BELL RINGER What did the Freedman’s Bureau do?

Southern Reconstruction

The Ku Klux Klan White southerners were not very pleased with all the rights African Americans were obtaining, so they decided to create secret terrorist groups to prevent them from voting. One such group, founded in 1866, was the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK assaulted and killed numerous African American political leaders and also those they viewed as too successful.

Steps Against the Klan The KKK also burned homes, schools, and churches in an effort to chase African Americans and pro-Reconstruction whites from the South. African Americans struck back by burning barns of Klansmen they recognized even through their robes and hoods.

Civil Rights Act of 1875 Congress made one final effort to enforce Reconstruction by enacting the Civil Rights Act of This bill prohibited businesses that served the public from discriminating against African Americans. However, supporters of the bill had begun to see Reconstruction as a political burden.

The Rise of Jim Crow To deprive African Americans of the right to vote, southern legislatures instituted poll taxes, a tax imposed on every voter, and literacy tests that barred people who could not read from voting. To enforce segregation, state legislatures passed Jim Crow laws. By the 1890s all southern states had legally segregated public transportation and schools.

Jim Crow cont… African Americans sued for equal treatment, but the Supreme Court refused to overturn the Jim Crow Laws. The Court upheld segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, a lawsuit brought after an African American, Homer Plessy, was denied a seat in a first-class railway car. The Court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities did not violate the 14 th Amendment.

Assignment With a partner, meaning ONE other person, you will create a persuasive poster This means that you will try to persuade the reader to believe that segregation is wrong You must be specific, use examples, and give reasons in order to persuade them DUE AT THE END OF CLASS!