1. Rise of Segregation

2. Work for African Americans in the South
Poverty
Sharecroppers- landless farmers who gave landlords large portion of crops as rent
Chronic debt
Many left farming and looked for jobs in Southern towns or moved west to claim homesteads

3. Mass Migration
“Exodusters” –fled to west, mostly Kansas, to form independent communities in spring 1879
Named so from Jews’ escape from slavery in Egypt (“exodus”) in Bible
Migration grew from urging from Benjamin “Pap” Singleton

4. Colored Farmers’ National Alliance
By million members
Southern farmers
Many joined Populist Party
Posed challenge to Democrats in south, so Democrats appealed to racism to get back the poor white vote

5. Taking Away the Vote
15th Amendment prohibits states from denying citizens right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
Late 1800s, Southern states imposed restrictions—never actually mentioned race, but aimed at African Americans
Mississippi:
Required all citizens registering to vote to pay poll tax of $2
Literacy test- required to read and understand state constitution
Passages hard to understand
Restrictions less strict on whites, but their votes also fell
Grandfather Clause- allowed any man to vote if he had an ancestor who could vote in 1867

6. Jim Crow Jim Crow- laws passed in south to legalize segregation
Name derived from song called “Jump Jim Crow” performed by white doing blackface—became derogatory expression meaning “negro”
In 1883 Supreme Court overturned Civil Rights Act of 1875 which had prohibited keeping people out of public places on bases of race and barred racial discrimination in selecting jurors
Supreme Court ruled that 14th Amendment only said that “no state” could deny citizens equal protection under law. Private organizations were free to practice segregation.

7. Plessy v. Ferguson
1892, Homer Plessy, an African American challenged LA law that forbade African Americans from riding in same train car as whites
Appealed to LA supreme court and then to US supreme court
In 1896, court upheld states’ rights to segregate
“Separate but Equal”

8. Ida B. Wells In 1892 launched crusade against lynching
Driven out of town in TN settled in Chicago and continued
1895 published book denouncing mob violence and demanded “a fair trial by law for those accused of crime, and punishment by law after honest conviction”
Congress rejected antilynching bill but lynchings decreased significantly in 1900s

9. Mary Church Terrell College-educated
Worked with women suffrage workers like Jane Addams and Susan B Anthony
Helped found National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Formed Women Wage Earner’s Association—assisted African American nurses, waitresses, and domestic workers
Led boycott against department stores in D.C. that refused to serve African Americans

10. Booker T. Washington
Proposed African Americans concentrate on achieving economic goals rather than political goals
Atlanta Compromise- speech given to mostly whites
Urged African Americans to postpone fight for civil rights
Instead concentrate on preparing themselves educationally and vocationally for full equality
Helped form Tuskegee Institute in 1881 that taught African Americans trades and agricultural skills

11. W.E.B. Du Bois Leader of new generation of African American activists
The Souls of Black Folk
Saw no advantage in giving up civil rights.
Especially concerned with protecting and exercising voting rights

12. Booker T. Washington v. W.E.B. Du Bois
Washington: “The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing…It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercises of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera- house.”
Du Bois:
“Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessary to proper manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism”
What are the overall differences in Washington’s and Du Bois’s opinions?

13. Assignment
Take on the role of one of the African American reformists and write a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court explaining your view of the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson and what changes you think should be made.
Requirements:
POV of Wells, Terrell, Washington, or Du Bois
Your view of Plessy v. Ferguson
Description of African American conditions you see
Actions you have tried to use to change ways
Your view of how Supreme Court should change ruling