Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of people whereby we attribute a defined set of characteristics to this group. These classifications can be positive or negative, such as when various nationalities are stereotyped as friendly or unfriendly. It is easier to create stereotypes when there is a clearly visible and consistent attribute that can easily be recognized. This is why people of color, police and women are so easily stereotyped. Stereotyping can be subconscious, where it subtly biases our decisions and actions, even in people who consciously do not want to be biased.

The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

It is very easy to be influenced by your society. Stereotypes and racism are influenced by your surroundings and society. Let’s see how easy it is to influence people around us… This is one of the most requested programs in FRONTLINE's history. It is about an Iowa schoolteacher who, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, gave her third-grade students a first-hand experience in the meaning of discrimination. This is the story of what she taught the children, and the impact that lesson had on their lives. ed/ ed/

Write a short description(3-4 sentences) of what “A Class Divided” was about. This ability to be so easily influenced by your society resonates in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

years of slavery in colonial period. Early on, some Africans were treated like European indentured servants with limited-term indentures of 17 years, but racial differences rapidly emerged. In this period, status free vs. slave was the key, not race Free Blacks support the American revolution, fight in revolutionary army. Whites begin to argue whether “equality” should include Blacks.

There had been slavery for thousand of years, but US slavery was a particularly inhumane: people as property, no rights as human beings. Physical geography, social organization made slave rebellions and escape more difficult than in other locales. Slave labor was a fundamental element of 18 th and 19 th century economy: Black slaves built much of the economic power of the nation US Black/White racial defines a product of slavery: child of a slave mother was a slave

1790 Immigration and Naturalization Act, only “Whites” can be naturalized. This law limited naturalization to aliens who were "free white persons" and thus left out indentured servants, slaves, free blacks, and later Asians. This was the only statute ever to grant the status of natural born citizen.

1808 Importation of slaves ends. Henceforth, slaves are all native born. European Americans mobilize to strip free Africans of their citizenship rights, ban them from communities, kick them out of formerly integrated churches. The African-American movement begins as a defense against European- American actions.

Blacks 20% of the population, about 90% are slaves Slavery in the US as an extreme institution Growing international opposition to slavery Abolition movements in US grows Restrictions on free Africans in both north and south The 10% free African’s mobilize against these restrictions and against slavery Slavery divides the nation

“Bloody War” Emancipation Proclamation 1863, escaped/freed slaves join Union Army The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free.“ Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war.

Slaves gradually being liberated to join Union Army (North) as soldiers: although 1% of northern population, were 10% of Union Army by 1865 (180,000) End with victory of the North, abolition of slavery

Legally, war fought “to preserve union” Economic factors were important Northern Whites had unsure attitudes, opposed slavery but still though Blacks were inferior

Abolishes slavery “except as punishment for a crime”

All persons born or naturalized in the US have rights of citizenship regardless of race, religion, national origin, or previous condition of servitude The 14 th amendment did not apply to non-White immigrants because they are not allowed to become naturalized, but did apply to non-Whites born in the US.

Right of men to vote regardless of race, etc. The 15 th amendment did not apply to non-White immigrants because they are not allowed to become naturalized, but did apply to non-Whites born in the US; this becomes an important part of Asian American politics. Battles over the 15 th amendment split women’s rights and Black’s rights advocates.

Union army occupies the south. Blacks vote. Whites who have been part of Confederate army cannot vote. Black elected officials. Some reforms and improvements for Blacks. Much turmoil, resistance. Attempts by Whites to re- create racial domination

Union army leave the south, agreement to let southerners do what they will about race. White southerners can vote again.

Slavery was over, but new racial order was created It was created by using alternatives for race, dodging the structure of the 14 th amendment This is a reproduction of a photograph of a young African American girl. The original photo was part of the American Negro Exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition, compiled by W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois was committed to combating racism and he felt that displaying photographs of affluent young African American men and women challenged the so-called scientific evidence and popular racist caricatures that ridiculed and sought to diminish African American social and economic success; taken in 1900.

90% of all Blacks live in rural areas, 90% in south Most in cotton farming, dependent on landowners, subject to violent repression Lynchings and KKK incidents increase. Blacks demand reparations for slavery immediately after the war. (Whites ignore) Some emigrate, 500+ actually emigrate to Liberia. Most want to stay.

1880s-1890s Southern states pass Jim Crow segregation laws. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. The Jim Crow system was devised by the following beliefs or rationalizations: Whites were superior to Blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior; sexual relations between Blacks and Whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating Blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep Blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.

A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape. Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, Whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them. Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the cigarette of a White female -- that gesture implied intimacy. Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended Whites. Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the White person), this is Charlie (the Black person), that I spoke to you about." Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to Blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, Blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to Whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names. If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, the Black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck. White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.

1893 Plessey vs. Furgeson, “Separate but Equal,” On June 7, 1892, a 30-year-old colored shoemaker named Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. Plessy was only one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, but under Louisiana law, he was considered black and therefore required to sit in the "Colored" car.

There is resistance to Jim Crow Bus boycotts and consumer boycotts against segregation in the cities. Northern educated Blacks speak out for equality, citizenships but lose.