1. Ch. 17 – Life in the Gilded Age 1870 - 1915

2. 17.1  In the later 1900s, education became more accessible.  Booker T. Washington – born into slavery, he was freed after the Civil War, received a college degree and became a dominant voice in US race relations, even advising Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.  He believed education & economic independence was the key to African American success.  Urged vocational skills  (see quote p. 490)

3. 17.1  W.E.B. Du Bois – first African American to earn a Ph. D. from Harvard, founded the Niagara Movement.  Urged higher education / political leadership in the African American community  Africans must educate themselves and fight for equality in America  Wrote The Souls of Black Folk  See quote p. 491

4. 17.3  Post-Reconstruction Discrimination:  Voting rights for blacks were limited in the south by poll taxes, literacy tests and general racism.  Jim Crow laws dominate African American life in the South, and lynching becomes more common.  Plessy v. Fergusen – “separate but equal”  Plessy claims segregation violates his equal protection  Court Rules segregation legal as long as separate facilities are equal  Ruling was overturned in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education