1. Chapter 7 Issues of the Gilded Age 1877-1900
Chapter focus
What political, social, and economic issues, did the nation face during the late 1800’s?

2. Section Focus Segregation and Social Tensions
How were civil and political rights of certain groups in America undermined during the years after reconstruction?

3. Why it Matters
During Reconstruction, the federal government sought to secure equal rights for African Americans. By the time of the Gilded Age ( ), however, African Americans and other minorities experienced a narrowing of heir rights. This turn away from equality for all had a lasting impact on society.

4. African Americans lose Freedoms
1876 President Hayes removes federal troops from the South
Ending Reconstruction
Allows Southern States to reassert control over African Americans without fear of federal intervention
Disenfranchise – take away voting rights
Jim Crow Laws - keep blacks and white segregated

5. States limit voting rights
15th amendment – cant deny right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
How will Southern States get around this?
Poll Tax – pay tax to vote
Literacy Test – most Africans cannot afford/denied education
Grandfather Clause – allowed to vote if ancestor voted prior to 1866

6. States limit voting rights
Black political participation on Deep South falls dramatically
Louisiana – 1894 registered Black voters 130,000
,300 registered black voters
By World War II 3% of blacks in the south eligible to vote

7. New Laws Force Segregation
Jim Crow becomes the way of life in the South
Legal separation of the races
Not all Whites agree its a good idea
Place undue burden on society, to expensive
Separate facilities for “colored” people
Restaurants
Parks
Jury boxes
Bibles
Train cars

8. Plessy vs. Ferguson
1896 Supreme Court upheld constitutionality of Jim Crow laws.
“separate but equal facilities did not violate the 14th amendment”
Facilities were rarely equal
1915 South Carolina spends $14 for every white student and $3 for every black student

9. African Americans Oppose Injustices
African Americans refuse to except status as second class citizens
Establish black newspapers, women’s clubs, schools and colleges,
United in determination to “never turn back”

10. Booker T. Washington Most famous Black leader of the late 1800’s
Founded Tuskegee, University
Born a slave
Believed that blacks should accommodate themselves to segregation, not focus energy on overturning Jim crow
Called for building up their economic resources and establishing reputations as hard working honest citizens
1st African American invited to the White House

12. J.P. Morgan Andrew Carnegie

13. W.E.B. Du Bois Harvard Ph.D. from Great Barrington, Mass
1s African American PhD from Harvard
Founded NAACP
Strongly disagreed with Booker T Washington
Argued that Washington wrongly shifted the burden of achieving equality from the nation to the “ Negro’s Shoulders” alone

14. Ida B. Wells Former slave Newspaper editor
Railed against practice of Lynching

15. Chinese Immigrants face Discrimination
1879 California barred cities from employing Chinese peoples
Segregated schools established
White mobs attack Chinese workers
“They took r jobs”
Chinese Exclusion Act
Prohibits Chinese from laborers from entering the country

16. Mexican American Struggles in the West
Many Mexican Americans lose land claims in the West.
Difficult to prove ownership of land
Owned land for so long, no paper work
Courts would side with Whites
Las Gorras Blancas
Mexican-American group resisted large property owners
Burned houses
Cut holes in fences
Supported by the Knights of Labor

17. Women Make Gains Begin to organize for suffrage Begin to go to college
/3rd of all college students are women
Begin to make advances in Temperance Movement

18. Section focus Question
How were civil and political rights of certain groups in America undermined during the years after reconstruction?
African Americans were forced to live under segregation, their voting rights were limited. Chinese Americans were discriminated against and Chinese immigration ended. Mexican Americans lost their land. Women were denied the right to vote.