Transcript Post Civil War African American Experience A Quick Survey

Post Civil War African
American Experience
A Quick Survey
Amendment Passed After the Civil War
13th Amendment:
Officially abolished slavery in the U.S.
Important because started new era in U.S. history.
The Reconstruction, 1865-1877
- After the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson
pardoned the South.
- Instead, a group of Northern Congressmen,
nicknamed the Radical Republicans, began the
Reconstruction in the South.
- The Congressmen sent federal troops into the
South to transform the South.
The Reconstruction Amendments
14th Amendment:
•Requires states to give all citizens due process of law,
and gives all citizens equal protection.
•Important because states must protect rights of ALL
citizens.
15th Amendment:
•Gives ALL citizens the right to vote.
•Important because Af Am had legal right to vote,
despite Southern restrictions.
Sharecroppers in the South
Sharecroppers in Arkansas
Successes of Reconstruction
- Expanded access to education for AfAms
- Several Af Am Congressmen and state
representatives elected to office
- South had roads/railroads built
The Failure of Reconstruction
- 1877, end of Reconstruction.
- President Hayes pulled troops out and
Southern governments established a system
of segregation.
- The Ku Klux Klan and other white
supremacists used terrorist tactics to
intimidate Af Ams.
Lynching
Murdering a person without due process of law; a
tactic used to keep whites in power.
STATISTICS:
- 3445 African Americans were lynched since
1882, when records began to be kept.
- Lynching was a public affair, handled by a mob
of people.
Voting in the South
•Af.Ams made up majorities in the South; to keep
power, whites had to restrict their right to vote
•Ways that governments disenfranchised (took
the vote away) Af.Ams:
- Grandfather Clause
- Poll Tax – economic way to avoid Af.Am. voting
- Intimidation tactics
- Literacy Tests
Streetcar station, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Definitions:
- Jim Crow :
The systematic practice of discriminating against
and segregating black people in the South.
- Segregation
To separate, to keep races or ethnic groups apart.
Important because Af Ams lived under this system
of legal segregation from Reconstruction up until
the 1960s. (90 YEARS)
Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio
Plessy v. Ferguson
- Homer Plessy sat in the white section of the
railroad car to confront segregation laws.
- Instead, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme
Court agreed with segregation’s rules and said
it was legal as long as each race got equal
treatment.
- It took 58 years to overturn this with the
Brown v. Board of Ed. case.
Palmer Hayden, Jeunesse (Youth)
Harlem in the 1920s
As a result of the Great Migration
North by 1.75 million Af Ams in South:
Harlem Renaissance
- A period in the 1920s when Af Am
achievements in art, music and literature
flourished.
- Important b/c redefined image of Af.Am.
in the U.S., and gave black communities
pride in their own abilities.
Archibald Motley, Harlem
DUKE ELLINGTON, musician and composer
ZORA NEALE HURSTON, poet & author
LANGSTON HUGHES, poet
Some changes started to occur in the 1940s:
- 1948, President Truman signed Executive
Order desegregating the US military.
- The NAACP, the National Association for
the Advancement of the Colored People,
founded in 1909, had legislative successes
combating Plessy, preparing them for the
Brown case.
Tuskegee Airmen, World War II