The New South (1877-1900)

Redeeming Control of the South Political Control: Southern oligarchy split between two factions “Redeemers” – new class of merchants, industrialists, railroad developers, etc. (emerging white middle class) “Bourbons” – Old, conservative land owners (old planter elite) *Worked together to ensure: home rule, white supremacy, and economic development Politically “The Solid South”, which focused on states’ rights, lower taxes, and reduced state services.

Industrialization in the New South Some northern industries were lured to the South by: Water power Cheap labor Low taxes Conservative, pro-business governments *Textiles most common. Railroad construction was widespread in the South during this time.

New Industries = New Work Force With few white men to work, changes to work force, and society, were required. Women had to work – especially in textile industry Child labor was common Migration from failed farms to industrial regions Greater job opportunities for blacks

Convict-Lease System: leasing out of prisoners as cheap labor, these men were not paid. Vagrancy Laws: Most southern states created very strict vagrancy laws to prevent “idleness” among blacks. Unemployed Go to jail

Changes to Southern Agriculture The South remained a predominantly agricultural region – and a poor one at that. Southern agriculture was increasingly commercialized, and the #1 cash crop was cotton. (Dramatic reduction in the number of self-sufficient farmers – esp white farmers) The transition to commercial farming was too expensive for most farmers and many resorted to tenant or sharecropping. (Massive debt was a reality for most.)

Crop-Lien System & Share Cropping Tenant Farming: Renting of land to farm Share Cropping: Rent/debts paid by a share of the harvested crop Crop-Lien System: Allowed farmers to borrow against future harvests *Cycle of debt and limited opportunity made many feel like victims of the new Gilded Age economy. Some would find the radical rhetoric of the Populists increasing attractive.

The Plight of Blacks in the New South Emergence of a small, but significant, black middle class. Widely accepted that education was the ticket to success. Booker T. Washington was an early advocate for black self-improvement and education.

Booker T. Washington Message: Self-advancement through self-improvement. Go to school (trade school) Establish yourself in ag or industry Work to refine your speech, dress, decorum. Goal: Become a respectable, contributing member of society and earn your place in society. Demonstrate that you are prepared to exercise this privilege. *Don’t agitate for civil rights.

The Jim Crow South Important to remember…Racial equality was never a consideration and what few privileges blacks had were only because of federal troops until 1877. 1880s SCOTUS begins to strip away gains made during Reconstruction: Civil Rights Cases – in a series of cases, SCOTUS ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibited state governments from racial discrimination, but it did not restrict private organizations from doing so. 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson validated state legislation in Louisiana that institutionalized the separation of the races. The ruling said that separate accomodations were constitutional if they were equal. (Separate but equal) This ruling became the legal basis for segregation nation wide – especially in education.

Voting Rights Denied Widespread disfranchisement White Bourbons tapped into racial fears to unite with poor whites against blacks. (They were not above denying the votes to whites, especially when they broke with the Democratic Party.) Efforts to keep blacks from voting included: Literacy Tests Poll Taxes *Grand Father Laws allowed many ignorant whites to vote. “What’s that big word?”

Jim Crow Laws Jim Crow Laws were a network of state statutes segregating people by race. *While segregation was easily maintained by custom in rural areas, laws were increasingly needed in growing urban areas.

Lynching: Vigilante Justice? *More than Jim Crow laws, lynchings shocked white America. Ida B. Wells Muckraker led an anti-lynching campaign In 1892 she published a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, and A Red Record, 1892–1894, which documented research on a lynching. Having examined many accounts of lynching based on alleged "rape of white women," she concluded that Southerners concocted rape as an excuse to hide their real reason for lynchings: black economic progress, which threatened not only white Southerners' pocketbooks, but also their ideas about black inferiority.

“Strange Fruit” Strange Fruit Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant south, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop.