Segregation & Discrimination Section 4 Chapter 15 Life at the Turn of the 20th Century Riddlebarger

Define: Prejudice

Legalized Discrimination 14th Amendment: (1866) Gave full rights & citizenship to all people born in the United States (except Native Americans) 15th Amendment: (1870) Gave African-American men the right to vote Both meant to guarantee rights of African-Americans This did not happen Prejudice persists in USA Legalized discrimination in the South

Restricting the right to vote Reconstruction ends in 1877 & white Democrats regain control of southern states Make sure African-Americans can’t vote How? Poll Tax Literacy Test Grandfather Clause Most are too poor to afford tax and too poorly educated to pass test

Poll taxes & literacy tests also eliminated some poor whites So...grandfather clauses were instituted A man could vote if he, his father or grandfather had been voter eligible before Jan. 1 1867 Only white males had the right to vote before that date So no black man qualified. Grandfather Clauses

Define: Segregation

Legalized Segregation Southern states pass a series of laws designed to create & enforce segregation Jim Crow laws By 1890’s many public places & services are segregated Ex., schools, rail cars What about Civil Rights Act of 1875?

“All persons...shall be entitled to full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement.” Civil Rights Act of 1875

Legalized Segregation cont. In 1883, the Supreme Court declares the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional Also, 14th Amendment- also guarantees equal protection under the law- only applies to state governments Congress can keep states from racial policies but not private individuals or businesses Homer Plessy challenges “equal but separate” accommodations on trains Arrested for sitting in whites only section; challenges arrest based on 14th Amendment

Landmark Supreme Court ruling Upholds (allows) practice of segregation Court says “separate but equal” facilities do not violate 14th Amendment Legal segregation will go on for 60 years Plessy v. Ferguson Landmark Supreme Court ruling

How do Southern States limit the rights of African Americans?

Informal Discrimination Laws were not the only racial barriers Racial etiquette governs social & business interactions African-Americans expected to “know their place” Must defer to whites in every encounter Failing to speak respectfully or showing too much pride or defiance will lead to consequences

Murder of an individual, usually by hanging, without a legal trial Lynching http://internationalengelsk.blogspot.com/2013/12/lynching-in-america-1882-1968.html

Why did African-Americans usually go along with the system of racial etiquette?

Prominent Black Leaders Two different approaches to improving lives of African- Americans emerge: Booker T. Washington (born a slave)- believed they should accept segregation for now & focus on acquiring farming & vocational skills (self-sufficiency) Founds Tuskegee Institute (Alabama) W. E. B. Du Bois- believed in speaking against prejudice & strived for full rights immediately Helps found National Association for Colored People

“Industrial and trade teaching is needed…[but] it is not needed as much as thorough common school training and the careful education of the gifted in higher institutions” “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem...The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house.” Washington Du Bois

How did the views of Washington & Du Bois differ?

Others Suffer Discrimination Mexican Americans Many face hostility from whites Must take menial jobs for little pay Mines, RR’s; mostly farms Debt peonage Asian Americans Live in segregated neighborhoods and have segregated schools; some state forbid marriage to whites Native Americans Continuous government efforts to stamp out way of life Children sent off to be “Americanized” Few economic opportunities on reservations Many not citizens until Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

How were the experiences of minority groups similar?