AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

Discrimination and Racism

Segregation (2 types)

Segregation enforced by laws enforced in the

South under Jim Crow Laws

Becomes a reality for the nation with Plessy vs. Ferguson

Segregation based on unwritten laws like custom and tradition

De Jure Segregation De Facto Segregation

Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896

Homer Plessy was 1/8 African American and bought a white train ticket in Jim Crow segregated Louisiana…denied seat

Case goes to the US Supreme Court Court’s decision

uphold and strengthen Jim Crow segregation

“Separate but equal” is fair Is separate ever equal?...Justice Harlan did not think so,

only Justice that went against the 8-1 decision (Harlan Dissent)

Sets up de jure segregation

African American Reformers

Urged for AA to be patient while waiting for equality (“Atlanta Compromise Speech”) Eventually AA would gain

white respect “Cast down your bucket”

with the people who share the same aspirations

Be economically independent Become craftsmen and

learn a skill Setup Tuskegee Institute

for vocational education

Urged AA to demand their rights immediately or else fall victim to permanent racism

Promoted an academic education not skill/trade based

Called Washington’s speech the Atlanta Compromise since he “gave in”

Booker T. Washington W.E.B. Du BoisVS.

Other Reformers

Ida B. Wells Barnett Wrote about the horrors of lynching (execution, usually by hanging, without a trial) in the South

Helped form the NAACP

Progressive Reforms for AA

Niagara Movement: Against the idea of gradual progress

Disagreed with Booker T. Washington

Wanted full voting rights for AA

NAACPNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People:

4 front campaign: Socially free from insult Mentally free from

ignorance Physically free from low

wage labor Politically free from

disenfranchisement The Crisis was the official

magazine of the NAACP Founded by Du Bois

Disenfranchisement Taking away the right of AA to vote

because there were loopholes in the 15th Amendment

4 strategies Through intimidation, KKK Through laws:

Grandfather Clause: AA could vote if his ancestors had voted in 1866…15th Amendment not passed until 1870

Poll Tax: AA must pay a tax to vote, AA can’t afford it

Literacy Tests: AA had been denied an education so they can’t pass the test

Wilmington Race Riot, 1898 Wilmington is a progressive town

AA outnumber whites AA lawyers, businessmen, and entrepreneurs able to manage own affairs and buy homes in city many participated in local government holding positions

Whites maintain an upper class elite Election of 1898

Democrats try to oust (Black) Republican/Populist majority

Day after election group of rioters are led to AA newspaper break and burn down building and press Gun fire erupts across Wilmington, 1000s die

AA leadership is banished from Wilmington

Migration

AA leave the South to go North (Land of Hope)

Looking to: Leave racism

behind Find jobs Better life in

general