ones fired when business slowed.

The town of Nicodemus, Kansas,

was one of the first towns settled by African Americans who had left the South. African Americans continued to migrate during the final years of the 19th century. Some traveled west as far as California. Many others moved to cities in the North and Midwest, hoping to find jobs in the growing industries there.

Despite these challenges, African Americans continued to leave the South. After 1900, growing numbers of African migrated to

cities in the North and Midwest. Eventually, this movement became known as the Great Migration.

•Jim Crow laws

- discriminatory laws passed mainly in Southern states to deny African Americans equal economic, political, and social treatment

•While the black codes may have been erased from the law books, they served as an ominous preview of the

Jim Crow laws that emerged at the end of the 19th century.

Plessy v. Ferguson case

(1896) Supreme Court upheld a Louisiana law segregating railroad cars on the theory that as long as the accommodations between the racially segregated cars were equal, the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was not violated. Principle: separate, but equal.

•Lynching

, or public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial, struck fear into the African American community.

•Grandfather clause

- a provision that allowed poor whites in the South to vote even if they failed the literacy test or could not pay the poll tax, and also stopped African Americans from voting as their grandfathers would not have voted prior to 1865

•Ku Klux Klan

- a secret organization that used terror to restore white supremacy to the South

•Poll taxes

- an annual tax paid by those in the South who wished to vote; it was often used to disenfranchise black voters

•Black Codes

- laws instituted by Southern legislatures beginning in 1865 to prevent African Americans from exercising their civil rights

•Literacy test

- reading comprehension tests used to prevent African American voters from casting ballots

•Nadir

- the lowest point, or bottom. The term was used to describe relations between Africans Americans and whites in the South in the period between 1877 and 1920

•Great Migration

- the mass movement of African Americans from the South to the North for jobs in industry during the early 1900s

•Chief among the organized groups terrorizing African American was the Ku Klux Klan. This group started as a social club for former

Confederate soldiers in Tennessee in 1866. It quickly became a terrorist group devoted to white supremacy. Its goal was to prevent African Americans from exercising their new political power. Its methods included intimidating voters, burning schools, and destroying homes of both black and sympathetic white citizens. Perhaps the most terrifying tactic of all was lynching.

•In the time between the end of the Black Codes and the passage of Jim Crow laws, the lives of African Americans improved marginally.

Economic conditions at the end of the 19th century were an obstacle to improvement for African Americans. During the Civil War, countries deprived of cotton from the South had begun to grow their own cotton. By the time production resumed in the South, market prices had been cut in half. Banks that had loaned money to the Confederate government could not collect their debts. Credit became increasingly hard to obtain. An economic panic in 1873 led to the closure of some banks. Railroad companies went out of business, and the stock market collapsed.

Southern states passed laws that increased racial discrimination.

Literacy tests and poll taxes were used to keep black voters away from ballot boxes. Some states limited the right to vote to those who could pass a literacy test. Often, white voters were given easier passages than African Americans. White election officials had the final say on whether a potential voter passed the test.

The first large migration of African Americans from the South occurred soon after

Reconstruction ended. At that time, more than 50,000 African Americans moved west toward Kansas and the Oklahoma territory. Some of these migrants were known as "Exodusters." This was a reference to the Biblical book of Exodus and to the dry landscape of the Great Plains.

However, within a few years, African Americans found that their new rights came with some limitations.

State laws were passed that undermined the constitutional amendments. The sharecropping system of agriculture kept many former slaves bound to the land. Few could escape the violence, poverty, and state-supported discrimination.

•The federal government's response to the intimidation and violence was partially effective.

The Enforcement Acts passed in 1870 and 1871 gave the government power to supervise elections in Southern states. They also empowered the government to employ federal troops against Klan violence. President Ulysses Grant used the Enforcement Acts to arrest and imprison some Klan leaders. Klan violence diminished in the late 1870s. By that time, however, white supremacy had re-asserted itself in many parts of the South. Extreme tactics to restrain the rights of African Americans were no longer necessary.

African American voters were also kept from voting through poll taxes.

This annual tax was required to be paid before a vote could be cast. Sharecroppers often did not have enough money to pay the tax. To allow only white citizens to cast ballots, many Southern states created a grandfather clause. It stated that anyone whose father or grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1, 1867 was guaranteed the right to vote. The date was important. Before that time, freed slaves did not have the right to vote. The grandfather clause, poll taxes, and literacy tests disenfranchised many African Americans. Critics charged that they violated the Fifteenth Amendment, which promises that the right to vote cannot be denied on the basis "of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

•Although the Thirteenth Amendment had outlawed slavery, it was clear to many lawmakers that the Black Codes had to be

abolished as well. In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. This amendment affirmed that African Americans were citizens. Its "due process" clause prohibited state governments from depriving "any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." It also declared that state and local governments must give all citizens "equal protection of the laws." In effect, this amendment meant the end of the Black Codes. However, it did not mean an end to segregation and discrimination.

•In some cases, African American groups did not object to segregation laws. They were more interested in

developing the black community than in integrating with the white community. After years of white influence, African Americans were finally able to direct their own churches, schools, and other institutions.

Ratification of the 14th Amendment

expanded the Supreme Court's jurisdiction

African Americans found themselves in a bitter struggle. They had to fight for their rights without the help of the

federal government. It was the nadir of race relations in the United States. For many African Americans there was little choice. To remain in the South was to face poverty, violence, and discrimination. Leaving the South seemed to be the only option.