The Darker Side of the 1920s

Sharecropping  Blacks rented land & equipment from white farm owners in exchange for a portion of the crop or a share of the profits  Farm owners overcharged and cheated the African-Americans so badly … They finished the year in debt Only method of payment - labor

Racist Politicians  Interested in stripping African-Americans of all their rights  Example – Carter Glass of Virginia “The people of the original thirteen southern states curse and spit upon the 15 th Amendment and have no intention of letting the Negro vote. White supremacy is too precious a thing to surrender for the sake of a theoretical justice that would let a brutish African deem himself the equal of white men and women in Dixie.”

“Grandfather Clause”  One way Southern states prohibited African-Americans from voting If a man’s grandfather had voted pre-1867, he was exempt from harsh voting requirements African-American men did not have the right to vote until 1870, so they had to meet these requirements while whites did not Guinn v. US overturns these in 1915

Voting Requirements PPoll Taxes Men had to pay to vote and many African-Americans couldn’t afford this tax LLiteracy Tests A man had to prove he could read before he was allowed to vote Many African-Americans couldn’t read and those who could were given very difficult or foreign language passages to read (Results scored by white men)

Lynching  The murder of individuals by mob action without lawful trial  Means to control African- Americans’ “resistance” to oppression  3,000 “documented” cases from

More Lynching  Exposed the ugliest side of human nature Newspapers announced dates and locations A festive occasion for the entire family  Prevailing belief – They’re all rapists Most guilty of minor offenses (at best) &safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 &safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Reaction to Lynching “We have crawled and pleaded for justice and we have been cheerfully spit upon and murdered and burned. If we are to die, in God’s name let us perish like men and not like bales of hay.” -Du Bois

More Reaction to Lynching Strange Fruit By Lewis Anderson, sung by Billie Holiday Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves Blood on the root Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees Pastoral scene of the gallant south The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burning flesh Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck for the rain to gather for the wind to suck for the sun to rot for the tree to drop Here is a strange and bitter crop

Birth of a Nation – 1915  Showed KKK as saviors  Showed blacks as violent rapists of white women  Most profitable film  “It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so true.”  Woodrow Wilson  =E4s2zl2trn0&feature=related&s afety_mode=true&persist_safety_ mode=1 =E4s2zl2trn0&feature=related&s afety_mode=true&persist_safety_ mode=1