African-Americans after Reconstruction

 Laws limited freedom for African-Americans Literacy testskept blacks and poor Poll taxeswhites from voting Grandfather clause(1898) – if you, father, or grandfather could vote prior to 1867 you could now vote (declared unconstitutional in 1915)

Poll tax

 In South “Jim Crow” laws are passed forcing the separation of the races in public places. By the 1890s schools, hospitals, restaurants, railroad stations, parks, playgrounds, water fountains, and entrances to factories and theaters were segregated.

 Intimidation and other crimes including lynching directed at African-Americans.  African-Americans looked to the courts to safeguard their rights.

Plessy v. Ferguson(1896) – Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” did not violate the 14 th amendment.

 Great Migration – African-Americans move to northern cities in search of jobs and to escape poverty and discrimination in the South. Between 1910 and 1920 about 1 million African-Americans moved to northern cities(Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia) Another 800,000 migrated during the 1920s.

Responses of African-Americans

 Ida B. Wells Journalist and newspaper editor who documented the extent of lynching in the U.S. Led anti-lynching crusade and called on the federal government to take action.

Ida B. Wells

 Booker T. Washington Believed way to equality was through education and economic success Accepted social separation Did not urge blacks to compete economically or seek social equality opened Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute

Booker T. Washington

 W.E.B. DuBois Believed education was meaningless without equality Wanted black people to strive toward higher education and the industrial mainstream of America. Helped form the National Association for the Advancement of colored People(NAACP) in 1909.

W.E.B. DuBois