AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA Discrimination and Racism

Segregation  Segregation enforced by laws  Becomes a reality with Plessy vs. Ferguson  Segregation based on unwritten laws like custom and tradition De Jure SegregationDe Facto Segregation

Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896  Homer Plessy was 1/8 African American and bought a white train ticket in Jim Crow segregated Louisiana…denied seat  Case goes to Supreme Court  Court decides to uphold Jim Crow segregation  “Separate but equal” Is separate ever equal?...Justice Harlan did not think so, only Justice that went against the 8-1 decision (Harlan Dissent) Sets up de jure segregation

Reformers  Urged for AA to be patient while waiting for equality (“Atlanta Compromise Speech”)  Eventually AA would gain white respect  “Cast down your bucket” with the people who share the same aspirations  Be economically independent Become craftsmen and learn a skill Setup Tuskegee Institute for vocational education  Urged AA to demand their rights immediately or else fall victim to permanent racism  Promoted an academic education not skill/trade based  Called Washington’s speech the Atlanta Compromise since he “gave in” Booker T. WashingtonW.E.B. Du Bois

Other Reformers  Ida B. Wells Barnett  Wrote about the horrors of lynching (execution by hanging without a trial) in the South  Helped form the NAACP

Reforms  Niagara Movement:  Denounced the idea of gradual progress  Denounced Booker T. Washington  Wanted full voting rights for AA  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP):  4 front campaign:  Socially free from insult  Mentally free from ignorance  Physically free from low wage labor  Politically free from disenfranchisement

 The Crisis was the official magazine of the NAACP  Founded by Du Bois

Disenfranchisement  Taking away the right of AA to vote because there were loopholes in the 15 th Amendment  Through intimidation, KKK  Through laws Grandfather Clause: AA could vote if his ancestors had voted in 1866…15 th Amendment not passed until 1870 Poll Tax: AA must pay a tax to vote, AA can’t afford it Literacy Tests: AA had been denied an education so they can’t pass the test

Wilmington Race Riot, 1898  AA newspaper editor writes an article about white women enjoying the company of black men just as much as white men enjoy the company of black women…highly controversial  KKK and Redshirts run AA out of Wilmington  Burn down the newspaper building  A definite number of the dead has yet to be determined…evidence tampered with????

Great Migration  AA leave the South to go North (Land of Hope)  Looking to:  Leave racism behind  Find jobs  Better life in general