Ch. 17 – Life in the Gilded

Age1870 - 1915

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)

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

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