Gilded Age and Progressive MS

The Compromise of In the presidential election of 1876, the Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes ran against the Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden. 2.In the election, both sides cheated and both sides claimed that they won. 3.The electoral commission appointed to solve the dispute awards the election to Hayes. 4.In return, Hayes agreed to remove the federal troops from the south.

Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden

The End of Reconstruction 1.With the removal of the federal troops from the south, Reconstruction was considered over. 2.With no troops in MS, white Mississippians slowly regained control of the state. 3.By the 1890’s, white Mississippians had established a system of segregation in MS. 4.Under segregation, white and black Mississippians were required to use separate facilities – these laws were known as Jim Crow Laws.

Segregation in MS

Lynching 1.Violators of segregation laws were often subjected to violent punishment. 2.The worst was lynching, which was mob murder by hanging. 3.Between 1889 and 1945, 476 people were lynched in MS. (24 of them were white, 14 were black females and the rest were black males).

Lynching in Winona, MS

Sharecropping 1.After the Civil War, landowners didn’t have money to pay wages and poor farmers didn’t have land to farm, so sharecropping developed. 2.Landowners provided land, seed and often tools (and sometimes even a place to live) in exchange for the sharecroppers doing the work. 3.When the crops were harvested, the landowner and the sharecropper split the proceeds. 4.In 1890, over 60% of MS’s farm families (black and white) were sharecroppers.

Problems with Sharecropping 1.They lived in poor housing with poor diets. 2.They were forced to grow cotton. 3.Their children were seldom able to attend school. 4.Few sharecroppers were able to make a profit and most went into debt.

Sharecroppers

The Unethical Treatment of Sharecroppers 1.Sharecroppers were forced to buy their supplies for stores the landowner had an arrangement with. 2.They bought their goods on credit and typically paid high prices and high interest rates. 3.Often times, most or all of their profits from the crops went to pay back the stores. 4.Many went into debt and the MS legislature eventually passed a law making it illegal for a sharecropper to leave a farm if they were in debt.

The General Store

Problems for Landowners 1.Landowners had to borrow money to buy materials for their sharecroppers – as the supply of cotton went up, prices dropped and many had to trouble paying back their debts. 2.The fear of losing their labor led them to try to recruit new sources of labor, such as Italian immigrants and Chinese immigrants. 3.The repetitive growing of cotton led to a decrease in the productivity of the land. 4.The boll weevil arrived in MS in 1907 – a small beetle that ate the cotton bolls.

Boll Weevil

The Lumber Industry 1.As more railroads were built in MS, more of the state was opened up to the lumber industry. 2.In the early 1900’s, MS became the leading supplier of lumber in the nation. 3.The lumber industry disappeared though because they didn’t replant the trees (they believed farms would develop where they cut).

MS’s Lumber Industry

Education in MS 1.By 1885, the white Democrats had reduced educational funding to almost nothing. 2.The majority of children in the public schools were black and the state government refused to spend much on their education. 3.The lack of funding also affected the most of the state’s poor, white population as well.

Populism 1.In 1891, Frank Burkitt formed the Mississippi People’s Party, more commonly known as the Populists. 2.The Populist party wanted to aid poor farmers in the southeast and mid-west of the U.S. 3. Burkitt ran for governor in 1891 but lost when the Democrats claimed that the Populist were in favor of restoring the political rights of black Mississippians.

MS’s Political Machines 1.The Democratic Party dominated MS politics using patronage – rewarding political supporters with political positions – which is also known as the spoils system. 2.This system allowed a “political boss” to control each county. 3.This system of government led to corruption. 4.During this time, MS was part of the Solid South because the entire south always vote Democratic in elections.

James K. Vardaman 1.James K. Vardaman, a newspaper publisher from the Delta, became the leader of the Progressive movement in MS. 2.Vardaman led a push for primary elections, where all party members would vote for candidates instead of having them appointed by party leadership. 3.Vardaman gained the support of poor whites all across the state, mainly by being very racist, and with that support was eventually elected governor - he was known as the “Great White Chief”.

James K. Vardaman as Governor 1.As governor, Vardaman did many things to help poor Mississippians. 2.He proposed laws to end child labor, assist the deaf and care for the mentally ill – none of them passed. 3.He regulated big businesses like the railroads and utilities companies. 4.He found, though, that by helping poor white Mississippians, he was also helping black Mississippians.

Theodore Bilbo 1.In 1909, Vardaman ran against LeRoy Percey for the U.S. Senate. 2.The legislature chose the Senator by secret caucus, and Percy won. 3.Theodore Bilbo came forward and claimed that he had been bribed by one of Percy’s supporters. 4.It was later discovered he was lying and Bilbo narrowly missed getting expelled from the state legislature.

Theodore Bilbo

1.Bilbo decided to run for lieutenant governor and won – his term was filled with charges of scandal. 2.Bilbo then ran for governor and won. 3.The people of MS considered Bilbo the “Man of the People” because they was him as one of them – he was crude and insulting and mistrusted anyone who was considered educated or sophisticated.

Bilbo as Governor 1.As governor, Theodore Bilbo actually did some good things for the state and the poor of MS. 2.He created the state tax commission and tried to make taxes more equal. 3.He established a highway commission and started working to create a new road system in MS. 4.He had MS’s first compulsory school attendance law passed.

World War I 1.In 1914, World War I broke out between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers. 2.Most Mississippians supported the war and many Mississippians enlisted in the armed forces. 3. Camp Shelby was built near Hattiesburg, MS, to train army recruits.