Review How did assembly line production affect the U.S. economy during the early twentieth century? A It helped expand modern consumerism. B It decreased the disparity between the rich and the poor. C It increased the need for agricultural workers. D It developed a more self-sufficient citizen.

The Jim Crow South

African Americans in the South Southern Blacks made great gains during Reconstruction but these gains were rolled back after 1876 and the end of Reconstruction Poll taxes & literacy tests (with grandfather clauses attached) greatly limited African American civil rights and the right to vote in the south. (Northern segregation was generally de facto, with patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades.)

  Jim Crow Laws Laws enacted between 1876 and 1965, legally enforcing Segregation in the South Public places; private businesses, schools , etc… These Jim Crow Laws followed the 1800–1866 Black Codes, which had previously restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans with no pretense of equality. Thomas Dartmouth Rice as "Jim Crow" 1832

Plessy v. Fergusson An 1896 Supreme Court case upholding segregation laws as constitutional as long as services and facilities were separate, but equal…will not be overturned until 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.

Lynching Black people were kept from demanding their rights by the threat of lynching. Lynching was an illegal vigilante mob attack in which a black person was hanged for a perceived (often untrue – often “rape”) offense. Sometimes for just being too “uppity”. Lynch mobs rarely, if ever prosecuted. Ida B. Wells: newspaper woman and crusader against lynching

Washington vs. Dubois Washington: (Atlanta Compromise) Black people need to economically prove themselves (mostly in trade skills) and make themselves necessary before seeking equal civil rights – patiently work within the segregated system. Dubois: (The Talented Tenth) Black people need to fight for their Constitutional civil rights right now, or become permanent victims of segregation.

Niagara Movement Dubois’ ideas struck a nerve with many educated black (and white) people who formed the Niagara Movement, denouncing the idea of gradual progress. The Niagara Movement eventually became the NAACP, after it was joined by white reformers following 1908 Springfield, Illinois riot.

NAACP Used the courts to fight discriminatory laws In the early years, the NAACP fought for equal access to decent housing and professional careers While The NAACP concentrated on middle-class political and social justice, the Urban League focused on the growing numbers of poor black urban workers

How much progress did they make? African Americans did not make much actual progress in their rights during the time period 1900-1920. The Jim Crow laws and the high rate of lynchings in the South were major factors in the Great Migration during the first half of the 20th century. 6 million African Americans moved out of the rural south to northern, western and mid-western cities to seek better lives, becoming an urbanized population.