1. Post Reconstruction America

2. 8-5.4
Summarize the policies and actions of SC’s political leadership in implementing discriminatory laws that established a system of racial segregation, intimidation, and violence.

3. SLM Racial Segregation
EQ: What were the policies and actions that established a system of racial segregation in SC?
Vocabulary:
Redeemers Populist
Wade Hampton grandfather clause
disfranchise Plessy vs. Ferguson
Ben Tillman Jim Crow Laws

4. The Bourbon Democrats of South Carolina

5. After the election on 1876, Wade Hampton and the Redeemers had political power in SC.

6. The Conservative-Democratic party “redeemed” SC from the Republicans

7. The antebellum political elite regained control of the government
The antebellum political elite regained control of the government. As conservatives, they wanted to restore South Carolina’s government and society as nearly as possible to its condition before the war under the control of the elite and with limited taxes.
What was the South like before the Civil War? Which population was in charge?

8. Wade Hampton
willing to maintain the status quo established during Reconstruction on race relations and recognized the rights of African Americans to vote and hold office.

9. The new Democratic-Conservatives quickly dissolved his concept of “political equality” and began to disfranchise the blacks

10. Disfranchise Take away the right to vote

11. Examples of disenfranchisement:
Eight Box Law –8 ballot boxes used. In order for the vote to count you had to put the vote in the correct box. Many blacks and whites could not read and would not know which box to use.

12. Examples of disenfranchisement:
Although these devices often also disenfranchised poor whites, the Conservative elite were not concerned.

13. Poll Tax – poor blacks and whites could not afford to pay the voting tax
Grandfather Clause –You were only eligible to vote if your grandfather voted during the Civil War.

14. The Legislature also tried to limit the amount of black representatives sent to Washington
The first African-American Senators and Representatives to serve in Congress -- all Republicans: (Left to right) Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi, Representatives Benjamin Turner of Alabama, Robert DeLarge of South Carolina, Josiah Walls of Florida, Jefferson Long of Georgia, Joseph Rainey and Robert Elliott of South Carolina. (1871)

15. Congressional districts were redrawn so that only one district had an African American majority.

16. These voting restrictions were the beginning of Jim Crow laws in South Carolina

17. Poor White Farmers

18. Ben Tillman

19. Poor white farmers accepted the leadership of Ben Tillman because of his extraordinary oratorical and political skills

20. Tillman was a Populist because he appealed to the values and needs of the common people against the Conservative elite.

21. Tillman never supported the vote of the African-American farmers
Tillman never supported the vote of the African-American farmers. This led to an increase of violence and lynching against African-Americans and opposition to the Populist Party in many parts of the South.

22. Tillman ran on a platform of white superiority and later led the movement to further disenfranchise the African-American voter.
What does this mean???

23. Tillman's bigotry and racist rhetoric led to the reemergence of the terrorism of the Reconstruction era.
Soon violence and lynchings increased and African Americans who dared to protest were intimidated into silence.
Race baiting increased during economic hard times as poor whites took out their frustrations on an easy target.

24. The South Carolina Constitution of 1895

25. Tillman (now a U.S. Senator) personally directed the constitutional convention in His goal: Replace the Reconstruction constitution of 1868.

26. Tillman wished to strengthen his control of the Democratic Party and to be sure that the black majority did not provide political support to his opposition

27. The new constitution established new policies in voting:

28. 1. Voters had to be able to read a part of the US Constitution or explain it when it was read to him (many poor blacks and poor whites were illiterate but it was thought that those working the polls would be more lenient towards illiterate whites)

29. 2. It also required that the poll tax be paid six months before the election. Poor farmers had little money so far ahead of harvest time

30. What was the “grandfather clause”?
Poor, illiterate white voters were protected by the “grandfather clause”
What was the “grandfather clause”?

31. Each of these new “rules” were aimed at keeping African Americans from voting.

32. This accelerated the trend in limitations on the right to vote that had begun under the Wade Hampton and the Bourbons.

33. Despite the Plessy ruling
Other parts of this Constitution were unfair to blacks – Public schools were to be segregated and local officials were NOT required to make the facilities equal
Despite the Plessy ruling

34. Jim Crow and Segregation

35. This separation occurred in schools, parks, and in public transportation

36. Plessy v. Ferguson “Separate But Equal”
This Supreme Court Decision in 1896 made
“Separate But Equal”
facilities legal in the United States

37. Railroads, Schools, theatres, hotels, restrooms, drinking fountains, parks, public offices, and cemeteries were separated by race

38. Plessy v Ferguson and Jim Crow Era