Transcript The New South

The "New South"
The "New South"
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The South was never monolithic - it has never
had a monopoly on racism, violence, or oneparty-politics.
These have been more overtly evident in the
South, however, than elsewhere in the nation.
Only white Southerners have been defeated
in war and had their territory occupied by the
“enemy”.
Fueled tensions within Southerners between
their regional and their national loyalties.
The "New South"
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Until 1950, a majority of blacks in
America lived in the South.
Racial intermingling was more common
in the South than elsewhere.
The term "Solid South" refers to the
fact that no Republican presidential
candidate carried a Southern state in
the elections between 1877-1920.
Henry Grady
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In the 1870s, Southerners recognized the need to
present a new image of themselves to the world and
to stimulate economic development.
Henry Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, was a
strong proponent of this "New South." In 1886 he
spoke before the New England Society on the "New
South." The major points of his speech were:
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The United States was no longer two separate nations -Southerners had erased the Mason-Dixon Line
The Southern economy had changed -- industrialization had
replaced plantation agriculture
Race relations had changed -- blacks were now partners in
the "New South"
Grady's claims of a "New
South"
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Economically
Major undertaking was the reconstruction
of Southern railroads, ports, roads, and
communication systems.
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Federal grant money supported this
reconstruction. Between 1865 and the early
1870s, over 8,000 miles of new railroad track were
laid.
By the end of the 1880s, the South had one of the
best railroad systems not just in the United States,
but in the world.
Richard H. Edmonds "farm
to factory" movement”
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to encourage outside capital investment in
the South's economy
to promote every possible form of industrial
development.
Three major industries emerged in the
South after the Civil War
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Cotton
Iron
Tobacco
Cotton Mills
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Southern finance capital gave way to a mill
industry (1880 - 160 mills; 1900 - 400+mills)
Largely controlled by outside (Northeastern
United States and foreign) capitalists.
Racist hiring practices dominated
employment in the new industry.
Mill owners also used racial tensions to quell
white labor organizing by threatening to hire
black workers if white workers did not
cooperate.
Iron and Steel
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By 1900, the South led the world in coal
production.
They fostered (1880-1900) tremendous
growth in iron and steel mills.
Initial financing of the steel and iron
industries came from Southern sources,
but by 1900, foreign investors and
Northerners such as Andrew Carnegie
largely controlled these industries.
Tobacco
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Traditionally tobacco was grown but
seldom processed in the South.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s,
however, Southern capitalists
established prosperous tobacco
factories.
By 1900, tobacco processing was a
major industry. As was the case with
cotton and iron/steel, outside capitalists
controlled the industry.
Summation
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Northerners had indeed reconstructed
the Southern economy, one they now
controlled,
They did little to change the South itself
(and particularly traditional racial and
social relations).
Some call this a period of colonialization
Race Relations
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The KKK was a white fraternal organization
that used fear, violence, and intimidation to
persecute blacks and to prevent black men
from voting.
Redeemers or Bourbons, began to take
control of state governments
In 1890, Mississippi's new state constitution
banned blacks from voting and office holding
in order to "purify" Mississippi politics
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"Grandfather
Clause"
Many
Southerners and Northerners
alike had
made challenges against property and literacy
tests, claiming that states were using them as a
way to prevent blacks (and many poor whites)
from voting.
In 1898, Louisiana responded to these
challenges by legislating the so-called
"Grandfather Clause" which stated that voting
tests would not apply to voters whose fathers or
grandfathers were registered voters on January
1, 1867, when no black man in the state was
registered to vote.
"Jim Crow" laws
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a system of laws ensuring social
segregation in transportation,
accommodations, schools, courts, etc.
which arose in every Southern state
Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
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In 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled,
in a 7-1 vote, that "separate but equal"
accommodations on railroad cars conformed to
the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal
protection.
That decision was used to justify segregating all
public facilities, including schools.
Most school districts, ignoring Plessy's "equal"
requirement, neglected their black schools.
This ruling held until 1954 when in Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the
Supreme Court ruled that separate institutions
are inherently unequal.