Transcript What Were Rights Gained By African Americans During

Thurs, 10/2/14
Handout: Zion Presbyterian Church,
“Memorial to the Senate and House of
Representatives” (1865)
• Read the handout and answer the following:
• (1) What rights did African Americans argue for?
• (2) Which rights did they gain during Reconstruction?
• (3) Which of these rights did they not gain?
• SLO - Students will be able to understand
the failure of Reconstruction: identifying
rights gained by African Americans during
this time, as well as how they were taken
away.
What Were Rights Gained By African
Americans During Reconstruction?
What Were Rights Gained By African
Americans During Reconstruction?
• Freedmen’s Bureau
• 14th Amendment
• 15th Amendment
• Civil Rights Act of 1875
Civil Rights Act of 1875
• Sometimes called the “Enforcement Act” was
passed during Reconstruction.
• Guaranteed equal treatment of African
Americans in public accommodations, public
transportation, and prohibited exclusion from
jury service.
• Movie - Remember the Titans
How Did Reconstruction End?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJLBrDSTgng
• What were rights gained by African Americans
during Reconstruction?
• How did the Ku Klux Klan and other paramilitary
groups discourage African American participation
in Southern society?
• How did Reconstruction come to an end?
Most of These Rights Are Undermined
• Freedmen’s Bureau - Right to Education,
establishing contracts, health care & legal services
• 14th Amendment – Equal Citizenship
• 15th Amendment – Right to Vote
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 – Equal Treatment in
Public Accommodations
African American Representation
Achievements
• Hiram Revels (1870 – 71) – from Mississippi, first
African American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
• Blanche Bruce (1875 – 81) –
Also from Mississippi
• Five African Americans elected
in South from 1889 to 1897.
• 1973 – next African Americans
elected to Congress from the South.
How Did Reconstruction End?
• What were rights gained by African Americans
during Reconstruction?
• How did the Ku Klux Klan and other paramilitary
groups discourage African American participation
in Southern society?
• How did Reconstruction come to an end?
How did the Era of Reconstruction End?
• (1) White Southerner Intimidation
• (2) Disenfranchisement of African Americans
• (3) Panic of 1873 & Economic problems
• (4) Compromise of 1877 and loss of support from
Northern Republicans
Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968 *
Lynchings =
Intimidation
State
White
Black
Total
Alabama
48
299
347
Arizona
31
0
31
Arkansas
58
226
284
California
41
2
43
Colorado
65
3
68
Delaware
0
1
1
Florida
25
257
282
Georgia
39
492
531
Idaho
20
0
20
Illinois
15
19
34
Indiana
33
14
47
Iowa
17
2
19
Kansas
35
19
54
Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968 *
State
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
White
63
56
1
2
7
5
42
53
82
52
6
1
33
1
Black
142
335
0
27
1
4
539
69
2
5
0
1
3
1
Total
205
391
1
29
8
9
581
122
84
57
6
2
36
2
North Carolina
15
86
101
North Dakota
13
3
16
Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968 *
State
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South
Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
White
10
82
20
2
Black
16
40
1
6
Total
26
122
21
8
4
156
160
27
47
141
6
1
17
25
20
6
30
0
204
352
2
0
83
1
28
0
5
27
251
493
8
1
100
26
48
6
35
Total
1,297
3,446
4,743
*Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.
Voter Intimidation
“It was in the state of Georgia, in 1946, that a young Negro veteran
named Maceo Snipes learned that by the Supreme Court ruling he had
a right to vote. No Negro had voted in his county since Reconstruction,
but Maceo Snipes went down and registered. The following morning
he was sitting on his porch and a white man came up and killed him
with a shotgun. His funeral was held the next day and in the midst of
the funeral oration, Maceo’s mother rose and moved up through the
crowd, up to his coffin, where they waited to lower it into the earth.
And she asked her second son to come forth. He was 17. And she said
to him, ‘Put your hand on this coffin, and swear on the body of your
brother than when you get to be 21, you’re going down to the
courthouse to do what he did — to vote.’ ”
- Henry Wallace
- Progressive Party Candidate for President
- “Radio Address,” September, 1948
African Americans Disenfranchised
• From 1890 to 1908, Southern states passed
new constitutions, constitutional amendments,
and laws to disenfranchise African Americans.
• Beginning of 1870’s, 100,000’s of African
American are registered to vote in each state.
• By the 1890’s, only 4,000 to 5,000 African
Americans are registered to vote in each state.
Poll Tax
• Georgia created first poll tax in 1877.
• Soon followed by the states of Florida, Alabama,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
other states of American South.
• In many cases, it was a $2 poll charge.
Other Forms of Disqualification
• “Good character clause”
• Literacy test
• Grandfather clause – only if your ancestor
previously voted
Supreme Court Decision (1883)
* Five court cases before the U.S. Supreme Court,
voted 8 to 1.
• Decides that “no state” can
- United States v. Stanley
deny citizens equal protection, - United States v. Ryan
- United States v. Nichols
but private entities can
- United States v. Singleton
discriminate – hotels, theaters, - Robinson v. Memphis &
railroads, restaurants, etc.
Charleston Railroad
• This leads to racial
segregation & Jim Crow laws!!