Post Civil War African American Experience A Quick Survey

Amendment Passed After the Civil War 13 th Amendment: Officially abolished slavery in the U.S. Important because started new era in U.S. history.

The Reconstruction, After the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson pardoned the South. - Instead, a group of Northern Congressmen, nicknamed the Radical Republicans, began the Reconstruction in the South. - The Congressmen sent federal troops into the South to transform the South.

14 th Amendment: Requires states to give all citizens due process of law, and gives all citizens equal protection. Important because states must protect rights of ALL citizens. 15 th Amendment: Gives ALL citizens the right to vote. Important because African American males had legal right to vote, despite Southern restrictions. The Reconstruction Amendments

Successes of Reconstruction - Expanded access to education for AfAms - Several Af Am Congressmen and state representatives elected to office - South had roads/railroads built

The Failure of Reconstruction , end of Reconstruction. - President Hayes pulled troops out and Southern governments established a system of segregation. - The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists used terrorist tactics to intimidate Af Ams.

Sharecroppers in the South

Sharecroppers in Arkansas

Lynching Murdering a person without due process of law; a tactic used to keep whites in power. STATISTICS: African Americans were lynched since 1882, when records began to be kept. - Lynching was a public affair, handled by a mob of people.

Voting in the South Af.Ams made up majorities in the South; to keep power, whites had to restrict their right to vote Ways that governments disenfranchised (took the vote away) Af.Ams: - Grandfather Clause - Poll Tax – economic way to avoid Af.Am. voting - Intimidation tactics - Literacy Tests

Streetcar station, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Definitions: - Jim Crow : The systematic practice of discriminating against and segregating black people in the South. - Segregation To separate, to keep races or ethnic groups apart. Important because Af Ams lived under this system of legal segregation from Reconstruction up until the 1960s. (90 YEARS)

Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio

Plessy v. Ferguson - Homer Plessy sat in the white section of the railroad car to confront segregation laws. - Instead, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court agreed with segregation’s rules and said it was legal as long as each race got equal treatment. - It took 58 years to overturn this with the Brown v. Board of Ed. case.

As a result of the Great Migration North by 1.75 million Af Ams in South: Harlem Renaissance - A period in the 1920s when Af Am achievements in art, music and literature flourished. - Important b/c redefined image of Af.Am. in the U.S., and gave black communities pride in their own abilities.

Palmer Hayden, Jeunesse (Youth)

Harlem in the 1920s

Archibald Motley, Harlem

DUKE ELLINGTON, musician and composer

ZORA NEALE HURSTON, poet & author

LANGSTON HUGHES, poet

Harlem Langston Hughes, 1951 What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

Some changes started to occur in the 1940s: , President Truman signed Executive Order desegregating the US military. - The NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People, founded in 1909, had legislative successes combating Plessy, preparing them for the Brown case.

Tuskegee Airmen, World War II

How to Protest IndividualCommunitywide

Nonviolent Actions Used by the CR Movement Civil Disobedience A group's refusal to obey a law because they believe the law is immoral (as in protest against discrimination); African Americans used this kind of direct action to force a change to the laws. Sit-In A form of civil disobedience that involves one or more persons nonviolently occupying an area to promote political or social change; a primary action used in the Civil Rights movement. Greensboro, South Carolina

What does nonviolent resistance mean? Nonviolent Resistance The practice of achieving political goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, and other methods, and without using violence. Primary strategy in the Civil Rights movement.

In the years before Brown, the Civil Rights movement was mostly focused on legal action, trying to get laws changed through legal means. The NAACP had been working against discrimination for years, but in a much less public manner. As the 1960s began, the Civil Rights movement got a different focus. It was made up of mass action by communities against the discrimination they lived through. Mass Action vs Legislative Action